The Canadian federal budget for fiscal year 2018–2019 was presented to the Canadian

House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...

by Finance Minister

Bill Morneau William Francis Morneau Jr. (born October 7, 1962) is a Canadian businessman and former Liberal Party politician who served as minister of finance and member of Parliament (MP) for Toronto Centre from 2015 to 2020. Morneau was executive chai ...

on February 27, 2018 as the omnibus Budget Implementation Act, 2018, No. 1. The deficit was projected to be $18.1 billion, including a $3 billion adjustment for risk. This was later refined to $14.0 billion when the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada for Fiscal Year 2018–2019 was released.

Financial situation

In the ''Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada'' for 2018 - 2019, the Minister of Finance said that the budgetary deficit was $14.0 billion for the FY ending March 31, 2019 and that revenues "increased by $21.0 billion, or 6.7 per cent, from 2017–18." There was an increase of 4.7 per cent ($14.6 billion) in program expenses. The federal debt was $685.5 billion and debt-to-GDP (gross domestic product) ratio was 30.9 per cent which is a decrease from 31.3 per cent in 2018. Public debt charges that had reached a peak of about "30 percent in the mid-1990s" were down to "6.7 per cent of expenses in 2018–19." The report said there was strong growth in most regions of the world in 2016 and 2017 and that global economic expansion was more moderate in 2018. Canada's real GDP grew 3.0 per cent in 2017 and 1.9 per cent in 2018. From the fall of 2015 through March 2019, Canada has added 1 million jobs. The unemployment rate reached its lowest level since 1979.

Oil prices

Oil prices dropped in the second half of 2018 globally. The price of West Texas Intermediate crude oil increased to nearly US$70 per barrel in October, 2018 which represents its "highest level since before the oil shock." By December WTI dropped to below US$50 per barrel." As a result of the lower

price of oil The price of oil, or the oil price, generally refers to the spot price of a barrel () of benchmark crude oil—a reference price for buyers and sellers of crude oil such as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), Brent Crude, Dubai Crude, OPEC Ref ...

at the end of the year, Canada's nominal GDP was more moderate in 2018 than 2017.

Highlights

GGPPA

The

Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act The ''Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act'' (french: Loi sur la tarification de la pollution causée par les gaz à effet de serre) is a Canadian federal law establishing a set of minimum national standards for carbon pricing in Canada to meet ...

under the mask of the Budget Implementation Act 2018, in ''Part 4''.

SNC-Lavalin affair

The

SNC-Lavalin affair The SNC-Lavalin affair () was a political scandal involving attempted political interference with the justice system by the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, and the Prime Minister's Office (PMO). The Parliament of Canada's Ethics ...

was created as a result of ''Division 20 of Part 6''.

Environment and Climate Change Canada

The federal budget presented in February 2018 included an increase in

Environment and Climate Change Canada Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC; french: Environnement et Changement climatique Canada),Environment and Climate Change Canada is the applied title under the Federal Identity Program; the legal title is Department of the Environment ...

's budget to $1.5 billion which represents an increase of 53.5 per cent "more than it was initially allocated" in 2017 and "23.1 per cent more than it ended up spending" in 2017.

References

Canadian budgets 42nd Canadian Parliament

Canadian federal budget In Canada, federal budgets are presented annually by the Government of Canada to identify planned government spending and expected government revenue, and to forecast economic conditions for the upcoming year. They are usually released in Februa ...

federal budget {{Canada-gov-stub