Freeland CONCEALED financial docs on RECORD deficit spending: report

Transparency 'reached a new low' with MP Chrystia Freeland heading the finance portfolio, reads a new Budget Office report.

MP Chrystia Freeland claims she’s “careful with Canada’s money,” yet a new Budget Office report says otherwise. Analysts with the agency were disgusted by her concealment of deficit spending.

“The federal government’s ability or willingness to produce high quality, timely financial statements continues to deteriorate,” said the report Fall Economic Statement: Issues For Parliamentarians. 

Meanwhile Freeland, who launched her bid for prime minister last week, praised her handling of Canada’s finances. “As finance minister I stabilized the economy during the Covid recession.”

“As finance minister I fought for Canadian families.”

Meanwhile, transparency “reached a new low” with the Toronto MP heading the finance portfolio, reported Blacklock’s. Notably, the annual release of Public Accounts for the 2023/24 fiscal year were delayed by 253 days.

The publication also learned the audited financial statements were tabled after the Fall Economic Statement for the 2024/25 fiscal year.

Each budget year expires March 31. Public Accounts for last year were tabled December 17 — the day after Freeland exited cabinet over “costly political gimmicks”.

“Was there any political pressure to delay this?” asked Conservative MP Kelly McCauley. “The answer is no,” replied Comptroller General Annie Boudreau, whose parliamentary testimony came last December 18.

The Official Opposition has called out Freeland a litany of times over her mismanagement of federal coffers for years, alleging she “hid the real numbers” on the 2023/24 deficit. It changed twice this fiscal year.

Once with Cabinet’s April 16 budget ($39.8 billion) and again ($46.4 billion) with the October 17 Budget Office report Economic And Fiscal Outlook. “This increase is largely due to new spending,” wrote analysts.

The Budget Office has repeatedly called for transparent accounting of government finances in its report. “By publishing the Public Accounts earlier the government would provide parliamentarians with more time for financial scrutiny.”

“How do you account for that change?” asked a reporter last October. “That is just a Budget Office report,” replied Freeland. “It’s not the final numbers.”

Budget Officer Yves Giroux concurred that federal spending was trending in the wrong direction. “I can certainly say expenditures are rising at a sustained rate,” he told the Senate finance committee in April of 2023.

At the time, Department of Finance officials wrote Giroux that budget forecasts “should not be viewed as a prediction of the future.”

“If you plot this on a graph and look at the trend,” he said, “we see the trend line going in one direction over the next three years.” 

The Minister of Finance told MPs in November of 2023 that she would maintain deficit spending at $40.1 billion for the fiscal year. 

“It almost looks like it was done to cover up the fact that we ended up with a $61.9 billion deficit,” said MP McCauley, who claims foul play was afoot.

Comptroller General Boudreau blamed the delay on “several significant transactions,” leading to a 55% overrun on last year’s deficit.

In a 2020 speech at the Toronto Global Forum, Freeland promised to cut spending at some point but did not clarify a spending limit. “We could be spending even more and public finances would still be sustainable,” she said last year. 

The Trudeau government hasn't had a balanced budget since first elected in 2015.

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Alex Dhaliwal

Calgary Based Journalist

Alex Dhaliwal is a Political Science graduate from the University of Calgary. He has actively written on relevant Canadian issues with several prominent interviews under his belt.

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  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2025-01-27 19:25:55 -0500
    Liberals lie. It’s their native language. The whole party must be flushed out of Parliament. Pierre Poilievre isn’t perfect but we know he will drain the Ottawa swamp as much as possible.