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Canada Sept budget gap jumps on Alberta flood aid

OTTAWA, Nov 29 (Reuters) - The cost of helping Alberta recover from floods in July helped boost the federal budget deficit in September to C$3.84 billion ($3.62 billion) from C$2.23 billion a year earlier, the Finance Department said on Friday.

The government recorded a C$2.8 billion liability for the Alberta disaster assistance, and a C$0.7 billion gain on the sale of 30 million shares of General Motors Co stock which it had acquired as part of a bailout in the recession.

"Absent the impact of these two one-time factors, the deficit for September 2013 would have been C$1.7 billion," the department said in its Fiscal Monitor.

The September figure also marked an increase from August's deficit of C$2.30 billion.

For April to September, the first half of the fiscal year, the deficit grew to C$10.69 billion from C$9.43 billion. Without September's two one-time factors, this would have been C$8.6 billion.