Canada stimulus budget pledges funding for childcare and Covid-19 relief

• Finance minister Chrystia Freeland seeks to slash deficit by 2025
• This budget is about finishing the fight against Covid'

Canada's federal government has put childcare and Covid-19 relief at the heart of the country's first pandemic budget, as the governing Liberals announced massive spending plans in an attempt to address growing inequality - and avert a snap election.

Delivering her government's first budget in more than two years, the finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, on Monday framed the ambitious spending programme as both necessary to combat the disastrous economic wounds" of the coronavirus pandemic and an opportunity to build a more equitable society.