QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Fiscal Update
December 15, 2020
My question is for Senator Gold, the Leader of the Government in the Senate. Senator Gold, as you know, I, along with many others, have been looking for the program and financial information on the government’s COVID-19 spending. We call it the transparency gap, and many of us have concluded that the government is doing a poor job of fiscal transparency. The Fall Economic Statement is raising new questions. The statement was released last month, and parliamentarians have been combing through the 223‑page document in detail trying to make sense of the information provided.
Within the Fall Economic Statement, the government has announced a $100 billion stimulus plan. Aside from the lack of details surrounding the plan, the government already has a $100 billion infrastructure program that was studied twice by the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance. That committee identified significant problems with the infrastructure program. Specifically, the committee recommended that the government define clear priorities, concrete objectives and specific performance measures, and that it release data on individual projects and report to Canadians on the achievement of its goal. In other words, there is a transparency gap for that $100 billion program. In fact, the concern over the infrastructure program has been so extensive that the Auditor General has been requested by parliamentarians to undertake a special audit, hence my concern over the $100 billion stimulus plan.
Given the experience of the existing infrastructure program, how confident can Canadians be that the new stimulus program, as envisioned by this government, will achieve its objectives? When can we expect to see the details of this new stimulus plan?
Thank you for your question, senator, and for your ongoing commitment to holding the government to account on these important questions. The $100 billion program to which you referred was an announcement of programs and initiatives that the government assumes that it will need to do when we reach the next stage in our progress through this pandemic.
The government has been transparent all along by reporting regularly on the programs that it has put in place to help Canadians. I think that Canadians should feel confident that this government will continue to use its best efforts and deploy the best minds in this country to develop programs that suit the circumstances we find ourselves in. In that regard, I think Canadians should find some comfort, to use the word you used, in the recent appointment of Deputy Minister of Finance Michael Sabia, who has demonstrated through his work on the infrastructure file at the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec and elsewhere that he knows how to get things done and move things forward.
A second issue identified in the review of the Fall Economic Statement revolves around the EI operating account. The government has moved the CERB to the EI operating account and enhanced benefits. It is estimated that the EI operating account will have a $52 billion deficit by 2024, yet there is no indication by the government how this deficit will be funded. In the midst of the pandemic, when businesses are trying to survive, employers are rightfully concerned whether this deficit will be funded by increased premiums. How does the government plan to fund this deficit in the EI operating account?
Thank you for your question; it’s an important one. I don’t have a specific answer to your question because I suspect none of us know exactly how certain measures will be addressed in six months’ time, much less a year’s time. One thing that can be said with confidence is that the country entered this pandemic in a strong financial position. Credit agencies still maintain that Canada is in a strong position, and it is in no small measure in part due to the programs that the government has introduced and which have been supported in this chamber and in the other place to make sure Canadians have the resources they need, and the economy has the resources it needs to weather this storm.
