Categories: Need to know

Conservatives unlikely to meet deficit targets

Watchdog sees one in 10 chance government will keep balanced budget promise

by macleans.ca on Tuesday, November 1, 2011 1:55pm - 4 Comments

Chances that the Conservative government of Stephen Harper will be able to keep its elections pledge of balancing the budget by 2014-2015 look slim, the Parliamentary Budget Office said in a report, as well as a number of private-sector economists. At fault is the slowing pace of the Canadian economy, whose growth prospects have been revised down by the PBO. The Office now expects Ottawa to run a deficit of $18.7 billion in 2014-2015, $13.1-billion the following fiscal year and $7.3-billion in 2016-2017.

The Globe and Mail

Tags: budget deficit

Pakrat

DUH!
Anonymous

Again, I point out, this is exactly what people voted for. Flaherty put his budget out there at election time. It was pointed out by many people that the entire budget rested upon a best case scenario for someone with rose-colored glasses.

Voters didn’t care.

We get what we deserve.
neuroticdog

Did anyone seriously believe this crowd ever intended to balance the budget? This is an echo of the scam Flaherty pulled in Ontario where, by the time he and his cronies were finally kicked out, he’d also created a multi-billion dollar deficit he “pledged” to balance (and despite their own legislation “outlawing” deficits in the province).

This crowd will leave the government in a state of perpetual starvation, in keeping with its ideological preference for smaller government, claiming all the while that a balanced budget is just over the horizon.
Anonymous

Gee pakrat that was the response I was intending to make.