GUNTER: Carney government continues Liberals' contempt for democratic unaccountability

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During the recent federal election campaign, Prime Minister Mark Carney and his ministers authorized nearly $70 billion in federal spending without Parliamentary authorization. Given that the campaign was 37 days long, a man who had no seat in the Commons at the time and who had never received a vote from a single Canadian voter, authorized an average of $1.9 billion a day.

That total — $70 billion — exceeds the amount authorized by any other government during any other election in our history.

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For comparison, on a typical day the federal government lays out about $1.5 billion, meaning the Liberals authorized spending of $400 million a day above and beyond the normal amount of Ottawa spending without subjecting a single dime of it to Parliamentary scrutiny.

It’s outrageous.

And now Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne has said the annual federal budget will be at least six months late.

The typical federal budget is released between late March and mid-April each spring. The most recent budget was brought down on April 16, 2024. If Canadians have to wait until November or December for the next budget, the gap will have been 19 or 20 months — nearly two years.

But that’s not unusual for this group of Liberals (and it goes to show how little has changed between the Trudeau and Carney governments). Between March 2019 and April 2021, the Trudeau Liberals went 25 months without a budget.

I guess I really shouldn’t be so twisted about the current delay. Yes, it betrays a contempt for government accountability. And for the supremacy of Parliament over of the cabinet.

But the Liberals seldom pay any real attention to what they put in their budgets, anyway. For instance, in the previous fiscal year, then-finance minister Chrystia Freeland projected a deficit of just over $40 billion. Last December, Freeland quit before having to admit the deficit was actually $62 billion.

Every year, the Liberals have blown through their spending projections and run up deficits bigger (sometimes far bigger) then they had forecast in their budgets.

Their spending has always been out of control. And I imagine it still is, which is one of the reasons we won’t be seeing a budget anytime soon. The Carney government has a lot to sweep under the carpet before it can allow Canadians to see the mess that has been made.

Remember, during their first 9 1/2 years in power, the Liberals increased nominal federal spending by nearly 93%. It’s going to take a lot of whitewash to cover the additional spending they’ll do this year, despite having replaced their unpopular leader with one who insists he will manage far more prudently.

Finance Minister Champagne’s laughable excuse for holding off on bringing down a budget: The government has other, higher priorities.

Like what? According to Champagne, like approving a middle-class tax cut.

But aren’t tax changes really budget items? How can a government approve a tax break (or a tax hike) without putting it in a budget and passing it? Last year saw the Liberals try to ram through their capital gains tax grab without legal approval, too.

The Liberals have gone more than five months without having to answer to a Parliamentary session. First, while they prorogued the previous sitting so they could hold their internal leadership vote. Then, of course, they called a federal election.

Now couple that with the projected budget delay, and Canadians get to see a government with nothing but contempt for democratic accountability.

I’m told the budget delay is really because Carney intends to split the operating and capital budgets, and it is taking longer than expected to figure out how to disguise tens of billions of operating spending as capital “investments,” so Carney can pretend the operating budget can be balanced in three years.

No matter what the reason, it’s unacceptable and unaccountable.