Budget 2023 offers billions for dental care, plus spending cuts and tax hikes to tame deficit [Video]

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland tabled a federal budget Tuesday projecting a deficit about $10 billion higher than initially forecast — an increase driven by a worsening economy and new spending on initiatives like a national dental care program.

Freeland’s fiscal plan projects the deficit will be $40.1 billion in 2023-24 — up from the $30.6 billion she said it would be just last fall.

Freeland’s relatively brief 250-page budget is being pitched as a focused plan to address inflation — there will another one-time GST rebate for low-income Canadians — and to position the economy for the future through multi-billion-dollar tax credits to stimulate the clean energy sector.

A faltering economy means Ottawa will collect $5.7 billion less in revenue this fiscal year than it initially projected — a development that blows a big …