Honourable Chair, I thank both you and the honourable committee members for giving me the opportunity to present to you today as a witness. My name is Brandon Ellis, and I am a policy and advocacy specialist with the St. John's Board of Trade.
St. John's Board of Trade is a business association. We represent about 800 businesses in the St. John's and surrounding area. We're also members of the Atlantic Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
The St. John's Board of Trade is here today to express our grave concern with a number of different issues—deficits, taxes and issues of competitiveness. In the 2015 election it was promised by the current government that modest deficits would be run for the first three years, and then the budget would be balanced in 2019. Not only has the budget not been balanced; it has also since been revealed that the budget will not be balanced until 2040-41. In the 2019 budget as well, a total of over $40 billion in new spending measures was introduced.
A study by the Fraser Institute has concluded that as a result of spending over the past four years, this government has accumulated more debt than any other government in the history of our country—