Discussion · Government Orders
Michael Chong Conservative
“The budget document is confusing because the government defines debt differently in different parts of it. Also, federal debt has grown from 30% of our economy to 40% and is still rising. This leaves us with less money to respond to a future crisis.”
“Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague is raising an important point about the debt. The problem, first off, is that the government uses different definitions of net debt in the same document. The document opens with a net debt definition used by the International Monetary Fund. Later on, in the annexes, it uses a completely different definition of net debt. In fact, it does not even refer to it as net debt but simply as debt. The document is very confusing and very difficult to follow, because there are so many varying definitions for various items. The second point I would make in response to my colleague’s point is that the federal government is rapidly diminishing its capacity to respond to a future crisis that the Prime Minister says, in his national security statement, could be coming. In 2008 and 2020, the federal debt stood at roughly 30% of GDP, allowing the government to spend upwards of 15% of GDP to respond to that crisis. It now stands at 40% and is rising.”
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Mr. Speaker, I think my hon. colleague is raising an important point about the debt. The problem, first off, is that the government uses different definitions of net debt in the same document. The document opens with a net debt definition used by the International Monetary Fund. Later on, in the annexes, it uses a completely different definition of net debt. In fact, it does not even refer to it as net debt but simply as debt. The document is very confusing and very difficult to follow, because there are so many varying definitions for various items. The second point I would make in response to my colleague’s point is that the federal government is rapidly diminishing its capacity to respond to a future crisis that the Prime Minister says, in his national security statement, could be coming. In 2008 and 2020, the federal debt stood at roughly 30% of GDP, allowing the government to spend upwards of 15% of GDP to respond to that crisis. It now stands at 40% and is rising.