Quote:
Originally Posted by acottawa
Things Trudeau did to destroy the economy:
Massive deficit financing, including doubling the national debt, (without any corresponding improvement in infrastructure or other capital) which has crowded out private sector financing.
Massive increase in the size of the state (including 100k new bureaucrats) without any corresponding increase in services provided by the state. Again crowding the private sector.
Massive increase in immigration without any corresponding plan to house or integrate that many people.
Creating (or significantly contributing to a housing bubble which has skewed (and skewered) the entire urban economy.
None of these were forced errors. These were all decisions the government took against prevailing expert advice.
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The deficit financing was in part choices made by the current government and in part the limitations on what they could do. COVID was a major part of the buildup. The fact they don't have a majority and needed to implement part of the NDP agenda to stay in power was also a factor.
I am also surprised at the head count of the public service. With Corporate Canada embracing "digital transformation" as a way of automating white collar and front line positions it is just weird the federal government has gone the other way.
Housing is a weird one. You would have expected the private sector to be building at an accelerated rate. Only around 3% of housing in Canada is social housing, the vast majority is supplied through free market mechanisms. But, the market did not respond. There were some fundamental issues at play. Zoning and permitting being a major blocker. Only now are those being fixed.
To their credit, they have doubled down on social housing, however in the Canadian context that will always be a small percentage of the mix. They have also put in place attractive financing to get the private sector to build more purpose built rentals.
The housing bubble was a problem before this government and it will likely be around after the conservatives get their turn (assuming they win). The solutions is slowly build more housing and let market pressures gradually drive down prices.
We do need immigration. We have a demographics problem.
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