Liberal deficit jumps again, and it may go even higher

The Holt Liberal government is sinking further into red ink this year, projecting an $834.7 million deficit that the finance minister acknowledges could go even higher.

Revised projections for corporate and personal income tax revenue, and higher than projected spending in health care and social programs, led to the new calculation.

In August the projection was $668.7 million, which was itself worse than what Finance Minister René Legacy forecast in his first budget last March.

Legacy blamed the previous government’s spending restraint — which he said starved public services of the money needed to keep up with a growing population — for the impetus to spend now.

“While this is not the fiscal situation we wanted to be in, years

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