TERRAZZANO: Budget 2024 a complete and utter disaster
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Welcome to Canada, where you pay a federal sales tax so Prime Minister Justin Trudeau can cover the interest payments on his government’s credit card.
That’s literally what’s happening. Interest charges on Canada’s debt will be $54 billion this year. GST revenues will be $54 billion.
That’s something to think about in the checkout line.
On top of soaring interest charges, the federal budget includes massive deficits, a tax hike, the doubling of the national debt, and no plan to balance the budget.
Those are the taxpayer takeaways from the Trudeau government’s Budget 2024.
Ironically, the feds titled their latest budget, “Fairness for every generation,” as they pile more and more debt that Canadians’ kids and grandkids will spend their whole lives making payments on.
Interest charges on the federal debt will eat up $54 billion of this year’s budget. That means taxpayers will be on the hook for more than $1 billion in interest charges every week.
To put things in perspective: that’s more money than the federal government will send to the provinces in health transfers this year.
Let that sink in for a second. Then think about what we could do if it weren’t for the federal debt.
Well, we could double federal health spending. Or we could eliminate the GST.
The federal debt will total more than $1.2 trillion this year. When Trudeau first took power in 2015, the debt was $616 billion.
That means the Trudeau government will have officially doubled the national debt in nine short years. Pop the champagne! Drop the confetti! You did it!
This government could win the lottery every day and still find a way to max out its credit card.
In last year’s budget, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said she would find “savings of $15.4 billion over the next five years.”
Shall we check in on Freeland’s progress?
Well, Freeland is increasing spending by $37 billion this year. Newsflash for the finance minister: when you increase spending by more than $30 billion in one year, you’re saving money wrong.
This year’s deficit will total $40 billion and there is no plan to balance the budget. In fact, the best this government can muster is bringing down the deficit to $20 billion five years from now.
The Trudeau government says it has a “responsible fiscal plan.” But this is not what fiscal responsibility looks like. This is fiscal insanity.
The feds are also increasing capital gains taxes, which will generate $6.9 billion in new revenue. But with the feds spending $535 billion this year, Trudeau will burn through that extra cash in less than a week.
The feds are trying to spin the capital gains tax as an attempt to go after the wealthiest Canadians while protecting the middle class. Only one problem with that …
Trudeau just walloped middle-class Canadians with tax hikes a few weeks ago. On April 1, Trudeau hiked carbon and alcohol taxes.
The alcohol tax hike alone will cost taxpayers $40 million this year. And the carbon tax will now cost the average family up to $911 this year even after the rebates, according to the Parliamentary Budget Officer.
If Trudeau and Freeland can’t find the willpower to get off the taxpayer-funded gravy train, it’s a good bet they will keep looking for new ways to take more money from more Canadians.
If it wasn’t clear before, it’s abundantly clear now: this government doesn’t have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem.
The Trudeau government has no plan to save money. It has no plan to balance the budget. Its only plan is to shake down taxpayers for as much money as it can.
The solution for Trudeau and Freeland is simple: put down the credit card and pick up some scissors to cut spending.
-Franco Terrazzano is the Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
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