Federal budget delay
Posted Jan 15, 2015 12:15 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Canada’s finance minister says he will delay tabling a budget until April because of economic uncertainty caused by tumbling oil prices.
Joe Oliver says in prepared remarks to a Calgary business crowd that the government needs all the information it can get before finalizing its fiscal plan for the coming year.
He says low oil prices hurt the bottom line of oil companies, which leads to decreased investment and less employment.
He says that in turn reduces tax revenue both provincially and federally.
Oliver points out there is no consensus on how low oil prices will fall or how long they will stay there.
The last federal budget was released in mid-February 2014, while the budget in 2013 came out that March.
Oil prices are hovering around US$45 a barrel — a steep drop from the US$100 oil was bringing in last summer.
