Trudeau has thrown sound economic policy out the window

Justin Trudeau said the budget would balance itself. Recently, Finance Minister Bill Mourneau admitted that isn’t true.

In his Fall Economic Statement, the Finance Minister confirmed that the Liberals are borrowing $18 billion this year, and almost $20 billion next year, to pay for out-of-control Liberal spending. This year’s deficit is more than three times what Justin Trudeau said it would be, and he has added $60 billion in debt. He has no plan to balance the budget.

In just three years, Justin Trudeau has racked up billions of dollars of debt with nothing to show for it. A responsible government would have paid down the debt in order to respond a future national economic downturn. Instead, Justin Trudeau chose to spend like a drunken sailor and is now forcing Canadians to pay for his out-of-control spending through both tax increases and his new carbon tax.

What does this all mean? As a result of Justin Trudeau’s reckless borrowing, Liberals spent $23 billion in 2017 servicing the national debt. By 2023, the Parliamentary Budget Officer says that amount will rise to $37 billion - a 60% increase. To put that in perspective, the Liberals will be spending more on debt interest than what the federal government spends on health transfers.

More debt today means higher taxes tomorrow. In 2017, Canada's net debt reached an all-time high of $670 billion or $47,612 per Canadian family.

As a result of Justin Trudeau’s reckless spending, the average Canadian family is now paying $800 more income tax than when Trudeau took office. This increase does not include Trudeau’s new carbon tax or his new payroll taxes. In other words, it is only going to get worse.

Trudeau’s never-ending tax hikes and new regulations are making it harder to grow and operate local businesses. His job-killing carbon tax, increased CPP and EI premiums, increased personal income tax rates for entrepreneurs, and changes to the small business tax rate are making it harder for the 150,000 small businesses enterprises in our province to compete. Saskatchewan small businesses employ 31% of our province’s workers, and pay out over $6.2 billion annually in wages and salaries. Trudeau’s policies are putting these jobs at risk.

Instead of keeping Canada in a strong financial position to address future economic downturns as the previous Conservative Government did during the Great Recession, Trudeau has instead decided to employ the failed policies of his father in the 1970s. Such policies brought on stagflation – an economic condition defined by slow economic growth and high inflation. This in turn led to high interest rates to fight inflation, high unemployment rates and recession.

The economic disaster of the 1970s forced governments to get their fiscal houses in order. From 1984 to 2015, governments worked toward the principal of balanced budgets in order to possess the tools to address future economic downturns.

In 2015, the former Conservative Government left our country with a budgetary surplus. Since then, Trudeau has decided to throw sound economic policy out the window in favour of spending our cupboards dry.

Rest assured a Conservative government in 2019 will stop Trudeau’s raid on future generations, eliminate Justin Trudeau’s deficits, and get Canada’s fiscal house back into balance.