1 month ago
Swift News
The Liberal government is ending a long-held tradition of presenting a spring budget and will instead adopt a relatively new tradition borrowed from the U.K. that will see all future budgets delivered in the fall, Finance Canada said Monday.
As a part of the change, the tradition of tabling a fall economic and fiscal update will be moved to the spring.
The move is a part of the Liberal government's new capital budgeting framework that will also separate out day-to-day operational spending from capital investments in the forthcoming Nov. 4 budget.
Despite the separation, Finance Canada will still deliver one overall deficit number when the budget is delivered.
"By moving to a fall budget cycle and introducing a new capital budgeting framework, we're making better-timed and more transparent decisions. This is how we'll deliver generational investments," Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in a statement.
Government officials, speaking on background in a technical briefing on Monday, said a fall budget will help organizations that rely on federal funding to deliver programs by giving them a better idea of what funds they have before the fiscal year starts.
The change in schedule, officials said, will also help businesses prepare financially well in advance of construction season to get projects off the ground quicker.
Officials said the new schedule will increase transparency, as releasing the budget well in advance of the spring main estimates means MPs can better oversee planned spending.