It’s official: The Trudeau Liberals have zero interest in ever balancing a budget via fpcomment
On Tuesday, the federal Liberals released their fourth and last budget before facing the electorate this fall. While there are many competing analyses on aspects of the budget, one thing is certain: The Liberals have no plan to balance the budget.
Consider this. The Harper government’s final budget called for program spending in 2015–16 of $263.2 billion. In the spring of 2016, the newly elected Liberal government announced a 10.7-per-cent increase in spending for fiscal year 2016–17, to $291.4 billion . This resulted in one of the highest levels of per person spending in Canadian history, outside of a recession or major war. It also meant moving from an essentially balanced budget for 2015–16 to an expected deficit of almost $30.
However, perhaps the most telling evidence of the federal government’s proclivity for spending occurred last year. In the spring budget, Ottawa announced spending for 2018–19 totalling $312.2 billion. By the fall when the government delivered its economic update, it discovered higher than anticipated revenues and spent an additional $8 billion.
The price of this additional spending is double-digit deficits, despite the 2015 Liberal campaign promise that deficits would be temporary and the budget would be balanced this year. This government’s record clearly shows its interest in spending as much as possible.
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