Canada: Government spending in some charts

December 08, 2020 | Jeremy Goldfarb


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I was somewhat surprised this morning when I looked over a chart pack from our Portfolio Advisory Group. It turns out that the Canadian government (relative to global counterparts) was a leader in support spending for its citizens throughout the pandemic so far. While there is still much to be said about the pain and suffering that people and businesses have endured as a result of the pandemic, I supposed it is good to know that it could have been much worse. Have a look at the chart below:

 

 

But........

 

An interesting fact about this though that should give you pause. The pace of CERB payments to individual Canadians throughout the pandemic so far has actually outpaced lost incomes by a measure of approximately $10,000,000,000 (that's billion BTW). Sure, I'm "Monday morning quarterbacking" here, but it deserves a second look at least. 

 

 

My final point. Eventually, someone is going to have to pay for all of this. Back in the day, when we used to go out to restaurants to eat together, the server would bring us the bill at the end of the meal. In the spirit of hope that we can one day soon, head back to restaurants to dine together, allow me to present you with the current bill for Canadian government spending......

 

 

Go ahead and order desert......the damage is already done. 

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Economy