The disarray within Canada’s Department of Finance was on full display during a Commons finance committee meeting last Tuesday..The government extended pandemic relief through Bill C-2, but nobody can say where this money will be coming from. The extension of pandemic subsidies is estimated to cost up to $7.4 billion as it runs up to May 7, 2022. The problem is the bill allows for the extension to potentially run into July which would cost billions more..Opposition members sitting on the committee tried with no avail to get clear answers from flummoxed finance department managers..Here’s a portion of a committee exchange between Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre and a senior finance official as reported in Blacklock’s Reporter:.MP Poilievre: “Clearly they’re getting the money from somewhere. Anyone here from Finance Canada?”.Director Baylor: “I can provide a high-level response but I’m afraid I won’t be able to answer directly…”.MP Poilievre: “Where is the money coming from?”.Director Baylor: “That is within the government’s broader macro-economic framework and I’m not responsible. I can’t speak to that.”.NDP MP Daniel Blaickie called the meeting “a waste of time.”.This paints a distressing picture of just how bad the financial mess is within the government. How many other spending initiatives have been put into motion without budgeted financing? We know Liberal members won’t disclose any more than they have to and with senior bureaucrats from the Department of Finance obfuscating, there really is no way to get a clear picture of what is happening in the government books..While the COVID-19 pandemic response is still impacting individuals and businesses, we need to get a handle on the spending dedicated to mitigating the damage. The government still feels justified in taking a blank cheque approach to financing pandemic relief measures and we can’t afford to let them keep doing that..I am not even talking about cutting spending or trying to get the record budget deficits under control. Right now what we need to do is figure out how much we are spending and it looks as if the government doesn’t know..For example, the Canadian Emergency Business Account (CEBA) offered loans of up to $60,000 for small businesses, of which up to $20,000 of the balance was forgivable if the loans were paid back in short order. The initial cost estimate for this program was $25 billion, but who knows what it really will be. There are a lot of variables packed into this mess..The CEBA loans were offered to businesses with little to no scrutiny of the applicants. Businesses were failing and there wasn’t time to set up a framework and a proper credit application process for applicants. Businesses still have a year to begin repayment on these loans if they choose. That means we really won’t know how many will be defaulting on the loans until 2023. With thousands of businesses having gone under and more to come, we can assume a high default rate. With the lack of scrutiny on the loans, there’s sure to be a degree of fraud out there. Grifters would have been drawn to a rushed program like CEBA like flies to honey. How much expectation for loan defaults was built into the government’s legislation?.The combined cost of the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Recovery Benefit (CRB) is getting into the $100 billion range. It has been found many people collected these benefits while ineligible. Fearing blowback if they tried to collect, the government has assured many people they won’t be forced to repay benefits they improperly received..It has recently hit the news that cases of CERB fraud were spotted right at the beginning of the program. Banks reported suspicious behaviour and the CRA admitted it had locked over 800,000 accounts as they were suspected as having been hacked by identity thieves. Lost funds through CERB fraud will never be recovered..The number of programs, loans, subsidies, and grants created by the government in response to the COVID-19 pandemic is too long to list. It is safe to assume these programs have been managed with all of the checks, balances, and transparent accounting that CERB, CRB, and CEBA were — which is to say nearly none..Canada’s opposition parties need to unite and demand the federal government fully open the books. The government is in a minority position and would not be able to stop such a united push. Nothing less than such an effort will expose the government finances to full public scrutiny. It’s clear the Department of Finance is dedicated to releasing nothing without being forced to do it..Canada’s finances are a mess and it is going to take a generation to dig ourselves out of this hole. The first step to cleaning things up is to open the books. We can’t even think of how we may begin paying off our debt until we know how much it really is..Otherwise, the Trudeau government will continue on their unchecked spending spree until they are kicked out of office or our currency collapses. Whatever comes first..Cory Morgan is Assistant Opinion & Broadcast Editor for the Western Standard.cmorgan@westernstandardonline.com
