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By Mel Rothenburger

Armchair Mayor

ROTHENBURGER: New cabinet must start dealing with our exploding debt

Oct 27, 2021 | 4:28 AM

A BRAND NEW FEDERAL CABINET was sworn in Tuesday in Ottawa, and it includes some big changes as well as some same-old same-old.

Harjit Sajjan, for example, is out as defence minister and Marc Garneau, the former foreign affairs minister, is out of cabinet entirely. So are a couple of others.

But Chrystia Freeland continues as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.

B.C. remains well represented, with Sajjan, Carla Qualtrough, Joyce Murray and Jonathan Wilkinson at the table.

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau retained gender parity, appointing 19 men and 19 women. The female members represent a wide variety of experience and expertise. Freeland,

Murray, Melanie Joly, Anita Anand and others are solid choices. Others must still prove themselves. Pascale St. Onge, for example, has been an MP for only a month and, as of yesterday, is the minister for Sport.

And then there’s Marci Ien, who left a vapid CTV chat show called The Social to run in a by-election only a year ago. She’s suddenly the Minister for Women and Gender Equality and Youth.

Job One for this new cabinet is pretty obvious — get us through the pandemic. But there’s an equally important challenge, and that’s how to deal with the exploding deficit and debt resulting from all the spending on pandemic-relief programs.

The debt is now measured in trillions instead of billions, and the per capita debt is measured in tens of thousands. Each hour, several millions more are added, and Trudeau isn’t finished yet. Another $100 billion in spending is planned over the next three years or so.

Close to the top of the agenda are measures to combat racism and promote reconciliation, and they won’t come cheap. Then, of course, there’s climate change.

At some point, the spending has to be reined in. We’ll see if this cabinet is the one that can do it.

I’m Mel Rothenburger, the Armchair Mayor.

Mel Rothenburger is a former mayor of Kamloops and a retired newspaper editor. He is a regular contributor to CFJC Today, publishes the ArmchairMayor.ca opinion website, and is a director on the Thompson-Nicola Regional District board. He can be reached at mrothenburger@armchairmayor.ca.

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Editor’s Note: This opinion piece reflects the views of its author, and does not necessarily represent the views of CFJC Today or Pattison Media.