Trudeau’s Failed Fall Economic Statement

By Damien Kurek
Battle River-Crowfoot MP

On November 21st, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, presented a mini-budget, known as the Fall Economic Statement.

To sum it up: the Liberals have gone years spending without thought of the possible consequences, and now our nation’s once enviable financial position is in tatters.

But let’s look at some of the details:

The total price tag of the Fall Economic Statement is $20 billion of costly, inflationary new spending. This will keep inflation and interest rates rising, much higher than Canadians can afford, continuing to make homes, groceries, fuel and other necessities unaffordable. And the tragedy is that inflation only benefits the very wealthy.

In addition, the Government has proposed to increase taxes on the backs of middle-class people and next year, unbelievably, Justin Trudeau will spend more money servicing his debt than he will on provincial healthcare transfers or more than double what the Government spends yearly on the military.

While the Liberals promised fiscal responsibility, the reality has been an astounding disregard for basic fiscal principles. Trudeau has added a hundred billion dollars of additional debt. Under Justin Trudeau, there has been a decrease in the quality of life in Canada. Housing costs have doubled, and more people are visiting food banks than ever before. Business insolvencies have increased by 37% this year, while violent crime is up 39% and over half of Canadians are $200 or less away from going broke.

For housing alone, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warns that Canada is the most at risk in the G7 for a mortgage default crisis, people renewing their mortgages at today’s rates will see an increase from 2%-6% or higher, and mortgage payments are up 150% since 2015.

Despite warnings from experts, and instead of listening to common sense Conservative proposals to reverse this damage, Justin Trudeau has introduced more half-measures and photo-ops that will do little to solve the problems Canadians face.  

This is all while the Liberals continue their plan to quadruple the carbon tax, refuse to extend their home heating carve out (given to just 3% of Canadians) to everyone, and are holding up Bill C-234 that would exempt all agriculture from the damaging effects of the carbon tax.

Conservatives will continue to bring common sense to the national debate, we are increasingly hearing from folks across Canada who support our plan to axe the carbon tax, balance the budget, and build homes and not bureaucracy to bring home lower prices for Canadians.

After eight years, prices up, rent up, debt up, taxes up, time’s up. It’s time for a change in Ottawa.