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“We will remain focused on those economic challenges facing Canadian families. We’ll make sure the things we’ve done already (like) the child benefit package will have the real impact we expect on families. We believe it will.”

Morneau’s comments came Monday as he launched cross-country, pre-budget consultations with Canadians leading up to the 2016-17 federal spending document.

Ottawa’s full fiscal budgets are released between February and April. “We will look at the economic situation in order to figure out what we should be doing, not only in November, but in our upcoming budget,” the minister said.

While Morneau declined to provide a timetable for the next budget, the process will include a meeting of the country’s top economists on Oct. 13 in Toronto, followed by a fiscal and economic update. The exact date of that update has yet to be announced.

“As in the past, our intent in meeting with economists . . . is intended to get a sense of what they’re seeing across the Canadian economy. Clearly, we are doing our own research as well,” Morneau said.

“Investing in Canadian families can make a real difference in getting people confident in the Canadian economy. Investing in infrastructure and innovation are going to make a long-term difference,” he added.

“We’ll take a look at the projections of those (private-sector) economists as part of the frame for what we talk about later in the fall.”

According to the March budget — the first presented by Morneau after the Liberal’s defeat of the Conservative Party in the Oct. 19 election — the 2015-16 deficit forecast was $29.4 billion.