LIBERALS HAVE A SPENDING PROBLEM

The NDP can salivate all it wants over the prospect of a wealth tax, but eating the rich would hardly satisfy Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s appetite for spending. The parliamentary budget officer says a wealth tax might have brought in $5.6 billion this year. But the Trudeau government is currently spending $1.8 billion per day. In any given week, it would burn through the wealth tax by Wednesday.

Although the Liberals voted against the NDP’s mid-November motion calling for a wealth tax the threat is far from dead. After the government released its fall economic statement, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh’s first criticism was that it had failed “to make the ultra-rich pay for the recovery.”

But debating new tax measures is failing to see the forest for the trees. This government doesn’t have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem that no amount of new taxes can fix — although that probably won’t stop Mr. Trudeau from trying. For someone who said that “the last thing Canadians need is to see a rise in taxes right now,” he sure has raised a lot of taxes. In April he raised the carbon tax. In November he announced new consumer taxes on digital platforms such as Netflix, Spotify, Airbnb, and Amazon. And to ring in the New Year he raised payroll and alcohol taxes.