With this budget, Morneau had an opportunity to explain how he would get the books into balance and start to tackle our massive federal debt. He took a pass. As a result, future generations of Canadians will pay a hefty price
(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun on March 24th, 2017)
Finance Minister Bill Morneau unveiled the Trudeau government's second budget this week, and in many ways it wasn't a new budget at all, but just a clarification of many measures from last year.
In some ways, that's a relief, because last year was a veritable spending spree, with Morneau plunging the country into a $23 billion deficit (a far cry from the Liberals' promise of three years of 'modest' $10 billion deficits) and didn't even provide a plan on how they would climb out of it--ever. One can be forgiven for bracing for yet another multi-billion increase in the deficit.
