John Ivison: Carney’s flimsy economic claims get ripped apart by his new parliamentary budget officer

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On defence, Ryan’s office said budget 2025 allocated $82 billion over the next five years, but the path to spending five per cent of GDP on defence by 2035 remains unspecified. “No year-by-year projection has been published,” it said.

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The spring update earmarked billions of dollars for new measures, including $11.8 billion for the new Canada Groceries and Essentials Benefit; $3 billion for the Force of Nature conservation initiative; $5.4 billion for the Team Canada Strong apprenticeship project; and $25 billion for the new Canada Strong Fund.

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Ryan’s harshest criticism was reserved for Carney’s recently announced sovereign wealth fund.

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She was frank in her skepticism about the fund’s “blended mandate”: to support the Canadian economy through infrastructure investments, as well as giving Canadians the chance to participate in those investments.

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“I don’t quite see what is to be gained by the participatory aspect of a Canadian-style wealth fund,” Ryan told senators at committee.

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She was asked whether the fund will compete with other similar government organizations like the Business Development Bank and the Canada Infrastructure Bank, or whether it is a solution to fixing the country’s private investment deficit.

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She said her office has many of the same questions.

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“The answers rely on the government setting forth a more detailed plan for how they see this sovereign wealth fund solving a specific gap in the overall access to financing and capital in Canada,” she said.

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Ryan said there is a long-standing concern that private sector financing for these projects may be crowded out by governments seeking the same returns on investment.

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She said that financing the fund through debt is something “we are concerned about.”

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“The idea of issuing debt in order to finance yet another third-party investment vehicle, which will need to have its own overheads, with an unclear mandate of the gap it is trying to fill — those are big questions,” she said.

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Tension between the government of the day and its watchdog is nothing new.

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Jim Flaherty, the late Conservative finance minister, accused the first parliamentary budget officer, Kevin Page, of “wandering off” his mandate. Flaherty thought Page should be a sounding board, not a dissenting voice, and resented his criticism on files like the cost of buying F-35 fighter jets.

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But the Carney government is led by someone who understands the financial architecture of government better than anyone, and has already proven he can manipulate it to partisan advantage.

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It is as well that he has appointed Ryan, a former head of the anti-money laundering division of FINTRAC, Canada’s financial intelligence unit.

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If Ryan can take on the Mafia, she stands a chance against the Department of Finance.

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National Post

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