Desjardins deputy chief economist Randall Bartlett published a note on July 16 adding up the federal government’s spending announcements since the spring economic update in April. “All this raises reasonable concerns regarding the transparency of federal spending commitments. Indeed, Canadians likely won’t know until the fall budget what these recent announcements mean for the government of Canada’s bottom line,” he said. Bartlett said he thinks seven of 10 recent announcements likely have funding allotted to them already in recent federal budget documents. He also said there’s nothing inherently wrong with issuing spending announcements between budget updates.