Economic update coming next week: Freeland

Liberals have not tabled budget this fiscal year

OTTAWA — Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland says the Liberals will deliver a long-awaited update on the health of federal finances on Nov. 30.

The Liberals had promised an update this fall on the federal deficit as part of a document that could also include the first steps toward a national childcare program.

The government has not tabled a budget for this fiscal year, but in July delivered what it called a “fiscal snapshot” that estimated the deficit was heading for a record of $343.2 billion.

But that figure doesn’t include added spending since July, nor many of the promises the government has made since.

Freeland said the government will continue to support Canadians through the pandemic and ensure the post-pandemic economy is “robust, inclusive and sustainable.”

The Liberals have also said the update will provide the government’s outlook for the economy, and spending guidelines to avoid deficits from spiralling out of control.

Observers are looking for a plan for managing the nearterm impacts of the pandemic, but also mitigating the longerterm effects it will have on the country.

Goldy Hyder, president of the Business Council of Canada, said he wanted to see a co-ordinated approach to the pandemic in the document, as well as help for the hardest-hit sectors of the economy, travel, tourism and hospitality.

The announcement came as the federal government opened applications for a long-awaited new commercial rent-relief program to help businesses struggling to pay bills because of the COVID-19 pandemic and related restrictions.

The new Canada Emergency Rent Subsidy replaces an earlier rent-support program for businesses introduced in the spring that saw little pickup because it relied on landlords to apply for help.

It will cover up to 65 per cent of rent or commercial mortgage interest on a sliding scale based on revenue declines, with an extra 25 per cent available to the hardest-hit firms.

At a midday news conference Monday, Freeland said the measure, among others, should prevent viable businesses that have survived this far into the pandemic from faltering now that an end is in sight — a nod to encouraging news recently about vaccine development.

Still, she said, companies and Canadians are heading into “what we all know will be a difficult winter,” calling the support crucial to making it to next spring.