The federal government is continuing its high-spending ways despite the end of its rationale for doing so, say the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) and others concerned about long-term economic consequences. “Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has spent, or has planned to spend, $541.9 billion in new measures—almost one third of which [$176.6 billion] is not part of the COVID-19 response plan,” PBO Yves Giroux said announcing his mid-January report commenting on the feds’ 2021 economic and fiscal update (EFU) published Dec. 14, 2021. The new measures announced in the EFU are largely in addition to the measures included in the Liberals’ 2021 election platform, Giroux said, noting in his estimate that the “remaining platform measures would amount to $48.5 billion in net new spending over 2021–22 to 2025–26.” Aaron Wudrick, director of the Macdonald-Laurier Institute’s Domestic Policy Program, says the pandemic gave political cover for the Liberals …