Flaherty announced the budget date Thursday in Ottawa after meeting with a group of students from a national charitable organization, who provided their own input on what they want in the spending plan. The Harper government is expected to further tighten purse strings and avoid significant new spending in the budget.
The minister has indicated the budget will project modest growth in the short term, close tax loopholes and look to secure better results for the government’s billions of dollars in job-training funding. Many of the private sector economists Flaherty regularly consults in setting the government’s economic forecasts are predicting sluggish economic growth in 2013 of between 1.5% and 1.8%.
|