OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is urging Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to rein in overspending following the release of Parliamentary Budget Officer data showing the federal government won’t balance the budget until 2040. 

“Canadians can’t afford another decade-and-a-half debt binge,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “Trudeau needs to stop wasting so much money and balance the books, because it’s wrong to waste billions on debt interest payments.”

The federal government won’t balance the budget until 2040, according to supplementary data released by the PBO in its most recent Fiscal Sustainability Report. 

But even that projection depends on economic growth every year and no new spending beyond what’s included in Budget 2024. 

This year’s projection pushes back the balanced budget five years from last year’s projection, when the PBO’s data estimated the government would balance the books in 2035.

Between now and the time the budget is balanced in 2040, interest charges on the federal debt will have cost taxpayers $847 billion, which amounts to more than $18,000 per Canadian. 

“Waiting until 2040 to balance the budget is outrageous and the government won’t even hit that target if the economy has a hiccup or politicians can’t say no to new spending,” Terrazzano said. “This government has given taxpayers every reason to believe it will never balance the budget.”

You can find the PBO’s fiscal sustainability data for the federal government, including the CTF’s balanced budget calculation HERE.