Image Credit: CFJC Today

By Chad Klassen

2021 FEDERAL ELECTION

DECISION 2021: Government Spending and Debt

Sep 17, 2021 | 3:43 PM

KAMLOOPS — Government expenditures and fiscal responsibility are always a key talking point during an election. Liberal leader Justin Trudeau has increased government spending since taking office in 2015. In the last four years, the government’s debt has doubled to $1.4 trillion. The final part of our federal election coverage deals with government spending and debt, and if and how the parties plan to balance the budget.

From the time he took over as Prime Minister in 2015, Justin Trudeau has been racking up the national debt — and much of it has naturally been part of his plan to stimulate the economy.

The COVID-19 pandemic aside, when the Liberals and NDP collaborated to implement iniatives such as the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit, or CERB. Pandemic spending has put the country more than $500 million further into debt, according to the last two budget years that saw deficits.

“Most [spending measures] are time-limited. They will ultimately expire. They will see benefits in the continued growth of the economy as we come out of the pandemic with a strong economy because businesses and individuals were supported,” said Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Liberal candidate Jesse McCormick. “Ultimately, we’ve helped to maintain an appropriate debt-to-GDP ratio that will allow us to bring back our finances to where we want them to be.”

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Conservative candidate for the riding Frank Caputo disagrees with the debt-to-GDP ratio. According to Statistics Canada, the country’s gross domestic product dipped 11 per cent from March to April 2020 at the beginning of COVID. It rebound to six per cent growth last June, remaining at zero growth for the last year.

Caputo’s party believes Justin Trudeau spent too frivolously, not only during COVID but throughout his six years as Prime Minister.

“The Prime Minister’s combined debt load is actually higher than every combined Prime Minister from 1867 to 2015. According to the Parliamentary Budget officer, it will take 50 years to balance the budget,” said Caputo. “The Liberals want to continue to spend wrecklessly. The NDP want to continue to spend wrecklessly. All while we need to fund healthcare. The Conservatives are the only party that has a plan to balance the budget in the next 10 years.”

The People’s Party of Canada plans to balance the budget in the next four years.

“We will do that by removing government bailouts to corporations and working on keeping the money in Canada instead of spending it overseas on other things,” said local PPC candidate Corally Delwo. “We’d like to make sure people’s income taxes are cut down, the capital gains [taxes] are reduced. The whole point is to make sure the money is staying in people’s pockets, not going into the government coffers and being frivolously wasted.”

The NDP acknowledge there’s good debt, but also bad debt. The party was a proponent of spending during the pandemic to help the economy weather the COVID storm.

NDP candidate for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo Bill Sundhu promises continued investment into the economy, but eliminating corporate bailouts and having the rich pay their fair share in taxes to reduce the debt load.

“We will bring in fair taxation. We will create a wealth tax that will bring in billions, according to the Parliamentary Budget officer. We’ll bring in an excess profits tax. We’ll close the loopholes and the tax havens, which can bring in billions of dollars. In the last 10 years, just in offshore tax havens, $250 billion have left the country. This has to be taken seriously.”

The Green Party, too, wants to remove subsidies from big oil companies, which it believes will help pay for an expensive transition to a green economy. Local candidate Iain Currie believes while it could worsen the country’s debt in the short term, it will pay off and be more cost-effective in the longer term.