OTTAWA (LifeSiteNews) — A former Liberal finance minister has admitted that the current inflation crisis is partly due to the Trudeau government’s COVID spending.
During an August 14th interview with Harvard International Review, former Finance Minister Bill Morneau revealed that spending programs to tackle COVID were prolonged and led to inflation under the leadership of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
“I think the early efforts were appropriate and important. They were, in a number of cases, too large. That was not purely a Canadian issue; there were other countries that had the same problem,” Morneau told the interviewer.
“The bigger issue was they went on for too long, and that meant that we put more money into the economy than we needed to,” he added.
“(This) is, of course, one of the reasons that we find ourselves with demand for goods and services that’s in excess of what the economy (could) support as we came out of COVID,” Morneau continued. “And when demand is in excessive supply, the inevitable result is inflation.”
During the so-called COVID-19 pandemic, the Trudeau government issued billions to Canadians who claimed they needed Canadian Emergency Response Benefits (CERB) as they were not permitted to work under COVID regulations.
Recently, the Canadian Revenue Agency (CRA) has worked to take back the $3.2 billion from Canadians who filed for and were given CERB despite not being eligible to receive it. However, many are fighting in court to keep their government payments.
Conservative Party of Canada leader Pierre Poilievre condemned the government spending on X, formerly known as Twitter.
“Despite Trudeau’s endless excuses, his own former Finance Minister says overspending caused inflation,” he wrote. “Who knew? Printing money causes inflation.”
Despite Trudeau’s endless excuses, his own former Finance Minister says overspending caused inflation.
Who knew? Printing money causes inflation. pic.twitter.com/n5U4bLvRow
— Pierre Poilievre (@PierrePoilievre) August 18, 2023
Additionally, according to a recently revealed memo, the Trudeau government budgeted millions for vaccine passports for Canadians until 2026, despite the World Health Organization (WHO) having declared the so-called pandemic to be ended.
Furthermore, many Canadians will soon be hit with higher mortgage costs after the Bank of Canada recently hiked its key lending interest rate to 5%, the highest it has been since 2001.
While inflation has hit on a global scale, the Liberal government in Canada under Trudeau doled out large amounts of borrowed money to fund both its COVID and ideologically driven programs, which have increased the country’s debt to over $1 trillion.
In fact, the nation’s debt level has nearly doubled to approximately $1.2 trillion in a span of less than two years, from around $685 billion in 2019.
Critics have long characterized the Trudeau government’s spending as “reckless” and have blamed it for the current inflationary crisis.
Earlier this year, the Bank of Canada admitted that Trudeau’s federal “climate change” programs, which have been deemed “extreme” by some provincial leaders, are indeed helping to fuel inflation.
The raising of fuel-related taxes has come in conjunction with the Trudeau government’s decision to join a variety of global initiatives, including the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development,” which involves phasing out or reducing the use of coal-fired power plants, nitrogen-rich fertilizers, and natural gas.
The carbon tax has only served to fuel inflation for everyday goods transported by truck.