👏Tax👏oil👏and gas👏harder.
Tax churches too while we’re at it.
Before resigning, former finance minister and deputy prime minister Chrystia Freeland promised to keep the federal deficit at or below $40 billion in 2023-24, but the statement revealed a deficit of $61.9 billion.
The Finance Department attributed the overshoot mainly to a “significant one-time” expense of $16.4 billion for settling Indigenous legal claims — something the grand council chief of the Anishinabek Nation swiftly and strongly condemned.
Were those funds used to settling Indigenous legal claims or not? If they were, this is this a non-issue and zero reason for any complaint.
If they are arguing that this money did not reach them, then we have a story.
At issue are what are known in accounting as “contingent liabilities.”
Contingent liabilities are recorded when government lawyers believe Canada is likely to lose in court and the claim has a dollar value attached to it, resulting in a strong probability of future payment, the parliamentary budget officer has said.
…
The department won’t say which claims led the government to book $16.4 billion in liabilities.
AFAICT the money is being set aside because federal government lawyers expect future payouts on one of the thousand-ish ongoing legal disputes. So much of the money hasn’t reached them, but it probably will, depending on negotiations and rulings.
Ok, so it’s earmarked? If so, I don’t see the reason for this outrage, as that’s still the amount accounted for in explaining the deficit numbers.
Agreed. I think it’s reasonable to ask why the number wasn’t included in the estimates earlier this year, but that has nothing to do with the claims themselves.
It’s interesting that the LPC’s publication of an unexpectedly increased deficit and, perhaps more importantly, the decision to attribute that to a settlement of an Indigenous land claim (that is just under 3% of $538 billion of projected expenses per wiki) coincides with Freeman’s resignation. I can’t help but wonder if she was trying to distance herself from this; ie, by not announcing it - and as distinguished from the work/policy in the year(s) prior that led to the increased deficit
