Pierre Poilievre calls for end to 'credit card budgeting' ahead of spring fiscal update

· Toronto Sun

Pierre Poilievre called on the federal Liberals to present a plan to return to a balanced budget and put an end to “credit card budgeting” in a letter sent to Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of Tuesday’s economic update.

The Conservative leader’s letter, which was posted to social media on Sunday afternoon, also suggested some ways to trim the federal budget, which was projected to hit $78.3 billion in the last fiscal year .

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He also called Carney the “costliest prime minister in our history.

“It is no wonder people cannot afford food, fuel and homes under your Liberal government,” the letter says. “The more you spend, the more things cost. Your money-printing deficits and high fuel costs fund your reckless spending and drive up the cost of everything people buy.”

Majority to become official this week

Poilievre’s letter landed on social media ahead of a busy week on Parliament Hill that includes Tuesday’s fiscal outlook and the swearing in of three Liberal MPs who won byelections earlier this month , giving the Liberals a 174-seat majority in the House of Commons.

The spring update is expected to offer a glimpse at how new spending items, measures to counter the nation’s economic reliance on the U.S. and the impact of the war in the Middle East are affecting the government’s finances.

“We’re starting to shift things, but we’re in no way satisfied,” Carney said on Thursday, via The Canadian Press. “We’re just getting started.”

There are also expectations that the government must show some results from the Liberals’ spending priorities, such as “nation-building” projects and efforts to attract foreign investment, former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page told CP.

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‘Are we getting value for money?’

He is especially interested in how increased defence spending and the newly created Major Projects Office are affecting Canada’s fiscal health.

“There’s some transparency pressures on the government,” said Page, the president and CEO of the Institute of Fiscal Studies and Democracy at the University of Ottawa, via CP.

“What is the plan? How is it changing the overall fiscal picture? Are we getting value for money on some of that?”

While Finance Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne touted affordability measures like an increase in the GST benefit for low-income households and the government’s decision to cut the excise tax on fuel for “bringing down everyday costs,” Poilievre contended that other policies have done the opposite.

“The consequence is that your government’s interest payments on the national debt are now higher than what you spend on health-care transfers and National Defence and more than you collect in GST,” he said in his letter. “Every penny people pay in federal sales tax now goes to bankers and bondholders, not to doctors and nurses.

“Your record is more cost, more debt, more taxes and more of the same.”

Poilievre pitches cost-cutting measures

To that end, Poilievre listed several cost-cutting measures as part of his plan to return to a balanced budget in the “medium term.”

They included axing the $90-billion Alto high-speed rail project between Toronto and Quebec City, scrapping the “Liberal gun grab,” cutting back on the nearly $20 billion spent on consultants in 2024-25 and reducing spending on the federal bureaucracy, which he said will hit $65.8 billion this year.

“Cutting bureaucracy, consultants, corporate welfare, foreign aid, handouts to fake refugees and tax havens can bring down debt, taxes and inflation,” Poilievre said.

— With files from The Canadian Press.

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