By Chris Beach

Northern View

The Northern View#42: The federal budget: lost hope & broken promises

Apr 24, 2024 | 10:32 AM

Last week Federal Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland unveiled a massive budget that includes $53 billion in new spending on, well, just about everything in what looks like a swing for the fences, last-ditch effort to turn around the Liberal Party’s ailing political fortunes.

One of the big promises in the budget is to build 4 million new homes by 2031 2031? This Trudeau government is going to get fired in 2025.

Perhaps more to the point, did Trudeau and Freeland just realize this year that housing affordability is a major problem for Canadians? Where were they the last 9 years?

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In 2015, Trudeau declared that Canada would become a global leader in fighting climate change, only to turn around and buy an oil pipeline expansion project for $4.5 billion that since ballooned to more than $35 billion to finish it.

Trudeau then declared his carbon tax was the flagship environmental policy for his government and those who opposed it were selfish and against the national interest. Surprisingly he ended up cancelling the tax on the East Coast last year.

Apparently if you support the Liberal Party in the Maritimes you don’t need to worry about national interest? What happened to Trudeau’s campaign promise in 2015 to replace our current voting system and make elections more democratic?

How about his promise to bring clean drinking water to all First Nations’ communities across Canada? Despite repeatedly telling Canadians he “has their back”, Trudeau has gone after thousands of small businesses across the country who haven’t yet repaid their $20 thousand CEBA loans.

Yet Trudeau has no problem paying a few crafty individuals $60 million for the Arrive Can app, that should have cost $80 thousand and never even worked properly.

Or how about the $600 million dollar plus totally meaningless federal election in 2021, two years after the last election and right in the middle of Covid?

Call it misplaced priorities, saying one thing and doing another, too little too late, or simply a complete lack of trust. Trying to buy off young Canadians with billions in new spending promises, at this point, will make no difference: This federal government is doomed and they have no one to blame but themselves.

I’m Chris Beach and this is the Northern View.

Editors note: The views expressed in this column do not necessarily represent the views of Pattison Media.