(Charlottetown) Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is adamant that her cabinet colleagues find the $15 billion in five-year savings in their departments’ spending over the next few weeks.
These savings are part of the fiscal framework for the next five fiscal years that it unveiled in its last budget. Without those savings, this fiscal framework won’t hold water, she warned Tuesday on the second day of the cabinet’s retreat in Charlottetown.
“This is a commitment we made in the budget tabled in the spring. This commitment underpins the entire fiscal framework on which the budget is based. So that’s something we announced a few months ago,” Freeland said in a scrum.
The President of the Treasury Board, Anita Anand, who was at his side to answer questions from journalists and who is monitoring the implementation of this commitment, assured that this budgetary approach would not lead to cuts in services, in particular First Nations and within the Canadian Armed Forces.
Barely appointed to her new post following the July cabinet reshuffle, Ms Anand has sent all of her cabinet colleagues a letter asking them to submit in writing, by October 2, the details the savings they intend to achieve within their departments in order to respect the commitment in the last budget.
“We need to ensure that we manage government finances in a prudent, efficient and effective manner. It is taxpayers’ money after all,” said Ms. Anand, who previously served as defense minister.
Since coming to power, the Trudeau government has never presented a balanced budget. The accumulated debt doubled during the Liberals’ reign. This financial burden has fallen from $628 billion in 2015-2016 to nearly $1,221 billion this year, largely due to the record deficit of nearly $325 billion recorded during the 2020-2021 fiscal year, at the height of the crisis. COVID-19 pandemic. In her latest budget, Minister Freeland forecast the deficit to be $40 billion in 2023-24. No return to a balanced budget is expected over the next five years.
The leader of the Conservative Party, Pierre Poilievre, sharply denounced the Trudeau government for its management of public finances and the deficits that accumulate. He even made a direct link between the Liberal government’s “out of control” spending and the inflation that undermines the purchasing power of Canadians. According to him, this has contributed to soaring prices of everyday goods and houses.
Recently, Poilievre questioned the Trudeau government’s desire to better control spending, saying the prime minister has been a big spender since taking office.
In a press briefing, Minister Freeland defended the Trudeau government’s financial record. She suggested that this has been part of the Liberal financial credo for years.
“We understand that government is able to meet the needs of Canadians when it operates on a responsible fiscal basis. It is, moreover, a profoundly liberal conviction. It was Jean Chrétien and Paul Martin who did the very hard work of fighting for the AAA rating that Canada currently enjoys. We are committed to doing what Canadians expect of us and to maintaining this responsible fiscal management,” she said.
She recalled that Canada still has a AAA rating “despite the great investments we’ve made for Canadians.”
“We have the lowest deficit of the G7 countries and we have the lowest debt to GDP ratio of the G7. We understand that if we’re going to continue to do great things for Canadians and build those things on this solid fiscal foundation, we have to think about where the money is being spent and that’s why the savings of $15 billion are absolutely the right thing to do,” she said.
