Skip to main content

Finance Department says federal deficit was $23.8 billion deficit over April and May

Share
Ottawa -

The federal government ran a deficit of nearly $24 billion over the first two months of its fiscal year, a sharp drop from the unprecedented spending one year earlier at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Finance Department's regular fiscal monitor says the budgetary deficit over April and May was $23.8 billion, down from the $86.8 billion recorded over the same months in 2020.

The department's report says the drop in spending was expected given the improved conditions from last spring when the economy had a historic slide, prompting the federal treasury to pump out an unprecedented amount of emergency aid.

The fiscal monitor says the deficit now reflects ongoing economic challenges, including the effect of third-wave lockdowns and ongoing spending on emergency aid that is scheduled to wrap up this fall.

Program spending, excluding net actuarial losses, was almost $76.9 billion over April and May, a decline of about $37 billion, or a 32.5 per cent drop, from the $113.8 billion in the same period one year earlier.

Revenues reached over $59.5 billion over April and May, which was a $27.1-billion, or 83.6 per cent, year-over-year increase from the $32.4 billion in the previous fiscal year.

The fiscal monitor says the result is largely due to the steep drop in tax revenues at the onset of the pandemic as large parts of the economy were shuttered.

Public debt charges increased by $300 million, or 9.1 per cent, to $3.9 billion from the almost $3.6 billion in the previous fiscal year.

The Finance Department says the change is due to higher inflation adjustments on real return bonds, offset partially by lower interest on treasury bills and the government's pension and benefit obligations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 30, 2021.

IN DEPTH

Who is supporting, opposing new online harms bill?

Now that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's sweeping online harms legislation is before Parliament, allowing key stakeholders, major platforms, and Canadians with direct personal experience with abuse to dig in and see what's being proposed, reaction is streaming in. CTVNews.ca has rounded up reaction, and here's how Bill C-63 is going over.

Opinion

opinion

opinion Don Martin: How a beer break may have doomed the carbon tax hike

When the Liberal government chopped a planned beer excise tax hike to two per cent from 4.5 per cent and froze future increases until after the next election, says political columnist Don Martin, it almost guaranteed a similar carbon tax move in the offing.

opinion

opinion Don Martin: ArriveCan debacle may be even worse than we know from auditor's report

It's been 22 years since a former auditor general blasted the Chretien government after it 'broke just about every rule in the book' in handing out private sector contracts in the sponsorship scandal. In his column for CTVNews.ca, Don Martin says the book has been broken anew with everything that went on behind the scenes of the 'dreaded' ArriveCan app.

CTVNews.ca Top Stories

N.B. man wins $64 million from Lotto 6/49

A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.

Local Spotlight

N.B. man wins $64 million from Lotto 6/49

A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.

Record-setting pop tab collection for Ontario boy

It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.

Stay Connected