Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland has said that the upcoming 2023-24 budget will focus on fiscal constraints as Ottawa tries to avoid fueling inflation.
“I am very conscious that we’re putting together this budget at a time of meaningful fiscal constraint and that fiscal constraint is exacerbated by the fact that the Canadian economy is slowing,” Freeland told reporters.
Freeland said she will put “the budget together over the next few weeks,” but did not provide a date for when the federal budget will be delivered in Parliament.
The federal government typically delivers its budget at the end of March or in early April. Annual pre-budget consultations ran across Canada from December 14, 2022 to February 10, 2023.
Federal spending sowed dramatically last year as Ottawa withdrew many of its COVID-19 supports and as the annual inflation rate in Canada peaked above 8%.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Ottawa spent an average of $19,208 per person in Canada, the highest level of spending in the country’s history, according to a report by the Fraser Institute, a conservative think tank.
The federal government’s fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31.