A local MP is calling yesterday's federal budget a cover-up of the SNC-Lavalin scandal.

Cypress Hills-Grasslands MP David Anderson said the 2019/20 fiscal budget released yesterday is the Liberal government trying to buy votes for the October 21 election.

"It's an election year budget, so it's got all kind of goodies throw in," he said. "A big part of it is just meant to cover up the SNC-Lavalin and convince people to look in a different direction, while this government goes on its merry way. We believe they need to be held accountable with what's happened with SNC."

The federal budget is expected to run a deficit of around $19.8 billion for the year, and Anderson wasn't pleased to hear that.

"In terms of deficits I've always disliked them, I don't think we need to be running deficits," he said. "They were handed a surplus in 2015, there was no reason to run a deficit other than they wanted to spend wildly and that's continued."

One of the election promises from the Trudeau government in 2015 was they'd balance the budget by 2019.

The budget also includes help for skills training and education, but Anderson believes the Trudeau government missed the mark there as well.

"On the skills training side they promised a $250 tax credit," he said. "That's pretty small, that's a pretty small incentive for people to go out and get retrained for a new job."