Juno News - Carney adds BILLIONS in debt — but can Canadians afford it？

00:00:00.000 Welcome to The Fighter on Juno News. I'm your host, Chris Sims. Oh my goodness. Folks,

00:00:11.460 remember when we kept on hearing that Prime Minister Mark Carney, he's a super genius when

00:00:17.040 it comes to economics. Oh, he's so good with math and money. We can trust him because he's

00:00:21.920 really highly educated from Oxford. He's got all these cool degrees.

00:00:26.500 A lot of us actually were hopeful. I'll admit it.

00:00:30.000 I was a little bit hopeful that compared to the Trudeau years, where we saw the national debt doubled under the federal liberal government, I allowed myself to have a little bit of hope.

00:00:41.660 I'm like, okay, well, he's got a PhD in economics, apparently super smart dude.

00:00:47.620 I mean, he's been the head of two central banks, Bank of Canada and the Bank of England.

00:00:53.740 He must know how to use a calculator and an abacus, right?

00:00:57.160 Right?

00:00:57.380 Well, he's saving money wrong. He's doing the math wrong. Because we just saw a financial update. Basically, what it was was a mini budget update was just released on Parliament Hill.

00:01:12.940 Oh my goodness. We're adding again more than $60 billion to the debt. More than $60 billion extra

00:01:24.860 dollars to the debt. Remember not so long ago when there was this big puppet show on Parliament Hill

00:01:31.700 when Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland was there and Justin Trudeau was still our Prime Minister

00:01:37.820 And she apparently quit out of principle because we were going past the guardrail.

00:01:43.600 I can't believe I'm saying that term.

00:01:45.260 The guardrail of a $60 billion deficit.

00:01:48.300 Remember, the Parliamentary Press Gallery was, you know, hanging on every word. 0.94

00:01:53.120 She was super mad. 0.81

00:01:54.160 That was a guardrail, guardrail. 0.94

00:01:56.300 Carney's blowing through it.

00:01:58.580 Carney, as Prime Minister, is blowing through it.

00:02:02.160 this is why we say who could have thunk that the guy with a PhD in economics is handling money

00:02:11.080 worse than the drama teacher worse I'm sorry this is getting grim but there's no plan to balance

00:02:21.060 the budget like even in three years time or four years time and I'm sorry but the interest

00:02:32.140 we're paying on the budget, on the debt, the interest on the national debt is costing us

00:02:39.740 more than a billion dollars a week. And it's going to get much worse over the next four years.

00:02:47.520 Folks, buckle up, grab yourself a coffee, a calculator and a pencil. I know you have them

00:02:52.740 handy because we all just finished doing our taxes. You have to hear this. Let's listen.

00:02:58.800 Joining me now is my good friend and federal director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Franco Terrazzano.

00:03:05.560 Franco, this must have felt almost like a real budget for you.

00:03:10.920 However, I don't know, are we allowed to call this a budget?

00:03:13.680 It seems like a bad word to use for something with this big of a deficit.

00:03:18.220 Yeah, it felt like a real budget because lately all the budgets have massive amount of debt,

00:03:22.900 and this budget update had massive amount of debt.

00:03:26.160 And like, look, the major problem here, the most important number for people to remember is $60 billion.

00:03:35.980 That's how much money debt interest charges are costing taxpayers this year.

00:03:40.920 About $60 billion, more than a billion dollars a week.

00:03:44.680 You know, Chris, I crunched the numbers, right?

00:03:47.560 And it means that federal debt interest charges are going to cost each Canadian $1,400 this year, right?

00:03:54.960 That's more than $1,000 that the government is taking from you, and instead of that money going to hire more nurses, fix potholes, or lower taxes, that money is going to the bond fund managers on Bay Street just to pay interest on the debt.

00:04:08.040 Folks, $60 billion is the cost of federal debt interest charges this year.

00:04:14.980 Picture that, folks.

00:04:16.820 We've said it many times, but it's such a good visual image.

00:04:20.580 Picture building brand new hospitals, 60 of them, and then burning them all down.

00:04:25.920 That is exactly what Franco's talking about here when it comes to the interest on the debt.

00:04:30.900 And I'll admit something here, Franco.

00:04:33.500 I allowed my rose-colored glasses to sit back on my face for a second leading up to this

00:04:38.160 because I was starting to get a little hopeful.

00:04:40.760 Different radio guys were asking me, so what are you expecting in the budget?

00:04:44.280 And I tried to be hopeful.

00:04:45.360 I'm like, you know what? Maybe they're just going to have a deficit of like 20 billion and then the banker will actually balance the books within three years.

00:04:56.180 And they all laughed at me. So here we are, another huge deficit. They're adding more to the debt.

00:05:02.620 Can you just break this down for us? Like for folks who like watching our show, who like watching Juno, for reasons other than finances,

00:05:11.360 Explain to us, what's the difference between a deficit that we hear in the media and the debt, please?

00:05:18.200 Yeah, well, a deficit is just when the government spends more money than it brings in, right?

00:05:22.600 Borrowing, right?

00:05:23.660 So this year's deficit is $65 billion.

00:05:26.960 What does that mean?

00:05:27.760 It means that the federal government is borrowing $65 billion this year.

00:05:34.240 What is the debt?

00:05:35.900 That is just accumulated deficits over time, right?

00:05:39.100 how much money they've racked up borrowing over the years now the federal government's debt 1.4

00:05:45.420 trillion dollars by the end of this year now what is interest on the debt interest on the debt

00:05:50.860 remember i said it's about it's about 60 billion dollars this year yeah that's the amount of money

00:05:55.340 not paying the debt not paying down the debt just servicing the debt just paying interest on the

00:06:01.500 debt right think about your credit card you have interest on your credit card well the interest

00:06:05.500 charges on the federal debt are costing taxpayers more than a billion dollars a week like I said

00:06:11.060 the cost for each Canadian the cost for you is 1400 bucks this year just to pay interest

00:06:17.100 on that debt and Chris let me tell you something okay you have these politicians these government

00:06:23.200 MPs here in Ottawa who are all about who are all but like throwing themselves a parade because last

00:06:29.060 year's deficit last year's borrowing was a little less than what they planned okay let me break down

00:06:35.380 those numbers so last year the year that just ended they planned to borrow 78 billion dollars

00:06:42.360 gross they ended up borrowing 67 billion dollars which is still insane okay and now they want to

00:06:50.180 throw themselves a a party a parade pop the champagne let me put that huge number still

00:06:56.200 into perspective in that same year trudeau was planning to borrow 42 billion dollars

00:07:00.800 Okay, so yes, they borrowed a little bit less money than what they planned, but they're still borrowing $25 billion more than what Trudeau was planning in the exact same year. So yeah, don't go throw yourselves a party over there, MPs.

00:07:14.800 What aren't they getting about this, Franco? Because the way you break it down is so clear with these numbers. I mean, I'm sorry. If your deficit is more than $60 billion, you're saving money wrong. This is like them saying, oh yeah, we know it's a dumpster fire, but look, we didn't throw this gas canister on it. We threw 60 billion other ones on it, but we didn't do this one. Give us a pat on the head.

00:07:39.960 Like, where is the disconnect here in Ottawa between how they're supposed to be budgeting and how they're actually wasting our money?

00:07:49.600 Well, they just want to keep spending other people's money.

00:07:51.980 Now, let me talk about a slogan, right?

00:07:53.900 You hear a lot about a slogan, slogan, slogan.

00:07:56.180 Well, Carney's slogan is, what is it?

00:07:58.620 Spend less to invest more?

00:08:00.560 Whatever that means.

00:08:01.880 Okay, so you hear all the time you hear Carney, government MPs, ministers talking about all the investments that they're making, right?

00:08:08.820 well what about the spend less when are they going to spend less because we're six months

00:08:14.220 after the formal budget and Carney is already on track to spend six billion dollars over that

00:08:20.360 budget let me break down those numbers okay so Carney's first budget in November he said he was

00:08:27.140 going to spend five hundred and eighty eight billion dollars this year now six months later

00:08:31.720 you get the budget update turns out Carney's going to spend five hundred and ninety four billion

00:08:36.100 dollars okay so six months later and carney's already on track to spend six billion dollars

00:08:43.300 over budget so where's this spend less i can't see it anyone bueller bueller bueller no kidding

00:08:51.700 okay so let's put it this way so what you just said there is not only is carney going to be

00:08:59.160 borrowing more money than trudeau had been planning you're saying he's blowing his own

00:09:04.620 budgets his own budget that was out in the fall correct that is correct six billion dollars over

00:09:10.860 budget like i don't know maybe the fairest metric fairest standard to judge somebody

00:09:15.060 by is their own standard and by carney's own standard in what he just put in his budget

00:09:20.860 six months ago he's failing he's failing by overspending and it's not like his budget

00:09:27.020 was a budget that the canadian taxpayers federation would have wrote no he was already

00:09:31.220 overspending six months ago and he's about to spend six billion dollars over that budget

00:09:36.320 this is like hey you're in the drum let me let me just jump in here right let me just jump in here

00:09:41.660 because I also do want to do a comparison Carney to Trudeau okay so from 2025 through 2029

00:09:49.160 exact same years here's the debt numbers Trudeau was planning to add 112 billion dollars to the

00:09:57.100 debt. Okay. Okay. Carney is planning to add $242 billion to the debt. So over the exact same years,

00:10:08.060 Carney will be adding twice as much debt as what even Trudeau was planning. Chris,

00:10:13.720 if you were to do a blind taste test, right, put a blindfold on and, or, well, I guess that wouldn't

00:10:20.340 work, but you show people two documents. Here's Trudeau's numbers. Here's Carney's numbers.

00:10:25.240 which one is worse taxpayers are gonna say carnies yeah and if it's a taste test they're

00:10:32.260 spitting carny's budget out that's what they're doing unreal and like you keep surprising me i

00:10:38.320 mean we work together but i didn't realize it was double i didn't realize he was spent planning on

00:10:44.040 spending more than double what trudeau had been planning on spending like yeah borrowing that's

00:10:49.300 borrowing right that's just debt finance okay frankly um this is why we at the taxpayers

00:10:57.080 federation often say who could have thunk that the guy with a phd in economics who's a central

00:11:03.280 banker was going to be worse with money than the drama teacher and i stand by that because this is

00:11:09.000 absolute fiscal nonsense like this math is not mathing can you just get into the interest charges

00:11:16.760 a little bit because i think sometimes people hear interest charges on the debt and it's such

00:11:22.040 a big number they don't realize that it's it's a line item in the budget like it's nestled right

00:11:28.280 next to like department spending and minister spending correct so not in the budget right you

00:11:35.720 would imagine that what a budget would look like is that it would be line by line here's what this

00:11:40.880 minister is going to spend here's what this department's going to spend that's not really

00:11:44.380 what a budget looks like as weird as it sounds right yeah um but if you look at the main estimates

00:11:50.600 which is the government's main spending plan just the spending plan that does do that this department

00:11:55.320 is going to spend x this department is going to spend y right this department is going to spend

00:11:59.360 x and y and z that's most departments now if interest charges on the debt for its own department

00:12:06.340 it would be the third largest federal department that's according to the main estimates okay so

00:12:12.440 everyone knows that Carney is spending way more on national defense. Well, even after that massive

00:12:19.640 increase to the Department of National Defense, Carney is still going to waste more money paying

00:12:24.880 interest on than what that National Defense Department spends in the entire year, according

00:12:31.740 to those main estimates, right? So that's how big it is. Now to distill it, this is why I keep saying

00:12:36.280 folks like 1400 bucks 1400 bucks that's how much carney's debt interest charges will cost you this

00:12:43.380 year per 1,400 bucks per canadian right so family of four that's more than 4,000 bucks for your

00:12:50.120 family right holy smokes right this is a ton of money and let me just say something because i

00:12:57.020 think it's important to remember go back 10 years ago debt interest charges were just over 20 billion

00:13:03.620 dollars. Fast forward to today, 10 years later, and debt interest charges are nearly triple that

00:13:10.500 at 60 billion. Now look ahead to 2030 and debt interest charges will be 80 billion dollars

00:13:20.140 chewing through 13 cents of every dollar that the government takes.

00:13:26.180 Is anyone listening? I am, to the Conservatives' credit, I am hearing some MPs in particular

00:13:32.460 really keying in on the debt interest charges and I know that they've talked about inflation

00:13:37.780 and debt before but I've noticed I've noticed in committee I've noticed in question period

00:13:42.460 they're bringing up debt interest charges more is this message getting through to anyone else

00:13:47.320 like is the bloc raising this are there other liberals raising this like we did hear Dominic

00:13:51.980 LeBlanc a few months ago didn't he say that debt was a problem or spending was a problem

00:13:56.720 bureaucracy yeah government bureaucracy or bureaucracy is being a problem and I'm just

00:14:00.540 like well you know who was in charge you know what i mean who made this um like well you know

00:14:09.060 that is actually one of the biggest issues that we're facing that's leading to this debt um

00:14:13.280 obviously over the 10 years that trudeau was in power sorry trigger warning folks but the federal

00:14:18.840 government doubled the debt in that time right in 10 years so think of all the years before trudeau

00:14:23.780 before 2015 all the years that we had as a nation the government added up 600 billion dollars of

00:14:29.140 debt then in just 10 years under trudeau's helm another 600 billion double the debt in 10 years

00:14:35.840 your kids your grandkids maybe even your great grandkids are gonna be making payments on that

00:14:40.140 debt for the rest of their lives right so unfair so gross um but the debt exploded in lockstep with

00:14:47.700 the growth of the bureaucracy where the government added a hundred thousand extra bureaucrats the

00:14:52.180 cost of the bureaucracy went up 80 percent in 10 years and it's not like there was a bureaucrat

00:14:58.120 shortage in ottawa before trudeau took power no you're tripping over them if you're walking around

00:15:04.120 downtown you're tripping over them people will screwing around to their tim hortons with lanyards

00:15:08.380 on their necks okay um is this how we save money so people will come forward and be like okay smart

00:15:14.440 guy if you're so smart how do you balance the budget do we start with cutting the size of the

00:15:20.140 bureaucracy well i think you ought to start with saying maybe the prime minister shouldn't be

00:15:24.320 spending half a million dollars on airplane food in a year right maybe start there maybe members

00:15:28.960 of parliament uh didn't need another pay raise their 14th consecutive pay raise in a row annual

00:15:34.340 pay raise in a row i don't know maybe the um the government doesn't need to spend eight million

00:15:38.380 bucks building a barn at redo hall i don't know maybe start with that stuff but yeah the big the

00:15:44.160 big stuff that you have to go after is the bureaucracy for sure it's already more than

00:15:48.020 70 billion dollars a year um you know more than half of the government's day-to-day spending is

00:15:53.140 consumed by the bureaucracy. So there's no getting around it. Let's look at some other

00:15:56.840 places. Corporate welfare. Corporate welfare in total is about $11 billion a year. That's

00:16:02.820 about $1,100 out of the pockets of the average Canadian family of four given to corporations.

00:16:09.180 Awful. Foreign aid, $11 billion a year. The government is spending almost twice as much

00:16:15.960 on foreign aid as what it spends through the entire Department of Veterans Affairs.

00:16:21.100 Okay, so those are three big examples.

00:16:23.280 I'll give you a fourth big example.

00:16:25.060 Not only has the bureaucracy balloon,

00:16:27.400 so has the spending on the consultants,

00:16:29.760 the contractors, and the outsourcing.

00:16:32.100 It more than doubled in 10 years between 2015 and 2024.

00:16:37.020 And despite every year hearing government,

00:16:39.740 hearing politicians promising to cut back on these costs,

00:16:42.440 they keep spending more.

00:16:43.540 And in fact, this year, the spending on consultants,

00:16:46.440 the contractors, the outsourcing

00:16:47.800 will jump up again to 27 billion dollars. So I just off the top of my head gave you four big

00:16:53.480 places and a bunch of small places. So for folks who haven't worked in the parliamentary precinct

00:17:00.000 as we call it what Franco just described there with the consultants is really key especially

00:17:05.380 when you combine that with the size of the bureaucracy. So the people you see on the front

00:17:10.820 bench in question period folks those are the ministers. Behind them so to speak not in the

00:17:16.200 House are the departments, okay? You mentioned the Veterans Affairs Department, mentioned National

00:17:21.040 Defense, okay? So what you need to do is picture that minister with his or her staff speaking to

00:17:27.140 the department. The department is full of bureaucrats. The bureaucrat number has exploded,

00:17:34.820 okay? Exploded in the last 10 years. Now imagine that not just in that room with all the little

00:17:41.760 binders and their conference calls and their live translation and all this stuff. Picture just a

00:17:47.880 swarm of consultants outside the building. Okay. They're sending your money outside the building.

00:17:54.700 They're not just burning through it on their stupid 50th meeting of the day. They're sending 0.99

00:17:59.140 it outside the building and consultants. It's truly mind blowing how much money we're spending

00:18:05.180 here. And I just wanted you to repeat that one stat. I know I always get you to, but I can't

00:18:10.040 believe it we're spending twice as much on foreign aid outside the country as we are on our own

00:18:15.880 veterans within canada yeah the federal government spends 11 billion dollars on foreign aid your money

00:18:21.740 going overseas which which means that the federal government is spending almost twice as much on

00:18:27.560 foreign aid as what it spends through the entire department of veterans affairs

00:18:31.720 brutal and for folks who don't know what veterans affairs does okay for the the handful of folks

00:18:39.900 who we still have left from the second world war we're losing many per day obviously because

00:18:43.960 they're aging they do everything from you know driving them to doctor's appointments getting

00:18:49.180 them eyeglasses shoveling their snow okay um getting them a lift if they're in a wheelchair

00:18:55.200 for their homes like taking care of men and women who have served in the canadian uniform

00:19:00.760 we're spending twice as much on foreign aid like my skin is crawling right now um hey speaking of

00:19:07.020 corporate welfare and how we need to save money there. Do we want to shift gears to the sovereign

00:19:12.360 wealth fund? Yeah, we do. Because look, just super misleading, right? Carney, the day before

00:19:19.120 this budget update, and you know, they have this big press conference. And by the way, so many in

00:19:24.100 the media just picked up the headline that the government wanted, where Carney launches what

00:19:29.340 is called the Canada Strong Fund or some silly name like that. And Carney and his government

00:19:35.120 are trying to label it as Canada's first national sovereign wealth fund.

00:19:40.220 So misleading because, one, it's not a sovereign wealth fund.

00:19:45.060 It is a debt-fueled corporate slush fund.

00:19:48.300 It is not a sovereign wealth fund at all.

00:19:50.940 The whole point of a sovereign wealth fund is to save the wealth

00:19:56.000 that has already been created.

00:19:58.280 So, for example, you have oil revenues.

00:20:01.160 You save some of that money.

00:20:02.520 you put it in a fund and you allow it to accumulate interest or you take some of your budget surplus

00:20:08.260 you put it in the fund it does the same that is what a sovereign wealth fund is supposed to do

00:20:13.540 and a sovereign wealth fund fundamentally is supposed to be a guardrail to protect taxpayers

00:20:20.460 and citizens from politicians who may be tempted to raid the wealth of a nation and spend it on

00:20:26.700 their pet project. That is the whole point of a sovereign wealth fund. That is not what Kearney

00:20:32.060 is doing. Kearney, here's what he's doing, is he's going to borrow another $25 billion,

00:20:38.460 put it into a fund, and then risk taxpayers' money on handouts to corporations and projects

00:20:46.880 in Canada. That is the exact opposite of what a sovereign wealth fund is supposed to do.

00:20:52.480 I want to be really clear here for folks, because this is how these cookies get made, okay? This is how this stew gets put together in Ottawa. So they put out little feelers before an announcement, and it creates buzz, okay? And buzzwords are attached to the buzz, and it creates clicks. And the term Sovereign Wealth Fund was zipping around the night before. And lo and behold, the next day, that's what the media, mainstream media is talking about.

00:21:19.060 And for folks who do follow financial news and maybe business news and stuff, hearing the term Sovereign Wealth Fund might have set a switch of, wait a minute, what is that?

00:21:31.280 Norway has a Sovereign Wealth Fund.

00:21:34.460 Last I looked, it has trillions, plural, with a T.

00:21:40.400 U.S. dollars squirreled away in it, okay?

00:21:43.620 Because they use their oil and gas revenue in order to save it.

00:21:47.760 And then, from what I understand, they invest it outside of Norway in order to ensure the wealth for future generations, exactly as Franco just described.

00:21:57.840 Am I correct on that?

00:21:59.480 Yeah.

00:21:59.880 So let me break it all down, right?

00:22:01.660 So first of all, why would Carney want to call it a sovereign wealth fund?

00:22:05.940 Well, that sounds better than calling it what it is, a debt-fueled corporate slush fund.

00:22:11.220 That's what it actually is.

00:22:12.680 Okay. But he just figures that people probably would rather not, wouldn't like that. So let's

00:22:18.640 just call it a sovereign wealth fund. Now let's talk about the gold standard policy of sovereign

00:22:23.380 wealth funds, which is Norway. Okay. What happens in Norway? They save oil revenues, right? Then

00:22:31.820 they put it into the fund and then there are strict limits on how they can spend the money

00:22:38.060 that is accumulated in that fund, right?

00:22:40.740 So some of the limits include they only spend the interest, right?

00:22:44.740 So they don't eat away at the principle of the fund.

00:22:47.980 They're only allowed to spend the interest.

00:22:49.700 Another key safeguard is that they only spend it abroad.

00:22:55.300 Now, why would they do that?

00:22:56.380 A couple of reasons, one for diversification, 0.96

00:22:58.780 but number two, to make sure that politicians aren't raiding the fund 0.77

00:23:03.780 to then spend money on their political pet projects in their own backyard.

00:23:08.060 Right now doesn't sound doesn't that sound almost the exact opposite of what Carney is doing right Norway saves money they save the the oil revenues Carney is borrowing 25 billion dollars that's the opposite Norway okay has strict limits on how the spending of the fund goes for example only on projects abroad.

00:23:32.080 carney is going to spend the money what it seems like on just pet projects here in canada

00:23:39.360 and by carney i mean the government whoever is overseeing this fund obviously sure sure at our

00:23:45.560 expense um so i phoned you earlier this week very worried because of this so-called sovereign wealth

00:23:53.720 fund which i refuse to call it it is just a green slush fund our corporate slush fund whatever

00:23:58.120 want to call it. I'm seeing some chess pieces moved around here. Tell me if I'm crazy. We've

00:24:06.300 got this slush fund. And before that, we had the, what is it? Major Projects Office that doesn't

00:24:12.100 have major projects from private investors clamoring yet. There's no takers. And we have

00:24:17.620 this MOU, the Memorandum of Understanding, which is stalled. I pray it's because Alberta Premier

00:24:24.580 Daniel Smith is refusing to jack up a carbon tax on Albertans. I hope that's the reason why this

00:24:30.680 thing has stalled. But if those two things are combined, those three things are combined together,

00:24:34.980 Franco, I'm very worried that we're going to wind up in a situation like what happened with the

00:24:40.800 Kinder Morgan pipeline. So we had a private investor, a private company wanting to twin

00:24:45.840 its own property and spend like eight billion of its own dollars. But who cares how much it was?

00:24:51.200 it was its own money. Enter the federal government, who delayed and choked it off and screwed it up

00:24:56.640 for so long, so badly, that the company walked away, and then taxpayers were left twinning this

00:25:03.540 pipeline to the tune of about $35 billion. What was supposed to be an $8 billion investment from

00:25:10.840 a private company turned into $35 billion from taxpayers' wallets. I'm really worried that this

00:25:17.780 is just going to be used as cover to build pipelines at taxpayers very inflated expense

00:25:23.920 oh i mean it could very well be the case like uh but it's it would likely be way more than just

00:25:30.640 pipelines right like it's like that's why i call it a corporate slush fund because it's not just

00:25:35.700 going to be one thing it's going to be a whole bunch of uh you know going to the casino with

00:25:40.720 taxpayers money very risky you know gambling taxpayers money on these risky corporate handouts

00:25:46.040 and like i just have to say the obvious number one if a company and a project is profitable

00:25:51.620 then it doesn't need taxpayers money nope and if a company or project is not profitable

00:25:57.740 then it definitely shouldn't be getting taxpayers money right either way there is no reason to be

00:26:03.400 putting taxpayers on the hook for what should be a business decision right it's the old uh i think

00:26:08.920 this is actually a left-wing kind of phrase but it's 100 correct when they say what uh privatize

00:26:15.740 the profits socialize the costs like that is what happens with corporate welfare like they were

00:26:21.460 right i i missed the old term the corporate welfare bums right let's bring that back like

00:26:26.420 let's get that um let's get that argument coming back here from politicians right so um no this is

00:26:32.660 this is just almost the opposite of what any sovereign wealth fund should be right i mean

00:26:39.180 it's right in the name it's wealth it's supposed to be wealth you are saving the wealth of the

00:26:43.600 nation, whether saving oil revenues, non-renewable natural resource revenues, or budget surpluses.

00:26:50.340 But that's not what this is. This is more like a sovereign debt fund. I know that term's been used.

00:26:54.980 I think the best way to describe it, sorry, is a debt-fueled corporate slush fund. Now, Chris,

00:27:01.580 this was the entire problem that we talked about from the major projects office from day one,

00:27:06.820 right? Because look, if the major projects office was just, hey, we're going to look at different

00:27:10.700 ways to cut regulations cut taxes to allow canada to have a better uh environment for business and

00:27:16.840 to attract investment then okay fill your boots yeah go ahead right yeah the problem is and it

00:27:22.800 kind of looks like this is what is shaping out is that it's just a way for politicians and

00:27:27.760 bureaucrats to pretend like they know which project which couple projects are in their

00:27:32.740 national interest they have no idea but you know they'll make their subjective decisions

00:27:36.560 and then then it could those projects could potentially get subsidized by canadian taxpayers

00:27:43.400 money like this was the worry from day one right instead of having another bureaucracy to pretend

00:27:49.020 like they know what is in the national interest and potentially have taxpayers money on the hook

00:27:52.760 just cut the bad regulations and taxes that are deterring business growth and investment and

00:27:58.440 development in the first place right cut out the bureaucracy and cut out the regulations

00:28:02.840 that are strangling Canada's economy and allow all different businesses, all different industries,

00:28:08.680 all different sectors to essentially fight it out and see which ones survive in the marketplace,

00:28:14.700 which ones are best able to meet consumer demand.

00:28:17.920 To your point, just quickly for people who are watching, especially those who know history,

00:28:22.580 the term corporate welfare and corporate welfare bums, that was coined by David Lewis,

00:28:27.980 who is the grandfather of the now newly minted NDP leader, Abby Lewis. So Franco is exactly right 0.99

00:28:35.560 that that is originally a left-wing term. Please bring that back, folks. Here, Abby Lewis,

00:28:41.660 please take the term corporate welfare and corporate welfare bums and run it to the end 0.80

00:28:45.960 zone. Please. Because we need more hands on deck to fight this wasteful nonsense. Franco,

00:28:53.380 we got to wrap up in a minute here this is more of a philosophical question so sorry um why is it

00:29:02.340 that the government right now seems to think that it needs to micromanage everything why don't they

00:29:09.860 just do the smart thing what you just described there get rid of these you know cumbersome

00:29:13.940 regulations do the standard environmental check but after that get out of the way like let like

00:29:20.180 Like, ring the dinner bell for private companies to come here and invest their wealth, please.

00:29:25.560 Because it benefits everyone.

00:29:27.300 It gives Canadians good jobs.

00:29:29.120 And I don't know if they know this.

00:29:31.780 Governments make money off of corporations through corporate taxes when they're doing well.

00:29:36.980 Like, it's kind of a no-brainer.

00:29:39.240 So why is the government just getting increasingly tangled up with trying to micromanage everything?

00:29:46.400 Is this like an ideological difference that we're having here?

00:29:50.180 Yeah, I think there's maybe not even a left versus right ideological difference, but a power ideology, right? More, you know, I get to be the decision maker, I get to have more control, I get to have say, when I'm at the cocktail party, I'm the important person making this decision, rather than, you know, the different businesses in the communities who actually have skin in the game, and are actually thinking about things through economic incentives, rather than political incentives.

00:30:14.260 So I think there's that because I don't think it's, you know, a left wing versus right wing ideology, because, I mean, too often you see different parties getting power and they they look similar, right?

00:30:26.100 Too often you get that or maybe not too often.

00:30:29.240 But I'm just saying you see that you see that happen.

00:30:31.760 But I do think there's a political incentive.

00:30:33.380 Right.

00:30:34.500 And I also mean government incentive. 0.70

00:30:36.220 OK, they're trying to look for ways to justify their inflated paychecks.

00:30:40.340 Right.

00:30:40.780 hey look you need us to make these smart decisions because if they the people would

00:30:45.260 rightly catch on and be like hey why are we paying your salaries for which is actually the

00:30:49.280 right question to ask um but look yeah think about the political incentives i mean how many

00:30:54.100 times have we've talked about this where politicians they love to call a press conference

00:30:58.020 have all the lights in front of them have the cameras in front of them cut the ribbon with the

00:31:02.320 big scissors and they like to promise what a chicken in every pot is that another saying there

00:31:07.100 chris yeah right so i do think there is the political incentive right they're not spending

00:31:11.000 their own money they're not spending their uh you know shareholders money or anything like thing

00:31:16.020 like that they're spending taxpayers money and they get to fly around the country hold these

00:31:20.400 press conferences say look look how much we're doing but really at best and i mean at best it's

00:31:26.080 worse than this it's a shell game right all of this money that they are spending on corporate

00:31:32.140 welfare, all of it, all these corporate subsidies, all their investments, all of it is money that

00:31:38.220 is first taken out of the economy. It's money that is first taken from everyone, every taxpayer's

00:31:44.780 wallets in the first place, right? So at best, at best, it's a shell game. Anything else I need to

00:31:51.400 add here, Franco, before we wrap this up? Nah, wrap it up. Okay, folks, to Franco's point, I know

00:31:58.860 it's a rough time of year because it's tax time. And if you're taking a look at how much money you

00:32:04.680 are sending to the federal government, provincial government, I'm sorry, it's not for the faint of

00:32:09.680 heart. Close to half of what you're making is being sent to various levels of government through

00:32:16.540 taxes, fees, and whatever other kind of euphemism they try to give to this thing. And then think

00:32:21.000 about what kind of benefits you're getting in return. Basically, they're on a drunken bender

00:32:26.420 and they've got your wallet.

00:32:28.960 Sorry, folks.

00:32:30.200 Folks, this is really important.

00:32:32.380 Make sure you head over to Juno News and subscribe.

00:32:35.160 Make sure that you like this video

00:32:37.160 and share it with your friends.

00:32:38.800 And thank you so much to Franco Terrazzano.

00:32:41.700 I know he spent all day in the lockup

00:32:43.960 of that little mini budget that they had there

00:32:45.960 because frankly, you're not going to hear the truth.

00:32:49.880 You're not going to hear the real numbers.

00:32:51.820 You're going to hear the narrative and the spin

00:32:54.020 unless you dig down and find independent coverage from independent media like you're getting right

00:33:00.900 here with Juno News and the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Make sure if you haven't done so yet

00:33:06.280 to subscribe to this YouTube channel and most importantly share this show with people who need

00:33:13.140 to know.

Juno News - May 04, 2026

Carney adds BILLIONS in debt — but can Canadians afford it？

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