On Parliament Hill

By the time most of you read this, the Liberal Government will have already presented their new budget.

I have heard from many Provencher residents who are concerned about the rapidly rising cost of living and how this budget may make things worse.

Inflation is one of the most pressing issues facing Canadian families. It is the heavy taxation and reckless spending of the Trudeau Liberals that is driving this inflation and pushing the cost of living higher.

Rather than take steps to temper and tamp down inflation (to help drive down the cost of living for Canadians), all indications are this Liberal Government plans to pour more fuel on the inflationary fire with additional deficit spending.

The Liberals have already spent upwards of $600 billion in deficit spending – hundreds of millions of which they have failed to account for – pushing Canada’s national debt to $1.2 trillion.

Indications are the Government will add an additional $70 billion in new deficit spending, further inflating the already skyrocketing cost of living for Canadians.

In a fiscal update back in December, the Liberals proposed an additional $58.4 billion in deficit spending. However, this was before the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, which has already been the cause of a flurry of unplanned-for additional spending.

This was also before the Liberals tied their fate to the NDP who will no doubt have a laundry list of additional deficit-exploding social spending the government will now need to address.

While spending on NDP priorities like universal pharma care (estimated by the Parliamentary Budget Officer at approx. $38.5 billion over the first five years) or universal dental care (estimated at approx. $10 billion over the first five years) sound nice, they are both permanent, big-ticket items, both of which will be incredibly complex to execute. As is the Government’s new $9.1 billion “Emissions Reduction Plan”. Given this

Government’s track record, these programs are more likely to turn into multi-billion-dollar boondoggles, with overstretched Canadian taxpayers left footing the bill.

Canada needs a serious budget. One that addresses areas the Liberals have largely ignored until now – defense spending and health transfers to the provinces jump immediately to mind – but also one that cuts non-essential spending and offers a plan and a pathway back to balance. The only way this can be achieved is if the Liberals stop printing/borrowing money and roll back “pandemic spending” allowing the economy to balance itself out.

Sadly, given the Liberals’ spending habits, and especially now with the NDP having their hands on the wheel, such a budget is unlikely to materialize.

The result will be simple and sad:

A Liberal budget plus an NDP payoff equals higher inflation for Canadians.

Conservatives recognize the kitchen table issues facing Canadians. We understand how to balance the budget – we did it during the Harper years.

Conservatives will continue to advocate for commonsense fiscal policies, though, sadly, we are unlikely to see them come to fruition for some time to come.