‘We will exercise fiscal restraint’: Freeland outlines priorities ahead of 2023 federal budget

The coming 2023 federal budget will “exercise fiscal restraint” while also making “significant” investments in health and building Canada’s clean economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said Monday.

In a speech detailing the Liberal government’s priorities ahead of next week’s budget release, Freeland said the budget will include “targeted inflation relief” to help Canadians who are most acutely feeling the pinch as a result of rising prices.

Though, with the federal government remaining mindful of the need to not pour fuel on the fire of inflation, Freeland is vowing to “exercise fiscal restraint.”

She signalled that with this in mind, the 2023 federal budget will be prioritizing “two significant and necessary investments”: health-care funding and building Canada’s clean economy.

Addressing the state of the Canadian economy, the finance minister touted Canada’s near-record low unemployment rate post-COVID-19 recession, but admitted that inflation is “still too high,” and higher interest rates are having an impact. 

“The global economy has slowed down, and the Canadian economy has slowed down. That means government revenues are lower… Our ability to spend is not infinite,” Freeland said.

“What Canadians want right now is for inflation to come down and for interest rates to fall. And that is one of our primary goals in this year’s budget: not to pour fuel on the fire of inflation. So, in our budget, we will exercise fiscal restraint.”

More to come…