Former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin made his name in the 1990s when as finance minister, he worked to eliminate Canada’s massive budget deficit, eventually balancing the books in 1997.
But he’s not worried that the current Liberal government is doing the opposite: projecting a shortfall of $29.4 billion in 2016-17 and more deficits for the five years following that.
“The circumstances for this budget are very, very different from the circumstances for my budgets in the nineties,” he said.
“I think this was a very good budget. It was a budget appropriate to the times.”
READ MORE: Federal budget 2016 – Liberal government projects $29.4B deficit
Martin had campaigned on behalf of current Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau during the election, when the Liberals were promising a deficit of $10 billion, and a return to balance by the end of their mandate. Interim Conservative Leader Rona Ambrose charged the government with breaking both those promises in their first budget, and called it a “nightmare scenario.”
But the new, much larger numbers haven’t changed Martin’s support for the Trudeau government’s fiscal plan. Canada needs investment in infrastructure, he said, and now – when interest rates are low – is a good time to make those investments.
“We have a massive infrastructure deficit. You can talk to any mayor in this country and they will tell you. You can talk to almost anybody who is in the transport business. You can talk to people about the need for better ports, better roads. All of this. And we’ve delayed it far too long. And if you don’t build it now, then the deficit in terms of infrastructure and productivity that you’re going to impose on the next generation is going to be huge.”
And will a future finance minister have to come in and clean up the massive deficit left behind by this government? Martin says no. “That chance would have been much greater if in fact they hadn’t done this kind of investment.”
“The fact is, if you don’t build your economy, and if you don’t build for the future, then in fact you’re going to run into a long string of deficits.”