Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre and the party’s small business critic, James Cumming, addressed Sunday the Liberal government’s economic handle on the COVID-19 pandemic and what the Official Opposition expects to see from this week’s fiscal snapshot.
The Trudeau government will update the country on the state of government finances July 8, after a plan to present the federal budget was sidelined in March as the novel coronavirus continued to spread.
Both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau have said a more complete economic update or budget won’t happen until the economy has stabilized.
Poilievre and members of other opposition parties have been critical of the decision to release a snapshot instead of a more robust update.
“Canadians deserve to know how big the financial mess is that the prime minister has made,” Poilievre told CBC Radio’s The House in an interview that aired Saturday.
“Everyday Canadians, small businesses and large employers have to set budgets so that they can get through this difficult time. The prime minister should do the same.”
Last month, Trudeau said that because of the pandemic, “making projections about what our economy would look like six months from now or a year from now is simply an exercise in invention and imagination.”
Sunday’s news conference will also be the first for the Conservatives since the Liberal government’s partnership with the WE Charity came to an end, which would have seen the organization — which has ties to the Trudeau family — dole out more than $900 million in grants to students this summer.
“I think this could have actually brought down their government,” Poilievre also told The House. “It was that serious a scandal.”
