Trudeau says he does not need mandate for pandemic budget because he already has one

Yesterday, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland announced that the first federal budget in more than two years will be delivered on April 19.

The budget is expected to provide a full accounting of all government spending through the pandemic, which has sent the deficit for the fiscal year to almost $400 billion.

It is also expected to outline the Liberals’ plan to spend between $70 billion and $100 billion over the coming years on stimulus to help the economy recover.

The prime minister was asked if he thought he needed to go to Canadians for a fresh mandate to implement the budget. Trudeau pointed out that he was not given a mandate to renegotiate NAFTA after being first elected in 2015.

“We got elected in 2019 with a mandate to keep working on reconciliation, keep working on the vulnerable, keep working on the economy and this pandemic happened,” he said. “And yes, we’ve had to do all sorts of things that weren’t talked about in that election campaign, but they’re also things that are true to the leadership and the values and the frame that I’ve put forward.

“I think people can pretty much understand that faced with this crisis, they know the values we’re going to have. But yes, there are going to be really important political debates about what the recovery looks like.” 

Variants increase uncertainty of pandemic timeline

Trudeau also said he understands that, more than a year into the pandemic, Canadians are anxious to know if they’ll be able to celebrate Canada Day with friends.

He said there is a chance that limits on gatherings could be lifted by that point, if vaccine supplies keep coming and if COVID-19 virus variants don’t cause the pandemic to surge again.

“I think we are starting to emerge from the darkness,” he told Mansbridge. “But it’s almost like one of those bad movies where as you get close to the end, there’s one last danger and that’s these variants that are coming really hard and heavy and much more transmissible. So we have to hang in there, even though we’re all exhausted.” 

Canada’s vaccine supply depends on global supply chains. Many of Canada’s vaccine shipments are coming from within the European Union, which is threatening to impose vaccine export restrictions that could affect Canada. 

The office of Minister of Small Business Mary Ng told CBC News late Tuesday evening that Canada’s vaccine supply should be safe.

“Minister Ng’s counterparts have assured her that these measures will not affect vaccine shipments to Canada, and our government has been in constant contact with our counterparts in the EU and its member states at all levels of government,” the statement said.

The full interview with Trudeau on The Bridge airs Sirius XM Channel 167 at 1 p.m. ET Wednesday.