• Trudeau government’s second budget sees spending slow, but long-term debt and deficits rise – with still no plan to return to balance
• Much-vaunted ‘innovation’ measures largely amount to a repackaging and expansion of corporate welfare and other subsidies
• Boutique tax measures are back, while the tax code remains cluttered

OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today expressed concern about the Trudeau government’s second budget which failed to provide a clear fiscal path to eliminate the deficit, while repackaging existing subsidy programs as “innovation” measures.

“The good news is this budget did not contain larger than expected deficits, like budget 2016 did,” said CTF Federal Director Aaron Wudrick. “The bad news it does nothing to address the massive fiscal hole it created last year, and provides few specifics for its so-called ‘innovation’ agenda.”

Wudrick noted that weaker projected revenues combined with new spending increases will see the federal debt climb to $756 billion by 2022, up from $637 billion today, and will also cost Canadians $143 billion in interest payments alone over the next five years.

“This government talks a big game about building a better future for young Canadians, and yet it continues to mortgage their future by spending money it doesn’t have and sticking them with the bill,” noted Wudrick.

Wudrick also panned the budget’s litany of subsidies and handouts under the guise of ‘innovation.’

“This a great budget for fans of corporate welfare. If you’re an enterprising company in a politically-favoured sector, looking to get free handouts from taxpayers, you’re in luck,” said Wudrick. “The government literally took a handful of existing corporate welfare slush funds, combined them into one, and declared it a ‘Strategic Innovation’ Fund.”

The CTF did welcome several measures in the budget, including a commitment to an expenditure review of government departments, a commitment to expand free trade between provinces, tariff reductions on agricultural supply-chain imports, and measures to crack down on tax evasion.

Overall, Wudrick said Canadians should be increasingly worried about the government’s lack of concern about long-term deficits and the additional burden that $120 billion in new debt will place on future generations.

“This a budget with no new ‘big-ticket’ spending,” said Wudrick. “But that still leaves them with a large deficit to deal with. They have missed a big opportunity to right the ship and instead opted to continue their discredited and expensive attempt to spend Canada into prosperity.”