MP Report: Liberal government announces more debt in fall economic statement

By Glen Motz on November 29, 2023.

Last week, the Liberal government released their fall economic statement, which can be aptly summed up very simply: prices up, rent up, interest rates up, debt up, taxes up, time’s up.

The FES increases government spending and taxes. In fact, Justin Trudeau and his finance minister announced more than $20 billion in additional inflationary spending this year, which will keep inflation and interest rates higher than Canadians can afford. The Liberals propose to increase taxes on the backs of middle-class Canadians to pay for this out-of-control spending. Trudeau continues to show that he is just not worth the cost.

The reality of Trudeau’s eight years of reckless spending has resulted in over $50 billion in debt servicing costs next year – which is more than the federal government’s annual provincial health care transfers and twice what the Liberals spend on Canada’s military.

The FES signature policy is to direct $15 billion into a fund building a suggested 1500 homes a year in a country that needs 5.8 million new homes constructed by 2030. It sounds great, but where are people supposed to live in the meantime? Trudeau’s spending and resulting debt load is directly responsible for the doubling of housing costs over the past eight years, mortgage payment increases of 150 per cent, and mortgage rate renewal increases from two per cent to 6 percent or higher. The International Money Fund has warned that Canada is the most at risk in the G7 for a mortgage default crisis with $900 billion worth of mortgages due to be renewed over the next three years. Even the Governor of the Bank of Canada and economists have said that government deficits are adding two full percentage points to interest rates on the backs of Canadians.

Canada is facing an economic crisis and it is taxpayers who are carrying the burden. Tent cities exist in almost every major city; while over 50 per cent of Canadians are $200 or less away from going broke and small business bankruptcies are escalating. This is not the Canada we have known.

The only way to undo the damage the Liberals have done is by reversing course. There is good news on the election horizon, as a Conservative government will bring renewed hope for all Canadians. With our common-sense plan we will axe the carbon tax to lower prices, cap spending and cut waste to bring down inflation and interest rates, remove bureaucracy to help build more homes so that once again, people can afford to rent or pay their mortgages, and restore individual financial security.

Only then will Canada once again become a country that works for the people who do the work. The common sense of the common people, united for our common good.

Let’s bring it home.

Glen Motz is the MP for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner

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