Opinion: Soon every penny collected from GST will go toward servicing Ottawa's debt

financialpost.com:

There’s only one problem with the federal government’s shiny new messaging about saving money: the feds aren’t saving money.

“The foundation of our Fall Economic Statement is our responsible fiscal plan,” said Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland. But the mid-year budget update shows the government spending by $15 billion this year. A far cry from Freeland’s March promise to find “savings of $15.4 billion over the next five years.”

Next year, the government will increase spending by $30 billion. And that comes on top of an already ballooned baseline. The feds spent all-time highs before the pandemic. That is correct: “all-time.” After accounting for inflation and population growth, the Liberals were spending more before the pandemic than 1940s Liberals spent during any single year of the Second World War.

Finance Minister Freeland is trying to put Canadians’ minds at ease by claiming her deficits are “modest.” Canadians have heard this word before. In the 2015 election campaign, the Trudeau Liberals promised to run a few “modest” deficits (i.e., less than $10 billion) before balancing the budget in 2019. They ended up blowing that balanced budget promise by a “modest” $20 billion.

This year’s deficit is projected to hit $40 billion. Deficits in 2024 and 2025 are both projected to be $38 billion. Is $40 billion the new modest? Four times larger than the “modest” initial deficits candidate Trudeau promised?

The mid-year budget update proves this government has no idea how to balance the budget. In fact, in Ottawa the only mention of the concept comes from the Parliamentary Budget Officer, who forecasts the next balanced budget will happen in 2035. But that assumes the economy grows every year, interest rates are relatively