Cape Breton MPs complicit regarding massive debt

I believe Cape Breton MPs Mark Eyking and Rodger Cuzner are complicit in the government spending spree that is driving up taxes on small business and burying the next generation of Canadians further in debt.

Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau introduced the 2018/2019 budget on Feb. 27 in what was meant to be the final deficit budget for this sitting government before their promise to balance the books in 20192020.

Well, guess what? Now they are projecting deficit budgets for the next quarter century. Irresponsible governments in this country have totaled $1.4 trillion in total debt shared between federal and provincial governments. As noted by Dr. David Johnson’s recent column (“Making dollars and sense of the federal budget,” Feb. 28) in the Cape Breton Post, in 2015-2016 the total debt stood at $615.9 billion with the cost of servicing the debt at $25.5 billion, which was 8.6 per cent of total federal spending.

Do the Cape Breton Members of Parliament see nothing wrong with this?

The current government talking points include lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7, lowest unemployment in nearly 40 years and investing in Canadians. What they fail to mention is that the total debt is still going up and that government is engaging in subterfuge against small business with tax changes that punish them. The debt-to-GDP ratio absolves government of the ultimate responsibility of balancing budgets and paying off the debt. This government is also on pace to accumulate more debt than any other government in Canadian history during a non-war period.

There are reasons to worry about the economy. The country saw massive job losses in January of this year with 88,000 total Canadian jobs lost in one month which was the biggest loss of employment in Canada in nine years. In addition to that, February’s labour market numbers show that the private sector shrank for another month in February.

Will Cape Breton’s MPs please address if they have a concern with the total debt accumulated? Do they have concerns that their government has shattered their deficit election promise? Do they recognize that the economy is not as strong as their government is telling us? Canadians would like to know. Brandon Ellis Whitney Pier