Harper says deficit ‘significantly lower’ than expected in budget
OTTAWA — The federal government’s deficit last fiscal year was $5.2 billion — dramatically lower than the $16.6 billion projected in the budget — and the government expects to run a small shortfall in 2014-15, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.
Harper also suggested he is about to implement major promises from the last election campaign, which included income-splitting for families with children and increasing annual contributions for tax-free savings accounts to $10,000.
The better-than-expected financial picture means the Conservative government could have significantly more dollars to spend on tax breaks and other goodies for voters leading up to a federal election slated for October 2015.
Speaking to the Brampton and Mississauga boards of trade, Harper announced the federal deficit for the 2013-14 fiscal year that ended in March was $5.2 billion, “significantly lower” than the $16.6 billion forecast in the February budget.
Harper said the government is still on pace to return to surplus sometime in 2015, but said his Conservative government plans on running a small deficit in the current 2014-15 fiscal year. The budget projected a $2.9-billion shortfall in 201415 and a $6.4-billion surplus in 2015-16.
“Our certainty that we’ll move to surplus in 2015 will continue to be the case,” Harper said at the event held in Brampton, Ont.
“The government has no plan or no intention to move this year into a surplus. We continue to intend to run a small deficit this year before returning to surplus. We also intend, however, to move quickly to implement promises that we made to Canadians during the last election.”