At least one former Bank of Canada governor is already calling the federal government’s upcoming budget “the worst” in more than 60 years — the last time a prime minister named Trudeau was in power — and he’s Liberal.David Dodge, who headed the central bank from 2001 to 2008 under former prime minister Jean Chretien, told CTV News that he has extremely low expectations for Tuesday’s budget address even though much of it has already been leaked.“I think this is likely to be the worst budget since the (then-finance minister Allan) MacEachen budget of 1982, in the sense of pointing us in the wrong direction as to how we go about raising the incomes of Canadians and actually making Canadians feel better over the medium term,” Dodge said In an interview with Vassy Kapelos.“We’re going in exactly the wrong direction.”.Trudeau the elder’s string of budgets in the 1980s nearly led to Canada defaulting on its international debt. It was left to the likes of Dodge and former Chretien finance minister Paul Martin to clean up the mess.Now the younger Trudeau seems determined to head down a similar fiscal path with billions of new spending to tackle the housing crisis, expand child care, boost the military and introduce a national pharmacare program for prescription drugs.To pay for it, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland is expected to propose a wealth tax on richer Canadians and corporations. One possibility being floated is a windfall tax on Calgary’s oil and gas companies.But Dodge said it would be a huge mistake.“Something doesn’t add up. I think there’s a big question of how much of all that promised spending is going to be booked into this year and next year and how much is going to be deferred?” he asked.“I think there is a very real possibility that they’ll do exactly the wrong thing and tax the very folks and the very corporations that are going to make the investments that will actually raise income over time.”.Opposition leader Pierre Poilievre jumped on Dodge’s comments to condemn the document before it’s even been released.“Even Liberals are starting to speak out. Today, proud Liberal and former Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge, who worked for (Paul) Martin and (Jean) Chretien, has said that this budget is on track to be the worst since 1982 as Trudeau doubles and triples down on the costly failures that have left Canadians hungry and without homes,” he told reporters on Tuesday.“We’re stuck with this costly coalition for a year-and-a-half, it looks like.”Freeland will present the budget at 2 pm MST Tuesday.
