Canada’s finance minister says the deficit will be $50 billion
Fifty billion—that’s how big Ottawa figures the federal government’s deficit might be before the year is through. After announcing on Monday that the government would likely run a deficit far larger than what he had predicted in his budget, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty gave reporters the more precise number on Tuesday. And though Flaherty said the extra spending was both “necessary” and “manageable,” it appears the figure will easily surpass the $39 billion deficit in 1992-93—to become the largest in Canadian history.