VANCOUVER—Federal finances heading into the COVID-19 pandemic were already weakened due to $160 billion in debt accumulation, above and beyond the debt that would have been incurred if the growth in spending had been restrained to the rate of economic growth, finds a new study released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“The COVID-19 pandemic has no doubt worsened Ottawa’s fiscal challenges, but it did not create them. Imprudent spending by the federal government in the years leading up to COVID added billions in debt before the pandemic struck,” said Jake Fuss, senior economist at the Fraser Institute and co-author of Ottawa’s Pattern of Excessive Spending and Persistent Deficits.
