Quote:
Originally Posted by chemgear
Didn't we check the numbers earlier in the thread and that's not true at all.
The $11 billion deficit just for this year is indeed mostly "just borrowing to keep the lights on". Infrastructure spending is pretty much on the same pace as the last decade or so. It's just about 0.5 billion/year more, not new capital works in aggregate. Heck, you might pad it by include the PR spin of $2 billion over a few years in green capital spending coming from the additional carbon taxes coming.
EDIT: Wait, you even saw and thanked the post. ??
http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpos...postcount=3943 |
I thank Makarov's response that maintaining capital spending with a decline in revenue is stimulus.
I also followed it up with a post showing the current budget has a 33% increase in capital plan spending, going from $6.5 to $8.5B.
In the $11B deficit is $2.5B in capital grants (included in the capital plan), $1B in disaster relief, $600M in capital debt servicing. The amortization expense also is mostly related to capital works. That's almost half of the deficit that is not related to operating the government day-to-day.
The operating expense line item is planned for about a 2% increase, which is what they are aiming for, maintaining services with inflation and population increases.
Yes they are running a deficit for operations. But it is not $11B.