Canadians have soured on the Trudeau government like a jug of long-expired orange juice and one big reason is that spending is out of control.
If Liberal leadership candidates want any economic credibility at all, they’d better differentiate themselves from the Trudeau government. And they’d better do so quickly.
That can’t come from mere words. Candidates can’t just say they’ll be better managers of the public purse and count on Canadians’ willingness to forgive and forget.
If they want to get past many of the trust issues Canadians have with this Liberal government, leadership candidates need to point to specific places where they would cut spending.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has provided a lot of places to start.
First, candidates need to commit to cutting government bureaucracy.
Under Trudeau, the size of the federal bureaucracy has increased by 108,793 employees. The cost of the bureaucracy itself has gone up by 73% in less than a decade.
Last year, the total cost of the federal bureaucracy was $69.5 billion. To get the books back in shape, the bureaucracy is going to have to be cut.
Liberal leadership candidates who want taxpayers to take them seriously need to both commit to cutting the bureaucracy and tell Canadians exactly how many positions will be on the chopping block.
Second, the bonus bonanza that’s been happening for years in Ottawa has to be brought to an end.
Canadians are tired of hearing about bigwigs at Crown corporations raking in more money in bonuses than the average taxpayer makes in a year.
The CBC fired hundreds of employees last year, perhaps because just 1.7% of Canadians even tune in to watch CBC News Network. Yet at the same time, it also paid out $18 million in bonuses to executives, at an average amount of $73,000.
The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, another big-time offender, has handed out $102 million in bonuses since 2020 even though housing costs in Canada have gone through the roof.
The federal government needs to stop rewarding failure with bonuses. Leadership candidates need to commit to ending bonuses at failing Crown corporations.
Not shrinking them, but ending them.
Third, it’s time to put an end to corporate welfare.
The federal government spent a whopping $11.2 billion on corporate welfare in 2022, giving out billions of dollars of taxpayer cash to wealthy corporations.
In the past few years alone, the feds have teamed up with Queen’s Park to hand out $57 billion to wealthy auto companies like Stellantis, Volkswagen and Honda.
Canadians are sick and tired of paying sky-high taxes, only to find out billions of dollars are being handed to wealthy companies.
Liberal leadership candidates who want to start rebuilding credibility with Canadian taxpayers need to commit to relegating all corporate welfare to the ash heap of history.
Finally, it’s time for some leadership at the top.
No more news stories about the prime minister spending $220,000 on airplane food while jet-setting around the world.
No more ridiculous limo fees because the finance minister booked a hotel in the wrong city and decided to get a luxury chauffeur to take her back and forth.
No more spending $61,000 on hotel rooms to attend an anti-poverty summit.
And no more bloated cabinets with made-up ministries, staffers up the wazoo and generous annual MP pay raises while Canadians are left out in the cold.
Leadership candidates should commit to slimming down cabinet, rolling back MP pay raises, only having officials go on essential trips and treating travel plans as if they’re the ones footing the bill.
If Liberal leadership candidates want to be treated seriously, they need to treat Canadians’ tax dollars seriously.
This needs to be shown not with vague generalities, but with specifics and substance.
Jay Goldberg is the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation