The Trudeau government asked to tighten the belt

Photo archives Agence QMI, Matthew Usherwood
Bill Morneau, minister of Finance

Guillaume St-Pierre

On Monday 26 February 2018 21:49

UPDATE
On Monday 26 February 2018 21:49

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OTTAWA | It is high time for the Trudeau government to present a plan to return the budget to balance after you have drove the country into debt to stimulate the economy, believes the ex-guard dog of the taxpayers.

“In the current state of the economy, I don’t see why we would be unable to balance the budget in the medium term,” says the ex-parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page.

The minister of Finance, Bill Morneau, presented his third budget on Tuesday, and several voices were raised to demand a tighter control of public spending.

Deficits imposing

The liberals have injected hundreds of billions into the canadian economy since coming to power, at the cost of large deficits.

Kevin Page admits that the strategy has borne fruit. The canadian economy has experienced a year well beyond expectations.

But according to Mr. Page, it is now time for the liberals to put the gas pedal on spending and propose a plan to return the budget to balance.

“Is there really a need to stimulate the economy more ? I don’t think so, ” he said.

But Kevin Page is not an illusion. He doubted that the liberals of Justin Trudeau change the trajectory of tax to present a target to the achievement of the balance.

“They [the liberals] need to be able to convince the population that these deficits are for the benefit of Canadians. But I don’t think they will arrive “, slice Kevin Page.

Concerns

According to the latest forecasts, the deficit of the federal will reach $ 20 billion this year. The liberals had promised to restore the balance in time for the next elections in 2019.

The concerns of Mr. Page are shared by the conservative opposition in the Commons, which requires for months a plan to return the budget to balance.

“It is imperative that the government balance the budget as he pledged to do,” says Gérard Deltell.

The new democrats want their side to see the liberals take advantage of the budget to deal more firmly with tax evasion, with the ultimate goal to fund more generous social programs.

“The root of the problem is that the tax laws are too easy to work around,” says the member of parliament for Sherbrooke, Pierre-Luc Dusseault.

Gender equality

According to our information, the budget Morneau will pay particular attention to the equality of men and women on the labour market.

Investments are expected to encourage women to integrate some of the sectors where they are underrepresented, such as science and research.

It is also expected that a sum of $ 50 million is allocated to help the local media, according to a source.