Ottawa--Canada will release a "balanced" budget on April 21, but for the first time since the Great Recession there will be no deep spending cuts, Finance Minister Joe Oliver announced Thursday.
The budget is almost two months overdue as the government has struggled to make accurate forecasts amid oil price volatility.
"It will be a balanced budget, just as we promised," Oliver said.
The minister said that budget planning, for the first time since 2009, has not focused on spending cuts, marking a turning point in the country's fiscal situation.
After coming to power in 2006, the Conservatives posted two back-to-back budget surpluses before the global recession hit and the government racked up a record deficit in a bid to stimulate the economy.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper must defend his Tory parliamentary majority in October and hopes to campaign as leader of the first G7 nation to balance its books since the global slump.
A plunge in oil prices over the past year, however, has put a dent in expectations in this major oil exporting nation.
Oliver in November predicted a deficit of Can$2.9 billion in 2014-2015, followed by a Can$1.9 billion surplus the following fiscal year.
That estimated surplus was Can$5 billion less than had been forecast in the last budget in February 2014.
Oliver noted that the economies of China and India have lost momentum, but the economy of the United States -- Canada's largest trading partner -- "is gathering steam."
AFP
