Oct 11 2019 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — The New Democratic Party’s (NDP) costed election platform was released on Friday Morning, while the Conservatives released their platform in the mid-afternoon on Friday (review of platform will be provided tomorrow). Obviously, these platforms could easily have been released before the debate, but apparently both the NDP and the Conservatives felt this information would not […]
Oct 1 2019 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — The Liberal Party’s election platform released on Sunday confirms that the Liberals aren’t concerned about the size of the deficit and growing debt, but are instead very comfortable hiding behind the fiction “of investments for the future” to justify new spending and tax cuts. Their platform proposes new initiatives totaling $4.1 billion in 2020-21, $8.3 […]
Sep 27 2019 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — There is a little over three weeks to go to the election. Given the rush by all parties to get their election promises out, having a short election period may be a good thing. The costs of election promises of all parties are rising rapidly without much concern for their impact on the deficit. Not […]
Sep 23 2019 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — At the start of the 2019 election campaign, most political commenters did not see the “deficit” becoming a major issue in the election. The reality is that the federal government has neither a deficit nor debt problem. According to the just released Annual Financial Report (AFR), the deficit for 2018-19 was $14 billion or just […]
Mar 27 2019 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — The 2018 Economic and Fiscal Fall Update together with Budget 2019 represent the beginning of the 2019 Liberal election platform. It is also the beginning of a major headache for the “deficit elimination” Conservatives. The Harper government, after all, failed to eliminate the deficit over eight years, despite cutting spending in successive budgets. What would […]
Dec 11 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — The Liberals should not set a target date for a balanced budget, but they should take action in the 2019 budget to eliminate “unannounced” spending, included in the 2018 Budget and 2018 Update, in order to reduce the deficit in future years. In the weeks leading up to the Fall Update, the Conservative opposition has […]
Nov 24 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — Paul Martin presented the first fall Economic and Fiscal Update in 1995. The purpose of that Update was to present a review of current and future economic circumstances and what these meant for the fiscal situation of the federal government. It contained no new policy initiatives. These were left for the subsequent spring budget. The […]
Nov 18 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — Did Ontarians realize that when they voted for Doug Ford’s Conservatives that they would end up endorsing Kathleen Wynn’s election platform? How can this be? The starting deficit for the current fiscal year in the Economic Outlook and Fiscal Review (Fall Update) was $15 billion, the forecast provided by the Independent Financial Commission of Inquiry […]
Sep 27 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — Following the conclusion of the Independent Financial Commission that Ontario’s deficit in 2018-19 could balloon to $15 billion, Premier Ford immediately announced that he would form a special committee of MPPs to further examine the province’s past spending and accounting practices. He promised with great bravado that he would hold the Liberal government to account […]
Sep 17 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — In the lead up to Ontario’s recent election, the Liberals and the NDP fully costed their election promises on a year-by-year basis. They also provided forecasts of the implied deficits. The Conservatives did neither, stating only that any “deficit would be eliminated over a reasonable period”. Voters should simply “trust” them to do a better […]
Jun 2 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — All three political parties are making expensive promises future generations will have to pay for. The Liberals and the NDP to their credit have put out fully costed policy platforms. The Conservatives have not done so. Based on published data, this is what we know so far. The starting point for the budget calculations of […]
May 4 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — Recently, changes to the Main Estimates process have come under attack by the federal Opposition parties as well as by both the current and former Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO). The criticisms primarily center on the establishment of a new Budget Implementation Vote (BIV) of $7.0 billion for 2018-19, relating to the 247 spending initiatives proposed […]
Apr 12 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — There has been lots of hand wringing by fiscal conservatives over the failure of the 2018 federal budget to commit to eliminating the deficit by a fixed date. This, despite the fact that the federal deficit will be less than 0.5% of GDP and the ratio of debt to GDP (the debt burden) will fall […]
Mar 31 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — The print and TV media recently picked up on a statement in the 2018 Budget that the federal government’s “market” debt would exceed $1 trillion. They reported this as the tipping point for federal finances, as if the government had hit the proverbial “fiscal wall”. The former Parliamentary Budget Officer, Kevin Page, observed, “the $1 […]
Mar 5 2018 — C. Scott Clark and Peter DeVries — National Newswatch — Most economists who follow federal budgets probably didn’t think much of Mr. Morneau’s recent budget. In their view, there is too much new spending; spending on government operations is growing too fast; and, there is no commitment to deficit elimination. They would probably give the budget a failing grade in judging its overall fiscal credibility. […]