Article content

Finance Minister Bill Morneau on Monday added another chapter to the book of fairy tale accounting authored by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau since he was elected in 2015.

During that election, Trudeau promised — not predicted, promised during one of the televised leaders’ debates — that the Canadian government under his leadership would have a $1 billion surplus this year.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or GOLDSTEIN: Trudeau’s $1-billion surplus now a $26.6-billion deficit Back to video

Instead, Morneau’s economic update puts the deficit at $26.6 billion this year and $28.1 billion next year, before gradually shrinking to $11.6 billion in 2024-25, meaning five more years of double-digit deficits with no balanced budgets in sight.

Trudeau’s deficit of $26.6 billion this year is also $6.8 billion higher than the $19.8 billion Morneau predicted it would be in his March budget.

It’s $12.6 billion higher than last year’s $14 billion deficit.

That $14 billion deficit was supposed to be, as per Trudeau’s 2015 election promise, a $5.7 billion deficit.