Stan Gilbert

I’m an eternal optimist and will always want to highlight good progress. But the more I sit with yesterday’s economic update, the more concerned I get. 1. This government is falling into the trap of focusing on messaging and optics over outcomes. Claiming the new investment fund is a Sovereign Wealth Fund when it’s clearly not is a prime example. 2. There’s a concerning approach to shifting numbers to make our financial position look better than it is. Most Canadians will miss this, but this government has adopted an approach of presenting figures that show on all-government net debt-to-GDP ratio is at just 10.2 percent while in reality it sits at 75 percent of GDP. The 10.2% figure only works when the assets held by the Canada Pension Plan and Quebec Pension Plan are subtracted…. funds that appear on no government balance sheet and are not available to any level of government to pay off their debts. 3. Spending is still out of control and is leading to rapidly growing interest payments. Our debt is growing so quickly that interest on debt is now the fastest-growing government program, expected to cost more than $80B in four years. 4. There is still no action on the well known, fundamental ways to boost productivity: capital gains and corporate tax reform; aggressive red tape reduction; and bold opening of protected sectors to competition. Without these reforms, Canada is cooked. Our productivity will continue to slide regardless of the other efforts we make, no matter how well-intentioned.