The Liberals tabled their first budget in two years, and it was certainly not worth the wait.
Canada is overdrawn, yet Trudeau presented a deficit of more than $350 billion and $100 billion in new spending this year. This is not stimulus spending focused on creating jobs an attempt to entice Canadians with pork-barrel economics, only to become bound by a new vow to Canadians: ‘til debt do us part.
We must accept fact and ignore the political rhetoric.
By next year, Trudeau will have added more debt than all previous Prime Ministers in Canadian history combined. Let that sink in.
Trudeau’s Liberals are mortgaging our children’s and grandchildren’s future with irresponsible spending and the burden of debt. It resembles more of a costly courtship for his re-election, not a plan for recovery.
We must not forget; this debt belongs to all of us so long as our country remains in political matrimony with the Liberals.
Sending the national debt to $1.5 trillion over the next five years is not the proposal Canadians want right now. They want a plan towards recovery, a plan to re-open our economy and get Canadians back to work.
Canadians are exhausted and mentally drained because of isolation, business closure and financial hardship.
This cannot be the new normal, Canadians need hope this will end.
Instead of a plan for recovery in the budget the Liberals failed to table a clear strategy to end these lockdowns safely and permanently.
They failed to provide vaccines forcing extended restrictions and quarantines.
The budget should have included a clear strategy for the safe and permanent end of lockdowns and hotel quarantines; a role for Alberta energy in Canada’s economic recovery and environmental sustainability; exemption of farm fuels from the carbon tax to support Canadian agriculture; a plan to end unsustainable spending; a viable opioid and mental health strategy; and expansion of access for rural communities for broadband internet.
Even the $30 billion committed to childcare is based on a 50/50 split with the provinces and territories. Provinces, like Alberta, have been decimated by the pandemic and will not have the resources to participate. In addition, it will only be available for government regulated childcare.
In 2006 the Conservative government introduced the Universal Child Care Benefit because parents know better than bureaucrats what is best for their families. Canadian families do not need an Ottawa-knows-best, one-size-fits-all childcare system.
The Liberals have promised a national childcare plan for decades and have never followed through. Without support from the provinces and territories this will be another broken promise by the Liberal government.
The Liberals botched the Canada Student Service Grant program as it was enveloped in scandal and backroom deals with the WE Charity. They failed on CEBA by disqualifying small businesses who needed the loan most because of unnecessary regulatory requirements.
The Auditor General released its ‘pandemic preparedness’ report and found failures in early warning, surveillance, risk assessments, data-sharing with the provinces, and follow-up on Canadian travelers who were ordered into quarantine. Another failed Liberal program.
Trudeau’s Liberals have failed in procuring and distributing vaccines, rapid and home- based tests. The Liberal government has been in competent on almost every front and Canadians are suffering.
Canada was presented with a 700-page document of a Liberal ‘opportunities’ budget with no fiscal anchors or plan to dig Canada out of this fiscal abyss. These Liberal opportunities will add $330 billion to our national debt over the next five years which will cost $40 billion annually just to service the new Liberal debt.
Canadians wanted a plan to re-open our businesses, get Canadians back to work and rebuild our economy. Instead the Liberals have surpassed $1.4 trillion in debt and now each and every Canadian is saddled with $33,000 in their share of the national debt.
Canada’s Conservatives successfully navigated our country through the last global recession and Canadians know we can do so again.
John.Barlow@parl.gc.ca
403-603-3665
