Prime Minister Trudeau committed $850 million in international funding to fight a global pandemic, but despite billions in emergency funding announcements in recent weeks blowing a big hole in the federal government’s budget, Trudeau said he will not be doing a budget revision or economic forecast update anytime soon.
The Trudeau government has already announced billions in emergency funding for Canadians. On Monday, he announced $850 million to help fight the pandemic outside of Canada. The money will go to international efforts to develop vaccines and treatments for the COVID-19 virus.
“To keep Canadians safe and restart our economy, we need to defeat this virus not just within our borders, but wherever it is found,” he said.
Asked if his government would provide at least an economic update by June, Trudeau said his government will continue to be as transparent as possible on budgetary matters, but said he would not be doing an economic forecast update anytime soon.
"A budget in normal times is a forecast of the measures that will be presented in the years to come," Trudeau said. "Right now we are in a period of uncertainty -- extraordinary uncertainty as to what might happen next month.
"We have not yet been able to determine what the best way is of looking at a budget or economic update."
More to come
