Vancouver—Federal and provincial governments across Canada have spent and borrowed more than many other industrialized high-income countries around the world during the COVID crisis, but Canada’s economic performance lags those other countries, finds a new analysis released today by the Fraser Institute, an independent, non-partisan Canadian public policy think-tank.
“What is becoming clear is that the record-high spending that we’ve seen in Ottawa and around the country both before and as a result of the COVID crisis is not translating into better economic performance, and could in fact be a drag on our recovery,” said Jason Clemens, Executive Vice President at the Fraser Institute and co-author of a new blog Canada’s spending and deficits higher than comparable countries during pandemic.