Madam Speaker, happy new year.
I speak on Bill C-14 this afternoon, which is legislation that, among other things, increases the federal spending authority from a staggering $1.1 trillion to an astronomical $1.8 trillion.
For a government that spends tens of billions of dollars here, hundreds of billions of dollars there, racks up a debt of more than $1 trillion, it is tough to keep track of exactly what $1.8 trillion means in context. My friend, colleague and former fellow finance committee member, the hon. member for Charleswood—St. James—Assiniboia—Headingley, put it into some important context yesterday when he spoke to Bill C-14. In that regard, my colleague noted that in the more than 150 years since Canada's founding in 1867, total accumulated federal debt equalled $700 billion in the beginning of 2020. In the span of a single year, that debt level rose an astounding 50% to $1.1 trillion. Now we have before us legislation that is contemplating and indeed authorizing the debt ceiling to rise to $1.8 trillion—in other words, more than double the total accumulated debt since 1867, all within the span of a little more than a year.
If that is not unsustainable, I frankly do not know what is, yet one would not know that if one were to listen to the speeches from Liberal MPs across the way. They seem to believe there is no issue and go on at great lengths to pat themselves on the back for the supposedly wonderful job they have been doing since COVID and, more broadly, for the government's economic track record.
If the metric by which to judge the government was on the basis of how much it spent, it absolutely could pat itself on the back or get an A, but when it comes to delivering results for Canadians, someone who is objective would be hard pressed to give the current government anything close to an A, for its track record has been wanting, to say the least. After all, it is a government that has delivered the second-highest unemployment rate in the G7, save for the stagnant and socialist economy of Italy. It is a government that has delivered the slowest rate of economic growth in the G7. It is a government that has presided over a decline with respect to Canada's competitiveness. Under Prime Minister Harper's government, Canada was within the top 10 countries in the world with respect to competitiveness. We have now fallen to 17th and we are declining further.
The current government presided over a time when we have seen divestment from Canada, with $160 billion of investment in the energy sector gone. In the last week we saw a major pipeline project, the Keystone XL pipeline project, cancelled for the second time by the second U.S. administration under the current Prime Minister's watch, and he could barely pick up the phone and call the new president to make a case for Keystone as thousands of Canadians lost their jobs, including Canadians in my very hard-hit home province of Alberta.
Consumption is set to grow five times faster than investment over the next two years, and, as depressing as those economic numbers are, when one speaks of the massive deficit, the massive mountain of debt that has been accumulated, it is not any rosier. Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio has hit a staggering 387%, including government, personal and corporate debt. By far and away, it is the second highest in the G7, save only for Japan, which ekes us out for first place at a little over 400%, which is hardly something we should be aspiring to.
When it comes to the federal debt-to-GDP ratio, the numbers are equally concerning, with that ratio climbing from 31% last year to 56% for next year. Sometimes when we talk about numbers, they need to be put in context, so what is the context of going from a 31% debt-to-GDP ratio to 56%? The historical high was 66.6% in 1996, at a time when the Wall Street Journal ran the unflattering headline “Bankrupt Canada”, comparing us with a third world banana republic. There was truth to that unfortunate headline, inasmuch as Canada was effectively bankrupt in 1996. Literally no one would buy Canada's debt. That, of course, resulted in very difficult decisions, with significant cuts being made to social programs and transfers to the provinces by the former Chrétien Liberal government.
Very simply put, why would we ever want to go back to those years? However, that is where we are headed if we stay on the current course.
It is true that right now interest rates are very low, at around 1%. That is about the only thing this government has going for it at the present time. However, the Parliamentary Budget Officer and the former head of the Bank of Canada, in testimony before the finance committee, stated that interest rates are bound to go up in the foreseeable future as a result of inflationary pressures. That really should not be news to anyone. Therefore, when one thinks about a simple 1% hike, let alone the average rate over the past number of decades being 5%, it is very difficult to imagine the cost of servicing the now $1.1 trillion debt, which is soon to be $1.8 trillion in debt, and if the government does not change course, it will be over $2 trillion in debt.
What Canadians need right now is more than a plan to spend money; we need a plan to get Canadians back to work, to get businesses open again and to do it safely, and that includes a strategy around a vaccine distribution plan. In that regard the current government has no plan. Canadians deserve to get their lives back. They deserve a plan from the government and, unfortunately, that has been sorely lacking.