GOLDSTEIN: Parliamentary budget officer blasts reckless Trudeau government spending
Re-electing the Liberals in the looming federal election would be a financial disaster for federal taxpayers
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In what may well be the last independent and objective assessment of Trudeau government spending before it becomes a part of history, parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux has eviscerated the Liberals’ fall economic statement delivered last month.
The statement received relatively little coverage at the time because it was overshadowed by Chrystia Freeland refusing to deliver it and quitting cabinet, after Prime Minister Justin Trudeau told her he was removing her as finance minister.
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Giroux this week released his report to parliament assessing the economic statement, which is standard practice, and a reasonable message to take from it – my words, not the PBO’s – is that re-electing the Liberals in the looming federal election and keeping them in charge of the books would be a financial disaster for federal taxpayers.
Among Giroux’s findings:
The Liberals overshot their predicted deficit of $40.1 billion for the 2023-24 fiscal year – which Freeland had described as a necessary fiscal guard rail to rein in spending when she set it – by 54%, coming in at $61.9 billion.
Government revenues were $1.4 billion lower (0.3%) and program expenses $13.9 billion higher (3.1%) than the Trudeau government estimated for 2023-24.
Giroux found the government’s economic scenarios downplayed potential economic risks facing taxpayers in light of uncertain and volatile global events.
He said the demographic assumptions underpinning the fall economic statement weren’t transparent and were likely inconsistent with current government policies.
For example, Giroux wrote, the “positive impacts of (its) new immigration policies are highlighted … while none of the negative impacts are mentioned.”
He also warned that expenses for contingent liabilities the government faces, largely to resolve potential payments for Indigenous claims, “continue to grow and are an increasing source of fiscal risk.”
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In an earlier report in July, Giroux estimated those liabilities at $76 billion as of March 31, 2023, noting that starting in 2016, the year after the Trudeau government was elected, “the stock of outstanding contingent liabilities has grown, on average, by roughly 30% annually.”
Based on those numbers, Giroux wrote in his latest report, “there is a clear and pressing need for additional transparency in the government process for estimating contingent liabilities as well as to reconcile settlements of these claims with provisions previously booked.”
Finally, Giroux warned, the Trudeau government’s “ability (or willingness) to produce high-quality, timely financial statements continues to deteriorate.”
He said the government reached “a new low” this year by not releasing its public accounts until almost nine months after the fiscal year closed and “even worse, the audited financial statements were inexplicably tabled the day after the fall economic statement, rather than prior to, or alongside, the government’s economic and fiscal plan.
“As noted ad nauseam by the PBO, the timely publication of the public accounts is crucial for transparency and accountability in government finances.”
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Given these chronic delays, Giroux recommended moving the publication date for the public accounts ahead to Sept. 30 every year, as opposed to as late as Dec. 31.
Given that the best indicator of future performance is past practice – and that the Trudeau government has failed to address these concerns after almost a decade in power – it’s reasonable to conclude a new Liberal government will simply continue these reckless fiscal practices.
Shoddy bookkeeping, manipulation of data and long-delayed reporting of the government’s public accounts can also contribute to wasteful and reckless government spending and to the potential for political corruption in how taxpayers’ money is being spent.
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