Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that the federal government will be tabling the 2021 budget on April 19th.

This will be the first official budget tabled by the federal government in over two years. When COVID-19 outbreaks began to worsen in March 2020, the Liberal government called off the 2020 budget.

The federal deficit was estimated to be nearly 20 billion dollars in the 2020-21 fiscal year, however, due to hundreds of billions of dollars in COVID-19 spending, the deficit has increased to over 380 billion dollars.

Because the Liberals have a minority government, they will need the support of another major party to pass the budget. If the budget is not passed, it could prompt a snap election.