EDITORIAL: Mini-budget told us what we know

Article content

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s fall economic statement on Thursday said a lot of things we already know.

Canadians know we’re entering an extended period of tough economic times and a possible recession in 2023.

Higher interest rates meant to lower inflation will mean higher unemployment and more people losing their homes because they can’t afford their mortgage payments.

Freeland said Canada is in better economic shape than many countries, including members of the G-7 (Canada, U.S., U.K., Germany, France, Italy and Japan).

But given that we don’t live in those countries, Freeland acknowledged, “that fact brings little comfort to Canadians paying higher prices at the checkout counter, or spending more to fill their tanks with gas.”

Of course, the Trudeau government is deliberately pursuing policies that increase the price of gasoline, natural gas and home heating oil, in order to address climate change.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

While the mini-budget contained some measures to help students and lower income Canadians cope with tough economic times, the reality is that there’s not much more the government can do.

An indication of that was Freeland’s estimations for coming budget deficits in Canada, which the Liberals have never been good at predicting.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s predicted in the 2015 election campaign a Liberal government would post three years of modest deficits — $9.9 billion in 2016, $9.5 billion in 2017, $5.7 billion in 2018 and a $1 billion surplus in 2019.

Trudeau’s actual record was a $17.8 billion deficit in 2016, a $19 billion deficit in 2017, a $14 billion deficit in 2018 and a $39.4 billion deficit in 2019 — before the pandemic hit.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

Try refreshing your browser, or
tap here to see other videos from our team.

Play Video

In its wake, Freeland’s mini-budget predicts Canada’s deficit this year will be $36.4 billion, $30.6 billion in 2023, $25.4 billion in 2024, $14.5 billion in 2025, $3.4 billion in 2026 and a $4.5 billion surplus in 2027.

However, perhaps in light of the Trudeau government’s erroneous deficit predictions of the past, she also outlined a “downside scenario” in which the federal deficit this year would be $49.1 billion, $52.4 billion in 2023, $42.3 billion in 2024, $30.4 billion in 2025, $18.6 billion in 2026 and $8.3 billion in 2027.

Based on the Liberals’ fiscal record to date, keep that “downside scenario” in mind.