Discussion · Government Orders
Greg McLean Conservative
“The government is creating these Crown corporations to hide debt. Crown corporations keep their own books, so their debt is not counted on the main government balance sheet. They have borrowed $600 billion with little accountability, and this bill will only add to that debt.”
“Mr. Speaker, I am getting a great deal of great questions on the subject today. Answering the question goes a little deep into the weeds, so I apologize ahead of time to my colleagues on both sides of the House. The reason the government is setting up all these Crown corporations right now is that Crown corporations have their own balance sheets at the end of the day, and those balance sheets are not included in the government’s balance sheet, believe it or not. The government is $1.4 trillion in debt right now. However, it has borrowed almost $2 trillion. Where is the other $600 billion? It is on the balance sheets of and borrowed by all the Crown corporations, which have a lack of accountability practices. We have proven in the House many times that there are a whole bunch of expenditures that should have been written off by those organizations that continue to rest in their balance sheets. The cost to Canadians, at the end of the day, is going to be huge. The actual debt we are paying interest on is $2 trillion. This is going to make that even higher still.”
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Mr. Speaker, I am getting a great deal of great questions on the subject today. Answering the question goes a little deep into the weeds, so I apologize ahead of time to my colleagues on both sides of the House. The reason the government is setting up all these Crown corporations right now is that Crown corporations have their own balance sheets at the end of the day, and those balance sheets are not included in the government’s balance sheet, believe it or not. The government is $1.4 trillion in debt right now. However, it has borrowed almost $2 trillion. Where is the other $600 billion? It is on the balance sheets of and borrowed by all the Crown corporations, which have a lack of accountability practices. We have proven in the House many times that there are a whole bunch of expenditures that should have been written off by those organizations that continue to rest in their balance sheets. The cost to Canadians, at the end of the day, is going to be huge. The actual debt we are paying interest on is $2 trillion. This is going to make that even higher still.