Federal Government Unveils Fall Economic Statement

This afternoon in Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland released the federal government’s Fall Economic Statement (FES) by video-link. Simply titled Economic and Fiscal Update 2021, the plan is the first major economic update since Budget 2021 and since the Liberals were re-elected in September.

While this year’s FES contains far fewer new spending measures than has been typical under this Liberal government, there are still a number of new funding commitments outlined in the document. Overall, the FES outlines almost $70 billion in new spending, $30 billion of which is aimed at pandemic management. However, economic trends have improved the fiscal outlook by $126.9 billion over the same period, leaving Canada further ahead than the picture presented in Budget 2021.

Missing from the document, however, is the suite of allocations that would be required to implement the $78 billion in commitments made in the Liberal Election Platform released this past summer. Those eager to see those commitments implemented will have to wait for Budget 2022 or perhaps beyond, depending on the state of the economy and the omicron variant.

Read the full update here.