EDITORIAL: Trudeau gets an F in fiscal transparency

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Call it another broken election promise by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau — or, if you prefer, three broken promises.

That’s because Trudeau promised in the 2015, 2019 and 2021 elections to run a financially transparent government.

But according to an evaluation by the C.D. Howe Institute — an independent, non-partisan think tank — the Trudeau government is the least financially transparent of any senior government in Canada, meaning among the federal government, the provinces and territories.

The Institute gives the Trudeau government an ‘F’ for transparency in the 2020-21 fiscal year based on the lack of “relevance, accessibility, timeliness and reliability” of its financial documents.

Unlike the provinces and territories, “the federal government produced no budget for the 2020/21 fiscal year, so scored 0 with respect to all budget information,” study authors William Robson and Miles Wu write in their report, “Good, Bad and Incomplete: Grading the Fiscal Transparency of Canada’s Senior Governments, 2021.”

“Its 2020 public accounts did not present a figure for consolidated expense, showing actuarial losses related to its employee pensions below a deficit line that excluded these expenses. It also published its public accounts late.

“It earns an F, a signal failure from a government that used to be a leader in fiscal transparency.”

(The Trudeau government had previously received a B rating going back to 2018.)

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By contrast, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta, B.C. and Nunavut received the top mark of A-.

Ontario earned a B, Newfoundland and Labrador, Yukon, P.E.I, Manitoba and Quebec were all in the C range, while Northwest Territories received a D+.

The news also isn’t much better going forward for the feds.

The report’s preliminary grading for 2022 says the Trudeau government is on track to get a C, compared to an A for Ontario and A- for New Brunswick, Saskatchewan, Alberta and Nunavut.

“The grades of the top performers reflect consolidated financial statements consistent with PSAS (public sector accounting standards) and budgets, estimates and interim reports prepared on the same basis” the study concludes.

“They also reflect presentations that make the key numbers readily accessible early in the relevant documents … And they reflect timely presentations: budgets presented before the fiscal year starts and public accounts tabled shortly after fiscal year-end.”