Canada's taxpayers can expect a big bill to settle.
The budget released on Tuesday, Nov. 4, and passed by a two-vote margin on Nov. 17, revealed a nearly $80 billion deficit after Prime Minister Mark Carney promised it would not go over $62 billion, seven months ago.
This is twice as high as we would have seen in the fall economic statement that Chrystia Freeland tabled last December.
The growth is half of what was projected nine to ten months ago.
Carney’s budget plans to cut 10 per cent of civil service jobs by 2028, which means the government is planning to lay off 40,000 Canadians by that time.
This is so Carney can use that money to put towards his planned capital investments, totalling up to $280 billion.
Ian Lee, Prof. at Sprott School of Business at Carelton University said this $80 billion deficit means that the government will go to bond markets and borrow money from pension funds such as our schools itself.
"So that deficit, every year, is added to the accumulated national debt from the very beginning of the country," Lee said.
This will include $115 billion towards infrastructure, $110 billion to productivity and competition, $30 billion to defence, which they plan on expanding to $80 to $90 billion over the course of the next five years and $25 billion in home building.
Like, what are we preparing for, war against the U.S.?
We have not seen this much investment in the defence sector since the 2005 Defence Policy Statement and the 2008 Canada First Defence Strategy where defence spending increased by 35 per cent between 2005 to 2011, according to Canadian Global Affairs Institute.
However, Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development states that Canada's macroeconomic framework is robust, supported by strong public finances with a well-capitalized banking sector.
It does also highlight that high household mortgage debts remain another vulnerability, and high debt service costs weigh on household finances.
Cutting this large number of government jobs can make people lose faith in the government; these are Canadian jobs.
Mark Carney promised in April that he would bring down the cost of living, inflation, groceries and help Canadians live better.
I fail to understand how that is possible when every number that was put forward in the budget today shows that Canadian spending is going to go up.
Lee said deficits and debts are things that can get countries into deep trouble and there is massive evidence of this.
"U.S. is unique for several reasons. One is, that it's a superpower. It has the largest GDP so it has the largest levels of productivity which is measured by Income per person per year. $89,000 a year is the average income in the U.S. and what, Canada's 60?
Canadians are going to get an even bigger tax cut out of their paychecks, and you would think it is going towards doctors and nurses and front-line workers, but instead it is going to bankers and bond-owners.
There are 10,000 civil servants laid off just this year by our Liberal government.
There are 10,000 families striving to put food on the table today because the government decided it wants to put money into our defence system. Is this the sacrifice Mark Carney was referring to earlier?
You would think the gruesomeness stops here, but no, they plan on cutting temporary residents by half.
Canadian Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne said in the House of Commons that he is doing this with the vision of putting Canadians first.
This is after temporary residents in Canada have invested thousands of dollars in its economy, in its education system, in the development of the country and even in charities.
Statistics Canada’s 2022 report states just how much they contributed to Canada's economy.
“More immigrants are now working in Canada than before the pandemic, and, from 2016 to 2021, immigration contributed to 79.9% of the growth in Canada's labour force,” it said.
Immigrants make up at least a quarter of Canada’s population, and the government is trying to run them down to five per cent by next year.
This can only be accomplished by mass deportation or opening Permanent Resident pathways, but we have yet to see it.
Champagne’s “Eurovision” aims at seeking trade relationships from Europe and Asia, reducing its reliance on the U.S.
Now, expanding trade opportunities, though clever, might also result in U.S.-Canada trade relations falling completely.
This would impact Canadians if the job market shifts, therefore projecting an even bigger number of layoffs.
In the coming few months, we should be able to see the credibility of this budget.
