Senator Marshall: Thank you for that answer, Senator Gold, but the spending plans of the government — most of them have been approved, and we’re nearing the end of the approval processes. Therefore, when we do get those documents, it’s going to be after the fact and they’re not going to be much use to us.

But just continuing with the government’s lack of transparency and accountability, the government has provided a number of debt management strategies over the past two years, telling us what they are planning to do with regard to the government’s borrowing program. However, we have not received any actual reports, such as the Debt Management Report. We are still waiting for that from last year. When are we going to get that report? We have all these spending plans to approve, but we’re not receiving the government’s accountability documents that we need in order to complete our studies.

Hon. Marc Gold (Government Representative in the Senate): Thank you for your question. The government’s Fall Economic Statement and its management of the economy are proving to be sound and responsible. Federal spending dropped 21.6% between 2020-21 and 2021-22. I understand the most recent job numbers released by Statistics Canada show that our labour market gained over 100,000 jobs in October, with an unemployment rate of 5.2% below pre-pandemic levels. Our rate of real GDP growth remains at 2.3% — above its pre-pandemic level back in the fourth quarter of 2019. Our growth remains strong. S&P recently reaffirmed our AAA rating with a stable outlook, and this further highlights Canada’s responsible fiscal framework.

In addition, I note that in the recent update of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, or PBO, it states:

For the current fiscal year 2022-23, PBO projects the deficit to decline to $25.8 billion (0.9 per cent of GDP) under status quo policy.

It goes on, “. . . the budgetary deficit is projected to decline further, reaching $3.1 billion (0.1 per cent of GDP) in 2027-28 . . . .”

Canada came into the pandemic with the lowest net debt‑to‑GDP ratio in the G7, and we’ve increased our relative advantage throughout this period.