PBO Report Questions Need for Liberals’ Planned Stimulus Spending

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

OTTAWA—Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is giving no indications of plans to rein in government spending after a critical report by the parliamentary budget officer questioned the Liberals’ case to spend tens of billions in planned stimulus.

The Liberals had promised up to $100 billion in economic stimulus, subject to a series of spending guardrails to determine whether the economy had recovered enough from the COVID-19 pandemic.