Bill Morneau to deliver fall economic statement today

Finance Minister Bill Morneau will deliver his fall economic statement in the House of Commons today.

CBCNews.ca will carry his remarks live starting at 4 p.m. ET.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau will deliver his fall economic statement in the House of Commons Tuesday. (Adrian Wyld/Canadian Press)

Morneau will hand down a document that is expected to be much more rosy than some of the headlines he has faced this year. As CBC News first reported Monday, the minister is expected to announce a boost to payments made to families under the Canada Child Benefit (CCB) program.

Morneau is also expected to bolster the Working Income Tax Benefit, a refundable tax credit aimed at providing tax relief for low-income Canadians who have jobs and encouraging those who don’t to join the workforce, the Canadian Press has reported.

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The Canadian economy is, by many measures, on the up and up.

Unemployment rates have drifted downwards, reaching levels not seen since the months before the Great Recession. The GDP growth rate, a key measure of a country’s economic health, has been impressive, with the overall economy growing by 4.6 per cent in the 12 months leading up to the end of May. The economy hasn’t seen such lofty figures since 2000.

The government has said their plan has “invested in people” — giving Canadians tools like the child benefit, a “middle-class tax cut” and investments in infrastructure — and the results are starting to bear fruit.

The Conservatives are calling on the Liberal government to follow through on its 2015 election promise to keep this year’s deficit at no more than $10 billion and balance the books by 2019.

After taking office the Liberals backed off those “fiscal anchors,” blaming the collapsing price of oil putting stress on the economy.

“Justin Trudeau is running out of other people’s money and so he sent out Bill Morneau and his tax collectors to find more,” said finance critic Pierre Poilievre. 

Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/bill-morneau-fall-economic-statement-1.4369040?cmp=rss