Ontario's budget watchdog says the Liberal government will fall short of its promise to get the province out of the red by 2017-18.
The Financial Accountability Office is predicting in its latest economic outlook that Ontario will still have a 2.6-billion dollar deficit in fiscal 2017 -- and the deficit will rise to 3.7-billion dollars by fiscal 2020.
The office's spring outlook had predicted a smaller deficit of 600-million dollars next fiscal year but there have been a number of changes since then, including a new accounting treatment for government pension plans that added $1.5 billion to the deficit this past fiscal year.
It says in its report that if the government wants to balance the budget, it will either have to raise revenue or cut expenses.