No timeline for federal budget amid coronavirus uncertainty, Trudeau says

By Amanda Connolly

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says there is no timeline for when his government will table a federal budget because of the “extraordinary” uncertainty posed by the coronavirus pandemic.

The government had been scheduled at the end of March to release its first budget since winning re-election as a minority. But that release was scrapped when the House of Commons suspended on March 13 as part of a nationwide shutdown to try to limit the spread of COVID-19.

Since then, Trudeau has rolled out hundreds of billions of dollars in emergency spending and tax deferrals to support workers laid off or facing restricted hours because of the economic shutdown.

During his daily briefing with journalists on Monday, Trudeau was asked when Canadians will see a full budget outlining the government’s spending priorities for the year, and said it’s hard to tell.

“A budget in normal times is a forecast of the measures that will be presented in the year to come. Right now we are in a period of uncertainty — extraordinary uncertainty — as to what might happen next month or in three months,” Trudeau said, adding that talks on how to provide some kind of update are “ongoing.”

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“We’ll find ways to share this with you but we have not yet been able to determine what the best way is of looking at a budget or an economic update or maybe another way of sharing information with Canadians about what we foresee for the months to come.”

full story at https://globalnews.ca/news/6901754/justin-trudeau-federal-budget-coronaivrus/