QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Public Accounts
December 4, 2024
Leader, our colleague Senator Ross has asked you several times this fall when the 2024 Public Accounts will be tabled. A note published recently from economists at the National Bank of Canada stated:
. . . prior fiscal year deficits are usually confirmed in October, but that’s been delayed this year. The feds technically have until year-end to publish the figure, but the delay could lead one to speculate it’s not good news being withheld.
Leader, have these economists guessed correctly? Has the NDP-Liberal government blown well past its own fiscal guardrail of a $40-billion deficit, as the Parliamentary Budget Officer believes?
I’m not in a position to comment on the speculations to which you refer. As I have answered in the past, senator, and I regret that my answer will not please you, I don’t have information as to when the reports will be tabled. You can be sure that those in this chamber will be among the first to know when I have the opportunity to provide the information that, for the moment, I do not have.
I appreciate you do not have the exact answer, but just as a reminder, in 2019, your government released its Fall Economic and Fiscal Update on December 16, which was four days after the Senate rose and three days after the House rose for the Christmas break. Leader, does your government commit to releasing this year’s economic update while Parliament is sitting?
Senator Martin, you know very well, as do I, the issues that are keeping the House of Commons from dealing with things other than opposition days, censure motions and privilege debates. I’m not in a position to and would not make commitments on behalf of the government when I don’t have the underlying information to do so.
