June 2011

June 2011 Budget: Why Bother?

The Minister of Finance, Jim Flaherty, tabled a budget on June 6, 2011, just over two months after he tabled his last budget, which died on the order paper with the dissolution of Parliament due to the election.  The latest budget contained two of the election promises: potential reimbursement to the province of Quebec for costs associated with the potential harmonization of the provincial sales tax with the GST and the phase-out of political subsidies.  Both of these initiatives could have been contained in separate legislation.  The Minister also provided an update of the d

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PBO Continues to be More Pessimistic on Budget than Minister of Finance

On June 1st, the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) released its latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook (www.parl.gc.ca/pbo-dpb). The PBO expects the deficit to be somewhat lower in both 2010-11 and 2011-12 than those projected by the Minister of Finance in his March 2011 Budget.  However, PBO is forecasting higher deficits in the outer years with the difference widening to $11.5 billion by 2015-16. By the end of the period, the PBO is forecasting a deficit of $7.3 billion.

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