Canada's Deficit Alarm: $117B by 2035

0:00It's April 8th. This is Vancouver News today, powered by AI. I'm Cory with the story. A top Canadian economist is sounding the alarm on the federal deficit, saying it's headed for $117 billion by 2000. 35 if nothing changes. That's way bigger than the current record of $78.3 billion projected for next year's budget. The worst outside the pandemic years. The big driver here is ramping a military spending to hit NATO's new 3.5% target, which means adding about $100 billion. Dollars overall, growing 10% a year. Without tweaks, spending will outpace revenues, piling on pressure fast. Folks are worried this could replay the 1990s nightmare when debt payments aid up a third of revenues and public debt hit two thirds of. GDP. Canada has already run deficits for 18 straight years since the global financial crisis and the latest budget shows no path to balance through 2000 on 2930.

1:02Even ditching the higher defense goal and sticking at 2% of GDP, deficits stay in the tens of billions. Tax hikes alone won't cut it to balance by 2035 without cuts. The GST would need to jump from 5% to 12.5%, policy makers could trim elderly benefits to match GDP growth, so they still rise but slower. And ease business regs to boost the economy by half a. Percent yearly for $20 billion extra revenue. Time to mix restraint with growth before we hit the longest deficits streak since 1867.