(Adds comments from Morneau, context on PBO report)
By David Ljunggren
OTTAWA, Nov 10 (Reuters) - Canada's Finance Minister Bill
Morneau said on Tuesday he intends to deliver an economic and
fiscal update before the end of the year, though he did not yet
have an exact date.
Morneau said it was not really a surprise that a report
released by the country's parliamentary budget watchdog earlier
on Tuesday had been somewhat more pessimistic than its previous
one, although he said it does not form part of the government's
formal analysis.
The office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) said
Canada was set to run bigger deficits in coming years, even
excluding fresh spending pledged by the new Liberal government.
The PBO also downgraded its economic growth forecasts.
The Liberals, who ousted the previous Conservative
government in last month's federal election, plan to run three
years of deficits to invest in infrastructure spending to boost
the economy. Morneau said the PBO report reinforced the need for
the Liberals' plans.
"We were, and continue to be concerned with the state of the
economy," Morneau told reporters.
"We will be bringing forth an economic and fiscal update
over the course of the near term," said Morneau, who was
appointed finance minister last week. "It is our intent to do
something in that regard in this calendar year."
Pressed for a more exact date, Morneau said it would not be
in the next few days, partly because he will be attending the
Group of 20 summit in Turkey, but he expects it will be before
Christmas.
Morneau said potential federal government aid to plane-maker
Bombardier BBDb.TO had not yet been discussed by the cabinet,
"but I know this will be a topic we will be considering."
Asked about Quebec's announced $1 billion investment in the
company, Morneau said, "I think that's up to the Quebec
government. So I will leave them to make the decisions on what
they should do in Quebec and we'll have to consider what is
right for Canadians and Canada."
(Writing by Leah Schnurr; Editing by James Dalgleish and Alan
Crosby)