Deficit smaller than expected, but Trudeau stands by controversial tax changes
OTTAWA — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sounded a defiant note Tuesday as he promised to press ahead with the Liberal government’s controversial tax changes even as clear new evidence emerged to show a Canadian economy on the rebound.
The Finance Department says the federal government ran a smaller deficit than the $23 billion forecast in the spring budget, ending the 2016-17 fiscal year with an actual deficit of $17.8 billion.
Not surprisingly, Trudeau seized on the news as evidence of progress in the Liberal plan to grow the economy by helping middle-class Canadians — a plan that now also includes contentious new tax rules for small businesses.
Trudeau stood firmly by those proposed changes, focusing on the argument that they are about making the system fair, rather than generating revenue.