The Debt-to-GDP Ratio is Rising
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
168.34279
Summary
In this episode of The Blueprint, Conservative MP for Carleton and Shadow Minister for Finance Pierre Pouvreau joins us to talk about the federal government's ongoing deficits and the impact they pose on the economy and the future of the country.
Transcript
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You're listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
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The cost of living keeps going up, deficits keep going up,
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and he has to raise taxes to pay for his out-of-control spending.
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Talk is cheap, except when this finance minister does it. It's very expensive.
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It's the fact that he punished two strong women for doing the right thing
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while he moved hell and high water to protect his buddies at SNC-Lavalin
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Welcome to The Blueprints, Canada's Conservative Podcast.
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I'm your host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton Corps
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of the Lakes Brock in Ontario, and this is the first blueprint
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of the 43rd Parliament, and I have an amazing guest with me,
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the official opposition's Shadow Minister for Finance, Pierre Polyev,
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the Member of Parliament for Carleton in the Ottawa area.
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And because you are here, we now have video, we have audio,
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So we're kicking it off new style here for the 43rd Parliament.
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And I guess we should start off, I guess, with the obvious.
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You had thought about running for leader of the federal party.
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You thought it over and thought, well, just not time.
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You have a newborn child, and family is the most important.
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I spent about five weeks reaching out to people, building a perspective team,
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listening to people about the future that they wanted to build for the country,
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but ultimately concluded that the absolutely massive time commitment involved
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but we haven't really mastered the balancing act of professional and personal life.
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I've been an obsessive workaholic into my entire adult life,
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and I didn't have established the balance in my life
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to ensure I could be a good father and a good leader at the same time.
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And I know it's a real talent and a real skill that some people take time to develop.
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but to keep serving my constituents in the Carlton riding
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and to continue to serve Andrew Scheer's shadow cabinet as finance critic
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and to serve the future leader as part of his or her team
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Well, I think many people would agree that they could see you as prime minister one day,
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so it's good you have leadership aspirations potentially in your future
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Well, I don't know about that, but yesterday is history,
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Well, because you are the finance critic, let's start with Canada's finances.
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Reoccurring federal deficits could be risky for future generations,
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So, the next federal deficit is supposed to swell to $28.1 billion,
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significantly up from what we were first told for 2020-2021.
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It's supposed to hit $11.6 billion, but that's in 2024.
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This does not, as the headline tells us, not bode well for future generations.
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In fact, the situation is quickly deteriorating.
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The deficit was supposed to be about $21 billion,
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and it is now up $7 or $8 billion just since March.
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And it happens in a world economy that is growing,
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where the United States of America has record low unemployment and solid growth.
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So, all of the variables are in our favor right now.
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But in spite of that, we're still running these very large deficits.
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This year, the debt-to-GDP ratio will increase slightly,
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and it will come close to doing so in all of the next four years,
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before you even account for the spending promises that the liberals made in the last election.
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So, these deficit numbers you're quoting, let's be clear,
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they don't include the liberal spending promises from the most recent October election.
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So, in other words, what you're talking about is the best-case scenario.
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You also haven't taken into consideration the possibility of some sort of economic shock.
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There are all kinds of risks that exist in our economy today.
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There are a whole series of risks that, if they metastasize into reality,
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we all mean these numbers will be far worse than we already see.
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Well, it seems that if you look, as you mentioned,
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where the U.S. economy is growing and where Canadians are shrinking,
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manufacturing is down significantly when compared to the United States.
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They're all significantly lopsided when you compare it to the United States
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They made a decision to cut taxes and eliminate unnecessary regulatory red tape,
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and that has really unleashed an economic torrent south of the border.
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Oil and gas production, for example, has doubled in a decade.
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The U.S. is becoming a net exporter of oil, something we never would have imagined.
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And remember, they're our number one, frankly, our only foreign market for petroleum products.
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So we, you know, next door here in Canada, we see basically a prolonged downturn in the Alberta economy,
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lifelessness in our manufacturing sector, and overall, you know, the growth was just downgraded for next year,
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and we're barely growing, and some, you know, in some months we've actually been shrinking on a per capita basis.
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So the reality is we need to unleash our economy.
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That is the only system that has ever delivered sustained economic prosperity.
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That means sweeping away unnecessary regulations, opening our marketplace for large resource projects like pipelines,
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lowering the tax burden on both our entrepreneurs and on our workers to reward risk-taking and hard work.
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Those are the recipes for a successful economy, and we still can do that.
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If you're going to invest your money, which is often and most times done with after-tax dollars,
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you are going to take some risk in investing in a company or putting your money somewhere.
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There should be some reward, or else people aren't going to put their money into certain places.
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That will not grow the economy or come up with the next great product.
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Exactly, and that's why, you know, in the first several years of the Trudeau government,
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U.S. investment in Canada was down by half, but Canadian investment in the U.S. was up two-thirds.
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Basically, money goes where it can get an after-tax return on investment, and that place is not Canada right now.
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The stock market has risen almost twice as fast in the U.S. as it has in Canada.
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Now, you might say, oh, well, that only matters to stockbrokers and the base streeters.
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Well, actually, it matters to retirees who have their money invested in mutual funds in Canada.
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It matters to businesses who rely on the stock market to raise investment to hire staff and buy equipment.
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It is one of the indicators of how much money is pouring in versus pouring out of the economy.
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And right now, money is leaving our economy, and along with it will be jobs and wages.
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Well, there are a number of challenges Canadians are facing.
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We talked about it during the last election, but it seems for the left of the political spectrum,
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it seems the solution to every problem is more government, more taxes,
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and that's the only answer they have for anything.
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But they fail to recognize that there is a different side that is more successful in the vast majority of cases,
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which is, as you said, freeing up the market and allowing people to produce the next product or service
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that people want to freely buy with their money.
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Precisely, and that's the genius of the market system.
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It's the free and voluntary exchange of work for wages, product for payment, investment for interest.
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The left is very good at spending wealth, but they have no idea where it comes from in the first place.
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And where we have an opportunity as Conservatives is to put ourselves forward as the party
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of unleashing opportunities so that every single Canadian who works hard can achieve his or her dreams.
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And that is the vision for the Conservative Party and for the official opposition
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that will take us into government in the next election.
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You know, we need to turn our First Nations communities into opportunity zones,
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places where it's easy for leaders on those communities to attract investment.
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I've been to places like the Okanagan, where the communities are attracting,
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are opening golf courses and wineries, housing developments, shopping centers,
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and other things, all generating on-reserve revenue for First Nations people to use
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to improve their quality of life and employ their people.
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That is a model that is, I think, hopeful and optimistic for many communities across the country.
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We need to make it possible for First Nations communities to allow their people to get mortgages
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on normal commercial terms so they can have a home.
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You can't have a home, you can't get a credit rating or collateral,
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and you can't build up savings for your future through home equity.
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So let's get people the ability to actually own a home.
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These are the kinds of opportunity-filled ideas that will allow our people to enrich themselves
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and fulfill their dreams rather than just to build more and more government programs
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Well, there's the thing, too, when you're talking about opportunity.
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Nobody, I don't care what you do, whether you work on a farm,
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you work in the oil and gas sector where you have an office job,
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nobody is going to create a product or a service or even get up in the morning
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and break their back at work if they're going to see a vast majority
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and an increasing majority of their paycheck being taken away in the form of taxes,
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We have in this country a system that punishes you through, it's like a fine.
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Income tax is like a fine you pay for the crime of working hard.
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You go out, you get a job, you earn some money, and then you lose it based on how hard you work.
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I think it's not just for well-off people either.
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If you're on social assistance or disability assistance and you go out and get a job,
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the clawback rate of your social assistance benefits combined with the new tax burden
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that you pay for EI, CPP, income tax, gas tax to get to work means that you have to have a negative wage.
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We're actually punishing people for the crime of hard work in this country.
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And how can we expect people to ever get ahead when the system is stacked against work and effort and initiative?
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And that's what conservatives, I think, need to bring forward.
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We need to be the party of opportunity for everyone.
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Pierre, I could talk to you about this all day long.
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Thank you so much for taking time out of your busy schedule.
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Appreciate the work you're doing in the House and fighting for Canadians and their hard-earned dollars.
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Once again, low taxes, less government, more freedom.
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Thank you for listening to The Blueprint, Canada's Conservative podcast.
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To find more episodes, interviews, and in-depth discussions of politics in Canada,
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search for The Blueprint on iTunes or visit podcast.conservative.ca.