Economists sound the alarm about 'very concerning' lack of transparency on federal finances

OTTAWA – Economists are sounding the alarm on what they view is a lack of transparency around the federal government’s spending and fiscal outlook.
Since the spring economic update, Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced several new spending initiatives including a national AI strategy, a food security strategy, a West Coast pipeline project and a cooperative prosperity agreement with the province of British Columbia.
In a recently published report, Desjardins deputy chief economist Randall Bartlett, said the new commitments add $40 billion in extra spending over the next decade, beyond what was announced in the last fiscal update in April.

“A lot of it seemed to be from previous envelopes, but some of it doesn’t all seem to be accounted for,” he said. Bartlett pointed out his estimate of unaccounted spending is based on incomplete information, because the federal government has not been transparent on how it plans to pay for these measures. ---More...

Economists sound the alarm about 'very concerning' lack of transparency on federal finances.

'I've been involved in budgets since 1977, and I've never seen such a lack of transparency,' said Don Drummond, the former chief economist at TD Bank https://t.co/aLfTM58hl1 pic.twitter.com/vSt9c7O2AU

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