The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is criticizing the federal government’s spending as the fiscal update shows Ottawa is over budget throughout government.
“Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is somehow managing to go over budget with her spending,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director with the CTF. “Increased tax revenues shrunk the deficit a little, but the government didn’t help because spending is up across the board.”
The fiscal update shows the deficit this year will be $144.5 billion. The debt will reach $1.2 trillion by the end of this fiscal year.
Debt interest charges will cost taxpayers $197 billion between 2021 and 2027. If interest costs increase by one point, the annual deficit will go up by about $5 billion, according to University of Calgary economist Jack Mintz.
“Years of borrowing means taxpayers will lose out on nearly $200 billion by 2027 just to pay for interest charges on Canada’s debt,” said Terrazzano. “That’s money we can’t use to hire more nurses or lower taxes because it’s going to bond fund managers to service the government’s debt.”
The fiscal update projects the government will outspend its 2021 budget year by $7.1 billion. The budget projected spending to be $497.6 billion this year. The fiscal update projects spending to be $504.7 billion.
Even before the pandemic, the federal government increased its per-person spending to all-time highs in 2018.
“The cost of living is soaring and Canadians should be worried about how the government is going to pay for its unprecedented spending and hundreds of billions of dollars in new debt,” said Terrazzano. “The feds need to stop dishing out cash we don’t have and pouring fuel on the inflation fire. Freeland needs to hit the brakes on this government’s runaway spending train.”
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