{"id":1545749,"date":"2025-07-07T21:20:00","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T01:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/?p=1545749"},"modified":"2025-07-07T21:20:00","modified_gmt":"2025-07-08T01:20:00","slug":"runaway-spending-canada-on-track-for-92-billion-deficit-think-tank-projects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/runaway-spending-canada-on-track-for-92-billion-deficit-think-tank-projects\/1545749\/","title":{"rendered":"“Runaway Spending”: Canada on Track for $92 Billion Deficit, Think Tank Projects"},"content":{"rendered":"

“Runaway Spending”: Canada on Track for $92 Billion Deficit, Think Tank Projects<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The federal government is on pace to post a $92-billion deficit this fiscal year \u2014 nearly double what was projected just four months ago<\/strong><\/em>, according to a new report from the C.D. Howe Institute. If accurate, it would mark the second-largest deficit in Canadian history, trailing only the $327.7-billion shortfall of 2020-21 during the pandemic, according to National Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe picture is definitely not pretty,\u201d said Alexandre Laurin, C.D. Howe\u2019s vice-president, who co-authored the report with William Robson and Don Drummond.<\/p>\n

The think tank now forecasts annual deficits of over $77 billion for the next four years, far higher than the government\u2019s projections in its most recent budget \u2014 which is now more than a year old. The report criticizes the government\u2019s delay in tabling a new budget, saying, \u201cDelaying a budget until the fiscal year is more than half over is never good, but Canada\u2019s current high-spending trajectory makes this delay especially bad.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

National Post writes<\/a>\u00a0C.D. Howe attributes the worsening outlook to rising defence spending, Trump-era tariffs, tax cuts, and the scrapped digital services tax. It also questions whether promised revenue boosts from fines, penalties, and savings will materialize.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

The report notes Ottawa is making major fiscal commitments without disclosing key figures, including the expected tax intake, spending levels, and future interest payments. \u201cOttawa is making costly commitments\u2026 without showing key numbers to the public,\u201d it warns.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is widely accepted that Canada\u2019s economy is at a critical crossroads,\u201d the authors write. \u201cSo are Canada\u2019s finances \u2013 beyond the economic drag of high deficits and rising debt, it is unfair to pass these burdens on to the current young and future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n

In contrast, the Parliamentary Budget Officer had projected in March that the federal deficit would shrink to $50.1 billion this year, with continued improvements in future years \u2014 assuming no major new spending or tax cuts.<\/p>\n

C.D. Howe recommends the government cut operating costs, abandon some costly platform promises, consider increasing less harmful taxes like the GST, and reduce federal transfers. It also rejects Ottawa\u2019s plan to separate operating and capital budgets: \u201cThe large deficits projected in this update cannot be downplayed or disguised by dividing the budget into two new categories.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

The report concludes that greater transparency is essential: \u201cThe government must improve its accountability by sharing its revenue and spending figures with taxpayers.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Tyler Durden<\/a><\/span>
\nMon, 07\/07\/2025 – 17:20<\/span><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/www.zerohedge.com\/markets\/runaway-spending-think-tank-projects-canada-track-92-billion-deficit<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Runaway Spending”: Canada on Track for $92 Billion Deficit, Think Tank Projects The federal government is on pace to post a $92-billion deficit this fiscal…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1545750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1545749","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545749","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1545749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1545749\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1545750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1545749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1545749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1545749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}