2010 Federal Budget Briefing

Budget 2010 steers the federal government back onto the straight and narrow road toward fiscal balance after two successive years of major fiscal stimulus. Although the federal deficit will hit $49 billion in 2010–11, several initiatives are being undertaken with the goal of ensuring that the fiscal accounts return to the black by 2015–16.

• In order to hold federal spending growth to below inflation, the federal government has identified three main areas where it plans to make cuts: the international aid envelope, defence spending, and federal government programming spending growth.
• The Conference Board’s economic outlook suggests that the federal government could potentially climb out of deficit earlier than planned.
• Given the Board’s forecast for nominal GDP growth, by 2014–15 tax revenue could be $6.3 billion higher than scheduled in Budget 2010.