Budget 2024: More Spending, More Debt, More Inflation, More Taxes
NDP-Liberal MPs increase the deficit to $40 billion, episode 2 of Debtonation, parliamentary hearing, podcast appearance, and tabling petitions.
Canada’s economic outlook is grim. High-interest rates are punishing families, the housing market is squeezing out potential first-time home buyers, and we are outpacing our G7 partners in household debt. On top of that, our labour productivity has steadily declined in the past few years due to low innovation and investments.
The NDP-Liberal government had a chance this week to correct course in its annual budget announcement and give relief to Canadians by cutting taxes as well as reducing wasteful spending. Unfortunately, to no surprise, the Liberals appeased their NDP coalition partners and continue to put Canadians under more financial stress with their high-debt, high-spend policies.
Budget 2024
On Tuesday, the NDP-Liberal government announced they will record $40 billion to Canada’s deficit in the 2024-2025 fiscal year. That’s $10 billion more than originally forecast. The overall debt the government owes is $1.2 trillion. When Prime Minister Trudeau was running in 2015, he promised that Canada would run a “modest” deficit of $10 billion before returning to balanced budgets by 2019. That promise has been clearly broken, as the deficit is four times more than the originally projected figure. There is no fiscal table showing a return to balanced budgets in the future.
The government will spend $480 billion in the next year, with $54 billion set aside to service the national debt—more than what the government sends to provinces for health care. As of now, all revenue collected through the GST will go toward servicing the national debt. Also, total government spending will now count 16.6 percent of GDP, the highest ratio since the year 2000.
The Liberal finance minister stated that the wealthy would pay for the new spending, but this is the same talking point the Liberals have been making for nine years. What has happened since 2015 is every day Canadians such as single parents, workers, and small business owners have been the ones paying for the government’s spending. Now, they will be punished more with new inflationary spending after being hit with a 23 percent increase to the carbon tax on April 1st.
The NDP-Liberals were warned not only by us Conservatives that they were pressing on the inflationary gas pedal with their spending, which is forcing up interest rates, but also by the Bank of Canada and former Liberal finance minister John Manley. The NDP-Liberals even received criticism from Trudeau’s former finance minister, Bill Morneau, who stated, “There wasn't enough done to reduce spending,” following the release of the budget.
The government should have listened to the suggestion I made in Parliament last week by introducing the ‘dollar for dollar’ rule: For every new dollar spent, the government would have to find a way to save a dollar. This proposal would help put us on a track toward fiscal responsibility while simultaneously driving down interest rates. Instead, NDP-Liberals declined to listen and will have to face voters in an election on why they increased the cost of living through their inflationary spending.
Debtonation: Episode 2
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre released the second part in his Debtonation series, a follow-up to the first documentary episode that explained how Canada’s economy is more indebted than many other country before they went into crippling debt crises.
In the second episode, Poilievre explains that Canada’s current total debt owed by all Canadians (households, governments, and corporations) is $10.2 trillion while our total GDP is $2.1 trillion. This means that over the past eight years, Canada’s total debt has grown twice as fast as the incomes we use to pay those debts. If the status quo continues, our growing total debt will lead Canada into an economic crisis that will set younger Canadian generations back decades.
The Liberals cannot blame Covid for our current debt crisis as they have run larger deficits every single year since promising to balance Canada’s budget by 2019, as previously mentioned.
If we had a common-sense government that spends within its means and reduces taxes on families and working Canadians; we could see an economy that leaves everyone prospering and allows you to get ahead.
Parliamentary Hearing: Arrive Scam Questioning
A historic event occurred in Parliament on Wednesday when GC Strategies founder Kristian Firth was summoned to appear ‘before the bar’ and faced questions from MPs for his role in the ArriveCAN scandal. This was the first time a private citizen had been summoned to face questions from MPs since 1913. This is thanks to a conservative motion passed by Parliament to force testimony after he attempted to mislead the government operations parliamentary committee.
Firth’s firm, GC Strategies, received $19 million from the Liberals for the development of ArriveCAN, the Covid-era border app, which ended up costing taxpayers approximately $60 million when it was originally budgeted for $80,000.
According to an Auditor General’s report, Firth’s firm received a non-competitive contract from the Liberals despite there being no record of a request or even a proposal. Later, GC Strategies was allowed to create the requirements for a competitive contract.
During his appearance, Firth revealed that GC Strategies had countless meetings with senior government officials outside government offices, at bars, steakhouses and cafes. He admitted to discussing contracts and their value and amending them outside government offices.
Firth was brought ‘before the bar’ to be admonished by the Speaker of the House and face questions from parliamentarians after he withheld answers during a committee appearance last month.
The Liberals and senior government officials should also face questions and reveal the truth about their role in allowing the cost of the ArriveCAN app to skyrocket and their roles in the subsequent cover-up. The overreliance on outside firms, such as GC Strategies, was determined to be one of the factors that allowed the app’s cost to balloon, according to the auditor general. Senior government officials have also been credibly accused of deleting thousands of emails that would have revealed the details of these shady dealings. It is unacceptable that the Liberal government does not seem interested and has even delayed efforts to uncover the truth of this scandal.
Podcast Appearance
On Thursday, I recorded a podcast with conservative MP Pierre Paul-Hus, who hosts La Zone Bleue. We discussed my life before politics, how I got into politics, my duties as the MP for Calgary Shepard, and my role as the Conservative Shadow Minister for Immigration, Refugees, and Citizenship as well as my work as vice-chair of the Canada-People’s Republic of China parliamentary committee. We also talked about the riding of Calgary Shepard, my family, and activities I do outside of politics. It’s part of the effort of common sense conservatives to reach new voters and show them the people behind the names they see online or on television.
Tabling Your Petitions
I was proud to table two petitions from Calgary Shepard constituents in Parliament this past week.
The first petition I tabled would call on the Government of Canada to add the Russian Federation to the list of foreign states that sponsor terrorism as well as amend the State Immunity Act.
The second petition I tabled would call on the Government of Canada to recognize that Co-op compostable green bags do not constitute single-use plastic bags and are, therefore, worthy of an exemption to the nationwide ban on single-use plastics. As a Co-op shopper and member, this is an issue near and dear to my heart and shopping habits.
If you are interested in having me present a petition in Parliament, please click on the button below for further information.