Contingency fund can be used to balance the books if necessary: Oliver

WATCH: Tom Clark tries to get to the bottom of what the contingency fund will be used for.

Canada’s Finance Minister, Joe Oliver, appears to be correcting the record on whether the contingency fund is in play to help balance the budget.

Last week on The West Block, Jason Kenny told Tom Clark, “We won’t be using a contingency fund. A contingency fund is there for unforeseen circumstances like natural disasters.”

Instead, he said there may have to be some adjustments on the spending side in the future.

During an interview with Tom Clark for this week’s episode of The West Block, Oliver told a different story.

“The contingency fund is there for unexpected and unavoidable shocks to the system and, you know, the oil price decline – which was a dramatic one – would fall in that category,” he said.

Though, he said that doesn’t mean they will use it they are just not ruling it out.

At the same time he made a point of reminding everybody who handles the books.

“I’m speaking as minister of finance so I’m sort of current on the thinking here,” Oliver told Clark.

You can catch the entire interview with Joe Oliver on The West Block this Sunday.