By Chris Brown

Update from the PM

Trudeau says fiscal update coming on July 8

Jun 17, 2020 | 9:17 AM

A fiscal update will be introduced into the House of Commons next month, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says it won’t be a traditional update.

Trudeau announced “an economic and fiscal snapshot” will be given on July 8.

The prime minister said that COVID-19 has presented an unprecedented challenge and the government put everything on the table. He touted the Canada Emergency Response Benefit, the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy and other sector- and demographic-specific outlays.

“Taken together, we’ve now introduced the largest economic measures in our lifetimes, measures that are helping millions of people, because that’s what the situation demanded,” said Trudeau.

He added the economic update will give Canadians “a picture of where our economy is right now, how our response compares to that of other countries and what we can expect for the months to come.”

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Speaking from outside Rideau Cottage at his regular address, the PM said today that a traditional economic and fiscal update would be unrealistic because it includes projections for years down the road.

He said the government can’t make any responsible predictions about that far down the road.

“However, every two weeks over the past number of months we have put forward all the information from finance to the finance committee, to parliamentarians on the measures that we have moved forward on to give a very precise account on what we’ve done,” he said.

He said the July 8 update will gather all that information along with a sense of where Canada is and estimates for the future.

“But this will not be an economic and fiscal update. It will be more of snapshot or portrait of where we are right now.”

The prime minister announced $500 million in funding for Canadian researchers studying in fields such as viruses, artificial intelligence or chemical engineering.

In the next week, fish and seafood producers will be able to access two new programs — the Canadian Fish and Opportunities Seafood Fund and the Canadian Seafood Stabilization Fund.

He also announced Parks Canada will gradually start reopening some of its camping sites.

As of Wednesday morning, Canada had 99,467 confirmed cases and 8,213 deaths. There have been 61,443 recovered in Canada and 2,216,730 Canadians tested.

In Alberta, there are 7,482 cases and 151 deaths. A total of 312,351 Albertans have been tested. There are 449 active cases in Alberta.