Marc Lalonde – PIerre Trudeau’s last finance minister – told cabinet overspending was beimg a looming disaster and compared it to “keeping its finger in the dike,”, secret government documents obtained by Blacklock’s Reporter show..But it looks like history may be repeating itself with The Parliamentary Budget Office saying current deficits are running at the highest rate to GDP since Lalonde’s era..“We have been walking a very narrow tightrope because the pitfalls on either side are very dangerous,” Lalonde told a secret 1984 cabinet meeting..Lalonde said the deficit was “bad enough” but cautioned: “Bad as it is, it could easily become even worse.”.The federal deficit at the time was $37.2 billion, the modern equivalent of $86 billion. Parliament’s current deficit is $381.6 billion, by official estimate..“A number of very tough decisions will be required simply to get back to that track, let alone to make the further progress in managing the deficit that the investment community demands and that may well become essential,” Lalonde was quoted in secret Cabinet Minutes, disclosed through Access To Information..Earlier in 1982, Lalonde said year-over-year overspending as “extraordinary” and disastrous..“It remained essential however for the government to reinforce its commitment to retain control of the fiscal situation, or in effect to ‘keeping its finger in the dike’ through a vigorous effort to finance any new initiatives through cuts and reallocations,” said Lalonde.. Trudeau Sr. warned over ‘dangerous’ overspending in secret 1984 cabinet meeting .“Given the current rate of growth of the deficit ‘there were simply no surpluses out there,’” he said..Cabinet at an October 14, 1982 meeting debated new luxury taxes to raise revenue..“Some Ministers suggested increasing taxes to permit an increased deficit to fund additional jobs,” said Cabinet Minutes..“One suggestion was for a luxury tax. Another was for a surcharge or a Canadian National Recovery Tax.”.The current deficit is the equivalent of 8.5 percent of GDP, according to an April 9 PBO report..“To put this in historical perspective, the last time the budgetary deficit was near 8.5 percent of GDP was in 1984,” wrote analysts..Successive deficits resulted in a 1995 austerity budget that cut 45,000 public service jobs, raised taxes on large corporations by 12.5 per cent and privatized Canadian National Railways..Parliament in 1996 balanced its budget for the first time since 1969. Modern parliaments have not balanced the budget since 2007..Dave Naylor is the News Editor of the Western Standard.dnaylor@westernstandardonline.com.Twitter.com/nobby7694
