The Canadian Press

The federal government is willing to abandon its five-year timeline to balance the budget, with the country’s finance minister indicating it could be delayed, or accelerated, depending on economic conditions.

Ottawa has projected balanced books by 2015. But as Flaherty kicks off this year’s pre-budget consultations, he says one of the key questions he will be asking is whether the current plan is realistic.

“Should we balance the budget sooner than the present plan — which is 2015-16?” he said. “Should the timeline be delayed until later on?”

Opposition critics said they spotted a trial balloon from a finance minister preparing to break a promise.

They noted that Flaherty had previously appeared set on the 2015 target — but never provided details on how it would be met.

Given the mixed economic news of late, they said Flaherty was likely laying the groundwork for an extension of the deficit.

“He’s been erratic and incompetent and has failed to meet any deficit target he has set,” said Liberal finance critic Scott Brison.

Flaherty was in Montreal Friday for the second in a series of meetings to gather input for next year’s federal budget, which could emerge as a key test of the government’s stewardship of the economy.

The budget consultations come as new jobless figures released on both sides of the border Friday suggested the global economic recovery remained weak.

Statistics Canada announced that Canada’s jobless rate fell to 7.6% last month, the lowest it’s been in two years.

But that was attributed to young people dropping out of the labour market, while the net gain in jobs was due entirely to part-time employment.

Even weaker numbers in the U.S., meanwhile, stunned analysts as that country posted a rise in unemployment to 9.8%.

Flaherty said that, given the continued uncertainty, any change to the government’s deficit-reduction plan must be weighed against the modest economic growth Canada has achieved in recent quarters.

After his statement, Flaherty was asked at a news conference about the possibility of delaying a balanced budget. He chose to focus his answer instead on the other possibility — of speeding up the timeline.

“We’re open to that and we’re listening,” he said. “To do that would require some measures and some increasing restraint on spending, so we have to look at that carefully.”

His political opponents are skeptical about the deficit disappearing sooner, rather than later.

They predict the government will duck making the tough decisions needed to bring Ottawa back into the black — such as tax hikes — until after an election.

“He has never said how he’s going to balance the budget by 2015,” Bloc Quebecois MP Pierre Paquette told reporters in Ottawa.

“In that sense, it’s pretty clear that he’s setting the stage for the next budget.”

Flaherty did drop fairly obvious hints that Canadians shouldn’t expect any expensive items in the next budget.

“Canadians and their families are concerned about the economy,” he said. “They want us to get back to a balanced budget.

“That means we have to exercise restraint in spending, and we will.”

The NDP fears the government could do serious damage to the fragile recovery by turning off the spending taps too abruptly.

“This government now — we are going to see this in the next budget — is going to cut back on the public sector,” the NDP’s Joe Comartin said in Ottawa.

“We are going to see some really high unemployment levels in the new year if they go ahead with that kind of a fiscal plan.”