If frontrunner Mark Carney wins the Liberal leadership race and becomes Canada’s prime minister, what we’ll get is Justin Trudeau, version 2.0.
Carney said on CBC’s Rosemary Barton Live on Sunday that a Liberal government headed by him will run annual deficits to grow the economy by investing in such things as housing, energy infrastructure, Artificial Intelligence and new trade corridors beyond the United States.
At the same time, he said, he will balance the federal operating budget — meaning the day-to-day cost of operating the government — over the next three years.
This is eerily similar to Trudeau’s promise in the 2015 federal election that brought him to power, claiming he would run three years of “modest deficits” to almost double government spending on infrastructure to boost the economy.
Trudeau predicted at the time that the federal deficit would come in at $9.9 billion in 2016, $9.5 billion in 2017 and $5.7 billion in 2018, with a $1-billion surplus in 2019, which turned out to be the year before the pandemic hit.
Trudeau’s actual deficits were $19 billion in 2016 and 2017, $14 billion in 2018 and $39.4 billion in 2019.
His government has never come close to balancing the federal budget since then.
As for Carney, his claim of achieving a balanced budget is a mirage, since it will only apply to a portion of government spending.
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When all spending is included, Carney’s administration will still be running annual deficits.
Carney also acknowledged he is not scrapping Trudeau’s carbon-pricing scheme, simply changing it.
Using the example of carbon pricing on steel he said, “To the extent that’s paid, yes it does show up in the cost of an automobile,” although he claimed it would be lower than under Trudeau’s carbon tax.
Carney’s plan also cancels Trudeau’s rebate system by replacing it, he said, with financial incentives for both major emitters and consumers to lower their costs and emissions.
In addition, Carney plans to impose a new carbon tax called a “carbon border adjustment system” that would impose tariffs on imported goods coming into Canada if the government concludes the countries of origin aren’t doing enough to fight climate change.
That would increase the price of those goods for Canadians buying them.