Archived - 2016 Pre-Budget Consultations Achieve Highest-Ever Turn Out

In a speech to the Surrey Board of Trade today, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced that tens of thousands of Canadians have engaged and shared their thoughts through meetings, events and through online channels – the highest-ever turnout for pre-budget consultations on record.

Today’s speech concluded the Minister’s portion of a cross-Canada pre-budget consultation tour to solicit Canadians’ views on how best to support the middle class, grow the economy, and create long-term prosperity for all Canadians.

The Minister’s tour, titled “Growing our Economy Together” included upwards of 19 roundtables, meetings, chats and panels, in Halifax, Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Calgary, Vancouver and Surrey.

Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister of Finance François-Philippe Champagne is also hosting a series of pre-budget consultations across Canada. His tour will end in Yellowknife on January 17.

In all, 14 cities were part of the official tours, and Members of Parliament from across Canada also held pre-budget consultations within their communities in an effort to engage Canadians in the lead-up to Budget 2016.

In addition, Canadians have been actively participating through various digital channels. Launched on January 6, 2016, the online consultation website has already received 2,000 official submissions from individuals and groups, including a single-day boost of over 500 submissions on January 14 alone.

A Google Hangout and two separate Facebook Live chats with various Canadian universities drew in tens of thousands of Canadians who tuned in live to hear the Minister respond to questions.

Canadians are encouraged to continue this dialogue by sending their comments and ideas via the website http://www.budget.gc.ca/pbc16/, or comment via Twitter using #PBC16. These channels will remain open to Canadians in the coming weeks.