Trudeau Liberals’ fiscal update this week put a cost to all the emergency COVID-19 aid the federal treasury will dole out. It delivered some shocks: a gigantic deficit and a projection that the federal debt will top $1 trillion.What is causing the federal deficit to hit $343.2 billion?Late last year, the government forecast this year’s deficit at $28.1 billion.
But the federal government is staring at a rapid drop in revenues due to the economic lockdown slashing the taxes people and businesses pay: that alone adds $81.3 billion to the deficit.