PBO, Critics Question Feds’ High Spending Even as Planned Stimulus No Longer Needed

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux waits to appear before the Commons finance committee on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on March 10, 2020. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld

The federal government is continuing its high-spending ways despite the end of its rationale for doing so, say the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) and others concerned about long-term economic consequences.

“Since the start of the pandemic, the Government has spent, or has planned to spend, $541.9 billion in new measures—almost one third of which [$176.6 billion] is not part of the COVID-19 response plan,” PBO Yves Giroux said announcing his mid-January report commenting on the feds’ 2021 economic and fiscal update (EFU) published Dec. 14, 2021.