CDN NEWS | 
US NEWS 
By Jake Fuss
Last week, Prime Minister Carney delivered a lengthy speech spelling out his economic and fiscal strategy in advance of his government’s federal budget scheduled for Nov. 4. In front of an audience of university students, the prime minister made his pitch for “swinging for the fences” and “playing to win” through more government involvement in the economy and “generational investments” financed by large deficits.
Carney spoke about the importance of having the fastest economic growth in the G7, making difficult choices and sacrifices to transform the Canadian economy, and eliminating wasteful spending to achieve more efficiency in government. At first glance the rhetoric behind the speech represents an improvement from that of his predecessor, but after digging deeper into the details, those hoping for a bold new strategy will be disappointed. Carney’s plan is Justin Trudeau 2.0.
To recap, Trudeau broke records for per-person spending year after year, ran deficits every year in office, raised taxes on families, put up regulatory barriers to prevent energy projects including pipelines and launched new massive housing programs.
The results? Living standards, as measured by per-person GDP, were lower as of July this year than they were six years ago. In contrast, during roughly that same time period, per-person GDP in the United States grew by 11.0 per cent. Private-sector job creation was also weak during Trudeau’s tenure and workers in every province now earn less than Americans in every U.S. state.
And yet, rather than move in a different direction, reduce regulations, meaningfully reduce taxes and reduce government’s role in the economy, last week Carney signalled he will double down on the Trudeau status quo. His government will become a housing developer, use new powers (it’s bestowed upon itself) to greenlight energy projects based on its own preferences, maintain misguided costly climate policies, keep taxes high, increase government spending and rack up substantial debt in the process. Sound familiar?
While Carney pledged to balance the operating budget in three years and eliminate wasteful spending, according to both the Liberal Party platform and independent analysts, federal spending and borrowing will increase compared to Trudeau’s last fiscal plan in December. The fact Carney attempted to sell this strategy to an audience of university students is especially ironic considering young Canadians will bear the burden of the additional debt through higher taxes, fewer services or some combination of both in the future. That’s the opposite of “generational investments.”
If the government wants to help foster true prosperity for Canadians, it should learn from the Chrétien Liberal government, which meaningfully reduced taxes, cut government spending and balanced budgets. These reforms allowed Canadians to enjoy rising incomes, strong job creation and a prolonged period of robust business investment and widespread prosperity.
Prime Minister Carney seems poised to continue the economic and fiscal approach of Justin Trudeau, which produced a lost decade for Canadians. Carney’s strategy will likely deliver strikeouts, not homeruns, and the consequences will be felt most by younger Canadians.
Share This:
