MP Report: Budget 2024 – More spending, more debt and more taxes
By Glen Motz on April 24, 2024.
After nine years, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s budget is just more of the same deficit spending that got us into this mess. Budget 2024 contains over $57.3 billion in new spending, along with another $40-billion deficit added to already huge national debt this fiscal year alone. In 2015, the federal debt was $616 billion, accumulated since 1867. Today, it has doubled to $1.25 trillion, (over $30,000 for every Canadian), thanks to this government borrowing more than all of Canada’s previous governments combined. In fact, it will cost Canadian taxpayers $54.1 billion in interest just to service our debt this year. The interest payment is more than the government spends on the annual provincial health care transfers. That’s about the same amount the government collects with the GST. (Maybe the GST should be renamed to the DST – Debt Servicing Tax.) The results of what happens when a government does not think about monetary policy are obvious. Housing costs have doubled, interest rates have risen faster than any time in our history, mortgage payments have doubled, down payments have doubled, rents have doubled, the cost of gas, groceries and home heating have skyrocketed and people cannot afford to eat, heat or house themselves. Families are struggling to make ends meet and businesses are challenged to keep their doors open due to the current cost-of-living crisis. Constituents in our riding of Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner who responded to my pre-budget survey were clear. Seventy-five per cent of individual and business respondents designated inflation and the cost of living as major concerns, with 91 per cent indicating that lowering costs would have a positive financial impact. Unfortunately, Budget 2024 does not provide the relief my constituents were hoping for. Continued deficit spending and the resulting higher taxes drive up the cost of everything and keep interest rates high. It is not just Conservatives who are critical of Trudeau’s years of deficit spending. Economists and the Canadian financial sector have warned the Liberals that their spending is a major contributor to Canada’s high inflation. Current Bank of Canada governor Tiff Macklem cautioned that this excessive spending will make it harder for the bank to lower interest rates. Even former Bank of Canada governor (and Liberal supporter) David Dodge says the federal budget hurts the fight against inflation and called Budget 2024 the worst since 1982. Who was in charge then? Oh right, another Trudeau. Even with all the warnings, Prime Minister Trudeau didn’t listen. Why? Because he and his caucus are addicted to power, and they continue to spend recklessly to keep the NDP happy in order to maintain that power. Conservatives believe that power belongs with the people. Unlike the Liberal tax and spend ideology that has worsened our current economic crisis and is threatening Canadians’ economic future, common-sense Conservatives know that the budget will not balance itself. It will take responsible fiscal governance to undo the damage the Liberals have done over the past nine years. We will axe the tax, fix the budget by ending wasteful spending and focus on the needs of Canadians, allowing more control over our own lives. Glen Motz is the MP for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner 10-9
