Canada’s federal debt-to-GDP ratio will grow and remain above its 2022–23 level for two years before gradually declining over the medium term, according to an assessment by the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), despite the federal government’s earlier promises of deficit reduction. Budget 2023 projected that the ratio would rise from 42.4 percent in 2022–23 to 43.5…

The Alberta government expressed concern about the level of spending in the federal budget tabled Tuesday, which anticipates $43 billion in net new spending over six years, even as federal debt has hit an eyewatering $1.18 trillion. President of the Alberta Treasury Board and Minister of Finance Travis Toews said the province was analyzing the…

Commentary There are many tools that political leaders can use to ensure good governance. One of them is a firm commitment to fiscal management. A government should act prudently in terms of the way it spends the taxpayers’ money, introduces social programs and financial measures, manages economic crises, balances budgets, controls debt and deficit spending,…

OTTAWA—The federal government says its preliminary deficit for the last fiscal year was $314 billion, an unprecedented figure caused by an equally unprecedented economic shock. The early deficit figure for the 12−month period between April 2020 to March 2021 compares to a deficit of $21.8 billion over the preceding fiscal year. The government says in…