Erin O’Toole emphasizes the Conservative goal of balancing the budget “without cutbacks” in ten years.
The Conservative leader said Canada essentially borrows more than $400 million every day, resulting in a $354-billion deficit last year due to emergency spending measures caused by the COVID-19 outbreak, during a campaign event from the party’s broadcast center in an Ottawa hotel.
O’Toole says that, if he elected, he will roll out more stimulus spending but will end much of it after the first year and wind it down completely over five years.
Conservative officials have said the robust economic recovery on which the Tory plan rests assumes annual GDP growth of roughly three per cent, a target reached only once since 2011.
Both the Liberal budget and the NDP platform make no mention of fiscal balance, with both parties claiming that investing in economic and social programs can boost the economy and create money more effectively than cutting budgets.
Statistics Canada released data earlier today suggesting that the country’s GDP suffered its worst quarter since the outbreak began, declining by 1.1 percent from April to June and probably dropping even more in July.
Source_ The Canadian Press
