Canada's new finance minister says he expects the Liberal government's stimulus spending plan to be "positively received" at the G20 Summit.
before he departed for the meeting in Turkey, Bill Morneau said he is looking forward to sharing the government's plan for infrastructure stimulus spending with his international counterparts.
"We're going to be talking about infrastructure spending; we're going to be talking about fiscal stimulus. And I think that will be an important point for us to be talking with those G20 colleagues," he said. "We think that what we're going to be talking about will be broadly positively received."
During the election campaign, the Liberals campaigned on a promise to invest $125 billion over 10 years in infrastructure spending. The Liberals said it would finance the massive stimulus package by running "modest" deficits for three years.
Morneau recognized that he would be speaking about fiscal stimulus in Europe -- where several governments have pushed forward with painful austerity cuts in recent years -- but said he's confident the Liberal plan would spark a "positive" environment.
"For Canada to come forward, and to say we recognize that fiscal stimulus is an appropriate measure in times of slower growth, that’s going to be positively received," he said. "I think it will help to create an atmosphere of positive movement."
During the wide-ranging interview, the new finance minister addressed other economic matters, including that the Liberal government may face larger-than-expected deficits.
Morneau dismissed the proposal that the government could raise more revenue by raising the GST by one per cent. During his time in office, former prime minister Stephen Harper cut the GST by two per cent, starting in 2006.
The finance minister said it was too soon to consider new measures, and that Canadians expect the Liberals to implement the platform they had campaigned on.
"With respect to specific measures that we might take, we have a pretty comprehensive platform and our intent is to follow through on those commitments. So that's the first order of business," Morneau said.
He also addressed concerns about Canada’s housing market, noting released earlier this year, which warned that it may be overvalued.
Morneau said it was too soon to determine if the lending rules should be changed so homeowners are required to put down a larger down payment on a property. He said, however, that the government is closely watching the housing market, and hopes to get better data after reinstating the long-form census.
