TERRAZZANO: Carney’s budget worse than Trudeau’s

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Trudeau’s former finance minister, Chrystia Freeland, resigned just hours before the Trudeau government tabled its last budget update. Freeland cited the “costly political gimmicks, which we can ill afford and which make Canadians doubt that we recognize the gravity of the moment” for her resignation.

Freeland’s resignation struck at the heart of Trudeau’s biggest weakness: His lack of credibility on the economy. Freeland was right to point out Trudeau’s flaws. Now, Carney’s budget plan contains bigger deficits every year and nearly $100 billion of additional debt.

New polling shows Carney is already losing credibility. When Carney was running for Liberal Party leader, he promised to “balance the operating budget in three years.”

About six in 10 Canadians are skeptical of Carney’s promise, according to a Leger poll commissioned by the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Carney’s platform shows Canadians are right to be skeptical. The best Carney is willing to do is run a $48-billion deficit in 2028, which is larger than this year’s Trudeau government deficit.

Second, Canadians can’t afford to waste more money on debt interest charges. Interest charges on the government credit card already cost Canadians $1 billion every week. That’s about enough money to build a brand-new hospital every single week.

Every dollar Canadians pay in GST goes to pay interest charges on the debt.

Carney’s borrowing binge means the government will waste about $1 billion more every year on debt interest charges.

Third, Carney’s debt will make life more expensive for Canadians.

All of Carney’s new debt will be paid back with tax hikes today, tax hikes plus interest tomorrow or through inflation as the government’s central bank prints more money to finance these huge deficits.

Canadians are struggling to afford groceries, their rent or mortgage payments. And Carney’s debt binge will make life more expensive.

After a decade of ballooning government costs, finding savings in the budget should be like finding water in the ocean.

The federal government added 108,000 extra bureaucrats and increased the cost of the bureaucracy by 73% in less than a decade.

The government put taxpayers on the hook for $30 billion in subsidies to multinational corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Stellantis and Northvolt.

The government has been wasting money on almost everything, like the $8 million it spent on a barn at Rideau Hall or $8,800 for a sex toy show in Germany or the millions wasted producing government podcasts to which no one listens.

Carney’s platform puts a dagger through his economic credibility. As bad as Trudeau’s budgets were, Carney’s look worse.

Canadians need a government that will cut spending, balance the budget and stop wasting so much money on debt interest charges.