Heather Scoffield: Canada`s finance minister is rolling in dough but will avoid focusing on the deficit in federal budget
(The Star Travel)

If he wanted to, Finance Minister Bill Morneau could take a serious chunk out of the deficit in his budget on Tuesday.Government revenues are flowing in beyond all expectations. There are several billion dollars in unallocated funds lying around that could be diverted to reducing the deficit. And there seems to be a fair amount of money left unspent from previous budgets — funds that have lapsed in infrastructure spending and elsewhere.Morneau won’t go there though. For him, running a deficit in the face of Conservative orthodoxy has become a point of pride.The extra cash means the federal Liberals can afford to make a bold statement on Tuesday. Canadians will hear a lot about retraining for jobs of the future, and government help to make housing more affordable for first-time homebuyers, and pharmacare. There will be talk of a prudent and cautious approach to budgeting that will put the fiscal balance on a responsible track.But for Morneau, making a significant, long-term commitment to eliminating deficits would just be a concession to the Conservatives. Instead, he will undoubtedly argue that Conservative deficit zealotry implies cuts to government programs such as infrastructure or the Canada Child Benefit that has been so successful at reducing poverty.The Conservatives are just as content to have that fight with the Liberals. They will argue vehemently until the day Canadians go to the polls: Justin Trudeau broke a 2015 election promise to balance the books by 2019. And because he won’t do that, your taxes will go up after the next election to pay for his profligacy.Read more:Opinion | Heather Scoffield: Liberals’ budget will put people first after the government gets burned in the corporate arenaHow the federal budget could tweak the mortgage stress testOpinion | Susan Delacourt: Trudeau’s damage-control plan is aimed at Liberal MPsDeficits have become an ideological battering ram rather than a fiscal-policy tool, and thatR ...