OTTAWA—The new Liberal government may be forced to run much larger budget deficits to pay for its pro-growth stimulus program, Finance Minister Bill Morneau revealed Friday in a report showing Ottawa’s books are in much worse shape than portrayed by the former Conservative government.

Lower tax revenues from a sputtering economy, coupled with a raft of spending measures last year by former prime minister Stephen Harper, have left Ottawa’s cupboard completely bare, the finance department said.

Rather a $2.4 billion budget surplus this year as forecast by Harper, the federal government will actually record a $3 billion deficit in 2015, according to the first economic and fiscal update released by the new government.

And the budget surpluses over the next few years predicted by the Conservatives in the spring have disappeared because of the hit on the economy from the oil-price plunge. Instead of budget surpluses, the Liberal government is starting very much in the hole, with budget deficits now expected until 2019.

To pay for expanded infrastructure spending and more generous family support payments — all part of the Liberal plan to stimulate economic growth — the Liberals had already said they would have to record a series of budget deficits. But it now appears these shortfalls will be much bigger if Morneau sticks to the promises laid out by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the election campaign.

On Friday, Morneau did not calculate the impact on Ottawa’s books of the Liberals’ spending pledges.

But based on the new figures supplied by the finance department, the Liberals are in line to run a $14.4 billion deficit in 2016 rather than the $9.9 billion deficit the party forecast using predictions from earlier this year.

In 2017, the Liberals are now headed for a $14.1 billion deficit, rather than a $9.5 billion shortfall. And in 2018, the deficit could hit $10.5 billion, rather than the $5.7 billion forecast during the election campaign.

A federal government official who briefed reporters said the government is committed to balancing the books by 2019 and Morneau, who will produce a budget early next year, will have to consider a range of fiscal factors. These include how fast the Liberals’ promised spending measures are implemented, how much money can be saved by pruning inefficient or outdated programs and how much funding can be recouped through the Liberals’ promised review of Ottawa’s vast array of tax breaks for businesses and individuals.

After oil prices collapsed in mid- and late-2014, the Canadian economy took a big hit, and performed even worse than the Conservatives projected in Budget 2015, the update showed. It said real gross domestic product dropped by .8 per cent in the first three months of 2015, and .5 per cent in the second quarter of the year, led by the drops in the energy sector.

Economic growth in Canada resumed in the summer months after five consecutive months of decline but “remains subdued,” the update said.

Nevertheless, the finance department sees signs of underlying strength in the U.S. economy that will be good news for Canada and its exporters. Though senior officials signaled uncertainty over how long it will take Canadian manufacturers to respond to a lower Canadian dollar, the update said that there was a strong rebound in the manufacturing sector, with manufacturing sales growing by 4 per cent and noon-energy merchandise exports, which represent the vast majority of Canadian exports, rebounding by 13.3 per cent.

It was all aided by strong momentum in the U.S. The U.S. economy had a stalled in the first quarter in 2015, but picked up pace in the spring with consumer spending getting a boost from lower gas prices, slowed slightly again, but was marked by “robust growth in household and business spending” in the late summer and early fall.

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However, with low and volatile crude oil prices and weak global growth, Canadian finance officials took a dimmer view than private sector economists in projecting Canada’s expected economic growth.

They adjusted their forecast down by $10 billion for 2015 and $20 billion each year from 2016 through to 2020. Finance officials anticipate that rather than rising as private sector economists projected, crude oil prices could remain “flat at current levels.”

“The overall risk remains that growth continues to fall short of expectations,” said a background document.

A senior finance official briefing reporters acknowledged that the economic situation for the new government is more challenging now than at the time the Liberals crafted their campaign platform.

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