Pierre Poilievre, Tories to demand Mark Carney testify on deficits and debt interest

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OTTAWA — It’s time for the PM to sit in the hot seat.

That’s the purpose of a letter dispatched to Prime Minister Mark Carney by Opposition Leader Pierre Poilievre, demanding the PM testify before the House Standing Committee on Finance (FINA) to explain how he plans on reining in Canada’s deficit spending, debt interest and taxes.

“The fastest-growing item in your budget is not health, military or seniors’ benefits. It is debt interest,” Poilievre wrote.

“Canadians deserve to know how you will bring that burden down.”

Debt interest, Poilievre wrote, will cost the average Canadian family of four nearly $6,000 this year.

Motion to call PM to committee coming Tuesday

On Tuesday, the Tories will table a motion in the House calling on the PM to appear before FINA — a move Poilievre framed as a test for Liberal MPs to express their confidence in the government’s financial plan.

Last week, Finance Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced during Question Period that the government’s 2026 budget will be tabled early next month.

“On Nov. 5, I will be tabling this year’s budget, which will align the next steps in our plan to build a stronger, more resilient and more affordable Canada,” Champagne said — promising the upcoming budget will “unlock investment, create high-paying jobs” across the country and strengthen Canada’s economy over the long term.

That budget announcement came the same day the Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) issued a report saying deficits will reach $63.3-billion this fiscal year, peaking at $70-billion in fiscal 2027-28.

“Canada faces a more challenging economic and fiscal outlook than we projected in June,” said Parliamentary Budget Officer Annette Ryan in the report.

“Additional trade measures and ongoing uncertainty are weighing on growth in real output — what we produce as a country.”

The PBO said revenues from higher oil and resource prices will be all but offset by high spending over the next five years.

Budget dropping early next month

The PBO report also said the government will only meet one of the two fiscal anchors established in Budget 2025; while the office says the government will indeed balance day-to-day spending, with a $6.2-billion surplus, by FY2028-29, the government’s aspirations to maintain a declining deficit-to-GDP ratio won’t be achieved.

Instead, the PBO predicted that ratio will increase in fiscal 2027-28, dip the following year, then climb again in fiscal 2029-30.

“Every dollar committed to paying bankers and bond holders to service the debt is a dollar that cannot also pay for a nurse, a hospital bed, support for a vulnerable Canadian or tax relief for a struggling family,” Poilievre wrote in his letter.

Poilievre accused Carney of breaking his campaign promise to “spend less,” pointing to the PBO’s report.

“Canadians were right to expect that you would bring down the cost of government so they could afford the cost of living,” Poilievre said.

“We both know that the out-of-control cost of government drives up the cost of living, which is why you promised Canadians you would ‘spend less’ and maintain a decreasing debt-to-GDP ratio.”

The PM, Poilievre wrote in his letter, needs to tell Canadians how the government plans to deal with the ongoing affordability crisis.

“Canadians have held up their end of the bargain,” he wrote.

“They work hard, follow the rules and love their country. That should earn them an affordable life.”

bpassifiume@postmedia.com

X: @bryanpassifiume

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