Trudeau government survives confidence vote in House of Commons

OTTAWA (NEWS 1130) -The Trudeau government lives to see another day after surviving a confidence vote in the middle of the pandemic

The Prime Minister is also promising an update on federal finances next month, so Canadians can see the impact COVID-19 has had on the federal books.

A federal bill approving 87-billion dollars in program spending through this pandemic has been approved in the House of Commons on division.

Since it was a confidence vote that means the country avoids seeing the minority Trudeau government fall and potentially launching the Canadians into an election.

As the federal government spend tens of billions on financial aid Trudeau is promising to deliver what he calls a “snapshot” of federal finances on July 8th.

He says it will show Canadians where the numbers stand in the federal books, how they compare to other countries, and where we are heading in the coming months.

In recent weeks Trudeau rejected opposition calls for a full fiscal update and stresses this upcoming snapshot is only a short term fiscal portrait.

“An economic and fiscal update would be unrealistic right now because it automatically includes projections for a year, three years, five years ahead of time, which quite frankly, we couldn’t make any responsible predictions about.”

The budget was scheduled for March but postponed indefinitely due to the pandemic, and Trudeau can’t say when his government will deliver it.

“Right now we are still very much responding to an immediate situation and we will continue to reflect on when the time could be right.”

The Bloc Quebecois remain critical of the timing of this snapshot, saying the Liberals are trying to “dump the numbers” in the summer.

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