Thank you very much for the question. I think it's an important question that Canadians want to understand. For us, one of the important commitments we made to Canadians is that we would be open and transparent to help them understand our fiscal situation.
It's for exactly that reason that only 16 days after being appointed as Minister of Finance, I came out with an economic and fiscal update for Canadians to give them a sense of the finances of the country, based on our ability to take a close look at those finances. In that update, as you heard in November, we found that we were left with a budget deficit, and we found moreover that the projections for growth were less optimistic than had been foreseen in budget 2015. That was our initial understanding. It was one that we wanted to get out quickly, as I said.
Since that economic and fiscal update, as we've all witnessed, the price of oil has changed significantly. In that November update, the private sector economists gave us an estimate of US$50 oil, which was their planning projection for 2016, and they gave us a projection of 2% real growth in the economy in 2016. I felt it was important that we took a look at those numbers in advance of budget 2016 to make sure we had the appropriate base from which we could plan.
When we went back to the private sector economists, we found that the economy had changed significantly. We now have a planning assumption for oil at US$40 for 2016, and a planning assumption for growth of 1.4% in 2016. Both of those numbers are obviously significant for the economy and drive a significant change in our assumptions.
We additionally took a look at the historical approach to setting objectives, setting assumptions, and we concluded, based on what we had seen over the last number of years, that it was prudent to take an adjustment for risk. While we're currently using a planning assumption of $40—as you'll know the current price of oil is in the low thirties, and we are now almost into March—we believe that is a prudent base from which we can start. For your constituents and for Canadians across the country, we have an open and transparent approach to saying where we are and an understanding of the starting point from which we can build plans to grow the Canadian economy for Canadians, for the middle class, and for those most vulnerable.