Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said the federal government will run deficits until at least 2015 -- two years longer than originally forecast.
He said it will be a tough road to getting Canada black in the black, but added the Conservatives will not raises taxes or cut transfer payments to the provinces.
Flaherty also said Thursday afternoon that the deficit for 2009 will be over $5 billion more than originally thought -- moving up to a projected $55.9 billion, from $50.2 billion.
While Canada is showing signs of a fragile economic recovery, returning to balanced budgets won't be easy, he told an audience in Victoria, B.C.
"It will require decisions of government that won't always be popular or pain-free," he said in a prepared speech. "It will require a lot of saying 'no' to pet projects and special interests."
The Conservatives laid out their last blueprint to balance the budget in January. Under that plan, they pledged to eliminate the deficit within five years.
But the Canadian economy shrank at an annualized rate of 6.1 per cent during the first quarter of 2009, its largest contraction in decades. That made a five-year timeline to eliminate the deficit look less feasible.
Ottawa's deficit is expected to be down to $5.2 billion for the fiscal year 2014-2015.
Flaherty also called the Liberal party's push for an election bad timing as we continue to operate in an uncertain economy.
"Now is not the time to put economic recovery at risk with political opportunism. This is not the time to create instability out of narrow, partisan self-interest," he said.
"This is not the time to play political games."
Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff said the latest numbers are yet another example of the Conservatives misstating the facts.
"Mr. Flaherty has a credibility problem," said Ignatieff on Thursday, adding that one year ago, the Tories were predicting a small federal surplus.
But that number swelled to $32 billion and again to $50 billion as the government responding to the growing economic crisis last fall.
Still, Ignatieff predicted that Flaherty will again revise his predictions.
In reference to Flaherty's statement that the deficit will be eliminated in 2015, Ignatieff offered a simple rebuttal: "If pigs can fly."
Meanwhile, NDP MP Thomas Mulcair said that the Conservatives have betrayed their own principles by overspending.
"We now have a structural deficit in Canada," he told CTV'S Power Play, adding that the Tories have created "the highest deficit in Canadian history."
