Canada's first parliamentary budget officer says the Liberal government has no good reason to withhold a fiscal update — not even the economic uncertainty generated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Kevin Page, former parliamentary budget officer: "All the ingredients are there to put together a budget." That uncertainty hasn't stopped the current Parliamentary Budget Officer from publishing analyses of the government's spending, and from regularly updating the impact of that spending on those forecasts. The political conflict over the government's reluctance to issue a fiscal update is beginning to strain the working relationship in Parliament. Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet this week demanded that Trudeau agree to table a fiscal update by the end of the month.

Source: CBC News June 13, 2020 07:52 UTC