Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland’s fall economic statement, while burdened with mounting debt and continuing economic risk, was above all a Liberal declaration of victory over the COVID-19 pandemic. While those were not her exact words, the repeated theme emerged each time the word pandemic appeared in the text of the 130-page statement. In her Commons address Freeland raised a triumphant fist. “Compared to before the pandemic, I can proudly say that over a million more Canadians are employed today.”
Other declarations run through the fiscal document. Canada’s rate of fiscal consolidation “since the depths of the pandemic” has been the fastest in the G7. Inflation-adjusted household disposable income has risen by eight per cent “compared to before the pandemic.” And “housing starts are above pre-pandemic levels.”
