My name is Franco Terrazzano. I'm the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. We're a non-partisan advocacy group that has been fighting for lower taxes, less waste and more accountable government for more than 30 years. I thank you for inviting us to present today.
The year 2070 is when Canadians can expect to see their next balanced budget under the current trajectory laid out in budget 2021, and that's according to data published by the Parliamentary Budget Officer. That would add another $2.7 trillion to the debt tab, and taxpayers would lose out on about $3.8 trillion just to pay interest charges on the debt over those five decades of deficits.
That's trillions of dollars that can't go to hiring more nurses, reducing class sizes or fixing potholes. That's trillions of dollars that can't stay in families' pockets to help with the groceries or to make sure the kids get to hockey practice. That money would be going to the bond fund managers through interest payments.
Right now, each Canadian's individual share of the debt federally is about $30,000. By 2070, that could reach $67,000. It's a massive debt that we're piling onto the backs of Canadians' kids and grandkids. Right now, many families are already struggling with inflation and are rightly asking how they're going to pay for this unprecedented amount of government spending. Of course, there's technically nothing stopping the government from balancing its budget long before 2070, but this government is using the cloud of COVID-19 to go on a debt-fuelled spending binge.
In the last budget, the government planned to increase permanent spending by more than $100 billion by 2026, and that's already on top of spending that had reached all-time highs even before the pandemic. In 2018-19, before the pandemic or any Canada-wide recession, the government spent more money than it did during any single year during World War II, and that's even after accounting for changes in inflation and population growth.
In our budget submission, the CTF has outlined a plan to get to a balanced budget in 2023-24 by returning program spending to prepandemic levels, adjusted upward for inflation and population growth. We are calling on the government to balance the budget by returning to all-time high levels of spending before the pandemic.
How do we get there? Well, with the massive amount of money that the government has been borrowing for years, finding savings in each department should be like finding water in the ocean.
Of course, the government must do the little things right: no more blowing thousands of dollars on sex-toy shows in Germany and no more marijuana simulation kits for the military or spending thousands of dollars on red-carpet parties for communications staff.
The government must also do the big things right: no more giving 312,000 federal bureaucrats pay raises during a pandemic while their neighbours lose their jobs and perhaps their businesses and take pay cuts, and no more giving businesses like the Ford Motor Corporation $295 million. Also, we can't keep increasing the blank cheque the government gives to some premiers by $1 billion every year forever.
There must also be leadership at the top. That means ending the pandemic pay raises that MPs and senators continue to gobble up. That also means that a Governor General shouldn't be able to leave the role early after serving for only about three years and still be eligible collect her pension to age 90, totalling about $4.8 million. That also means ending the expense account for retired Governors General, who can expense taxpayers for more than $200,000 every single year for the rest of their lives, including for up to six months after their deaths.
This government can balance the budget, stop piling debt onto Canadians' kids and grandkids, reduce the amount of money we're giving to the bond fund managers on Bay Street and avoid tax hikes by returning spending to prepandemic levels, which were already at all-time highs.
I assume that you're going to hear from hundreds of individuals and groups asking for more money. I am here on behalf of 235,000 Canadian taxpayers across Canada who are asking for less. For a bit of added context, since I've been talking, about $1.3 million more has been added onto the debt.
Thank you. I look forward to your questions.