Article content

OTTAWA — The Trudeau government is dedicating about a third of the windfall it’s expecting from the surprisingly strong economy towards investments, tax relief and new spending on social programs to support children and the working poor.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau released a fall economic statement Tuesday that promises nearly $15 billion in fresh spending over the next five years — on top of what it had outlined in its March budget.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Liberals to spend $15B of economic windfall over next five years Back to video

The new measures take advantage of this year’s unexpectedly robust economic performance, which is projected to provide an additional $47 billion for its bottom line over the same five-year period.

The remaining portion will be aimed at reducing annual deficits, which are projected to shrink each year starting in 2018-19.

The government, however, did not map out a timeline to balance the federal books, even though it had promised in its 2015 election platform to do so by 2019.

Morneau announced the government will introduce an enhancement to child-benefit payments so they start rising with the cost of living two years earlier than initially promised — at a cost to government of $5.6 billion over five years.

He will also bolster the working income tax benefit, a refundable credit aimed at providing relief for low-income Canadians who have jobs and encouraging those who don’t to join the workforce. The measure is projected to lower government revenues by $2.1 billion over five years, starting in 2018.