SPENDING FAR FROM BALANCED

Federal finance officials announced Friday the Trudeau government is on track to record a deficit of $28.5 billion this fiscal year (2017-18), as predicted by Finance Minister Bill Morneau in his March budget.

In that light, let’s review the deficits that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau projected when he was running for election in 2015, compared to what’s happened since.

So it’s easy to keep track, we’ll do it year by year.

During the election, Trudeau said his 2016-17 deficit target was $9.9 billion. His actual deficit came in at $23 billion.

During the election, Trudeau said his 201718 deficit target was $9.5 billion. His projected deficit is now $28.5 billion.

During the election, Trudeau said his 201819 deficit target was $5.7 billion. His projected deficit is now $27.4 billion.

During the election, Trudeau said his 2019-20 target was a $1 billion surplus. His projected deficit is now $23.4 billion, with continuing annual deficits after that.

This means that in his four-year term of office, covering the fiscal years 2016-17 to 201920, Trudeau projected during the 2015 election that his deficits would total $24.1 billion, including a $1 billion surplus in 2019-20.

According to Trudeau’s March 2017 budget, these deficits are now projected to total $102.3 billion with a $23.4-billion deficit in 2019-20, and no end to projected deficits if he’s reelected.

That means Trudeau’s projected deficits for the four-year lifespan of his government are now $78.2 billion higher than the $24.1 billion he predicted in 2015, or 224 per cent higher than he projected.

To be fair, Morneau’s deficit projections include a $3-billion annual contingency fund, so let’s remove that from the equation.

Even with that, Trudeau’s projected deficits for the life of his government are $66.2 billion higher than the $24.1 billion he predicted in 2015, or 175 per cent higher than he projected.

You know, when Trudeau said before he became PM that “the budget will balance itself” it would have been nice if he’d mentioned that it wasn’t going to balance itself under himself.