Congratulations Trudeau! You made it! $1 trillion!

[Gone_Fishin]

Federal government's total 'market debt' now tops $1 trillion, documents show


Former budget officer warns federal books at risk of fiscal shock in the face of rising interest rates

Murray Brewster · CBC News · Posted: Mar 26, 2018 7:00 AM ET | Last Updated: 5 hours ago

The federal government's market debt — the debt on which Ottawa pays interest — has topped $1 trillion for the first time, Department of Finance documents show.

It is a milestone, says former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page.

snip

Passing the $1 trillion threshold

Buried in the recent federal budget is a passing reference to both the market debt and the limits of the federal government's ability to borrow.

Officials at Finance say the country's total "debt stock" will be $1.029 trillion when the fiscal year ends on Saturday.

It will go even higher in the coming fiscal year.

Finance Minister Bill Morneau's recent fiscal plan noted that "outstanding government and Crown corporation market debt is projected to reach $1,066 billion ($1.066 trillion) in 2018-19."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/federal ... -1.4590441

[justincase]

Canadian Conservatives elected just 38% of the time are responsible for 75% of all federal Government debt. So what's your point GF?

[Gone_Fishin]

^^ Because Jordan Brennan, an "economist" for Unifor, the big union in Trudeau's camp, says so. Okay, thanks for the nice picture. Looks like he has nice crayons, too.

[jimmy4321]

I guess the point is a Con gov based on their history of fiscal management, would have hit that high mark a year or so ago.

[Merry]

I worry about the apparent inability of Governments, ALL Governments, to be financially responsible with our money. They're so busy catering to their base, that they forget that the money they're spending to buy our votes isn't theirs to spend for that purpose.

If we could wave a wand and remove all the "vote buying" tax expenditures that have been introduced over the years, we'd all be paying a lot less tax and would have a far simpler tax return to complete at tax time.

If we could use the same wand to get rid of all the stuff Government's have implemented merely to please their large donors, or their political base, without much thought to whether or not such stuff benefits the entire country over the long haul, we'd all be a lot better off. Ditto if we could get them to think long term, rather than no further than the next election and all the vote buying strategies they employ during their last year in office.

But unfortunately we all know none of the above is going to happen, unless there's some sort of huge change and ordinary people begin to get a lot more involved in the political process than they currently are. We also all need to stop being so gullible and falling for the vote buying strategy party's employ at election time. If we already know that what we're being promised is something we can't collectively afford, why are we so surprised when the promise is broken? Or if our taxes are increased to pay for said promise? Is it really fair to blame those in office when such situations arise? Or do we need to start looking at ourselves instead, and begin being more realistic in our expectations?

[The Green Barbarian]

these Liberals are spending like drunken sailors. You can point at prior governments, and definitely Justin's evil dad and Brian Mulroney did their fair share, but these current clowns are out of control. This is why I didn't want to see Mr. Just Not Ready get a majority. It was a licence to spend like an idiot. And he is doing just that.

[justincase]

^^ Because Jordan Brennan, an "economist" for Unifor, the big union in Trudeau's camp, says so. Okay, thanks for the nice picture. Looks like he has nice crayons, too.

Good try GF, I see you have provided no alternative source of Canada's debt to counter mine.WHY? Because it doesn't exist.

[The Green Barbarian]

Good try GF, I see you have provided no alternative source of Canada's debt to counter mine.WHY? Because it doesn't exist.

Who cares? What everyone should be concerned about is the massive dope we have as a PM RIGHT NOW. The only alternatives anyone should be talking about is the alternatives to the pinheads we have running the country at the present time.

[justincase]

Who cares? What everyone should be concerned about is the massive dope we have as a PM RIGHT NOW. The only alternatives anyone should be talking about is the alternatives to the pinheads we have running the country at the present time.

Everyone cares GB. Yours is just blind, unreasonable, partisan hate, but now I am here every day, after day after day to call you on it, which is too easy and fun!

That "massive dope has put Canada back onto the road to prosperity and a healthy balanced economy. CETA, CPTPP, Paris Accord, Canada healthcare Accord, Keystone, Canada's most expensive carbon capture oil refinery, NAFTA is looking really good now, go team Canada!

[Merry]

And a heck of a lot of debt for our kids and grandkids to pay off. Nice going Trudeau!!!!!!!

[Merry]

An economy funded by debt is not sustainable in the long term. So enjoy what we have now while you can, because if the Libs don't soon get our economy on a more sustainable footing, we're in a big drop in our standard of living.

The marked slowdown in Canada’s economic growth reflects the economy’s failure to make the transition from household and government spending to exports and business investment that the Bank of Canada has tried to engineer for years.

The Bank of Canada wants to make this transition because household and government spending growth has been partly sustained by more borrowing, leaving it vulnerable to higher interest rates when the bank begins to normalize interest rates. As well, exports and business investment are more sustainable sources of long-term growth, with the added bonus that more investment would raise Canada’s long-term potential.

However, the reality is the economy has failed to shift from household and government spending to exports and business investment. The implication is that for exports and business investment to replace all the dollars generated by household and government spending, they would have to grow much faster than the latter.

Instead of rising faster, the growth of exports and business investment has not even kept pace with household and government spending, never mind replace it dollar for dollar. Since the end of 2014, household and government spending combined has risen by nearly $120 billion. Over the same time period, exports have increased by only $20 billion, while business investment fell by $40 billion. In terms of growth rates, household and government spending rose by 8.6 per cent, more than double the 3.9 per cent gain in exports, while business investment fell by 15.7 per cent.

http://business.financialpost.com/opini ... ing-growth

[justincase]

And a heck of a lot of debt for our kids and grandkids to pay off. Nice going Trudeau!!!!!!!

How so? PE Trudeau added $77.4 billion debt, Mulroney added $330.3 debt, Chretien/Martin paid off 6 billion of Canada's federal debt and left a $13 billion surplus, Harpercon debt $128 billion. Justin's Debt $40 billion.

http://www.debtclock.ca/

[justincase]

The Bank of Canada wants to make this transition because household and government spending growth has been partly sustained by more borrowing,

This is a Financial Post OPINION piece. That for some reason includes household debt, I tracked this back to Philip Cross from the Monk Institute There are no statistics, studies that he has based his opinion on and no explanation why he would include non-governmental debt (caused by the Conservatives) in his conversation (this is only conversation, a one-sided conversation by Philip Cross and not a study nor based on a study. Some would simply call this rhetoric) . Canada's household debt (different than consumer debt) is at an all-time high and among the highest in the world. This was caused starting in 2006 when the Conservatives Liberalized Canada's mortgage laws and introduced the 40-year mortgage, a policy so negligent, the Authour, Jim Flaherty, had to rewrite his own legislation in less than two years and reduced the Amortization period to 35 years (still a ridiculous extended time period). Because of these Liberal lending policies, Canada was on the precipice of financial collapse, but, luckily, in 2015 Canadian chose a more fiscally Conservative government who tighten up the Liberal lending laws and now for the first time in decades, Canada's household debt is now beginning to reduce!

[OldIslander]

I didn't care much for Chretien back when was PM. But as the years have gone by, it's become clear that he was a really good PM.

Among many other things, he made the decision that Canada would not participate in Dubya Bush's Iraq war -- a decision that turned out to be brilliant... And who can forget the 'Shawinigan Handshake' -- I'm surprised young Trudeau hasn't apologized for that (yet...).

But what Chretien did that was brilliant, as per the graph further up this thread, was that he directed his Min. of Finance to practice restraint -- Canada did actually 'make money' and pay down the debt during those years. He's possibly the only PM to do that in the past 50 years.

Canada was booming, interest rates were low, and they didn't *bleep* away quite as much money politicking as past (and present) governments normally do. It was bloody brilliant.

Canada is booming now, and interest rates are still low. It's almost criminally irresponsible that Jr Trudeau isn't doing the same.

As Joni used to sing, 'Sometimes ya don't know what ya got 'till it's gone'...!

[Brass Monkey]

Good try GF, I see you have provided no alternative source of Canada's debt to counter mine.WHY? Because it doesn't exist.

Who cares? What everyone should be concerned about is the massive dope we have as a PM RIGHT NOW. The only alternatives anyone should be talking about is the alternatives to the pinheads we have running the country at the present time.

Yes lets elect a man like trump instead who has added 1.5 trillion to the debt since inauguration. He is definitely not a pinhead.