• Liberal's fiscal forecasting lacks credibility

Ottawa: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) today responded to concerns raised by the Liberal Party that campaign promises made by the Conservative Party will result in chronic deficits. Over the weekend, Prime Minister Paul Martin said, "I know these numbers and I know that we've got a very strong economy because we stayed out of deficit and I will be very, very interested in how all [the Conservative] numbers add up." The Liberals say the Conservative plan will produce deficits "of at least $12.4-billion over five years."

"The Liberal government has so poorly predicted past surpluses that its credibility to calculate future deficits or surpluses is simply not believable today," said CTF federal director John Williamson. "It is like the boy who cried wolf, only Mr. Martin is crying 'deficits, deficits' and taxpayers, fooled before, should not be duped again."

Following the November, 2005, pre-election mini-budget the CBC online news reported, "[Finance Minister Ralph] Goodale's last [2004] economic and fiscal update projected that the surplus for 2005/06 would be $500-million, followed by $900-million in 2006/07. Monday's document revised those figures to $8.2-billion and $9.2-billion, respectively."

"In other words, the Martin government was off by 'only' $16-billion, $7.7-billion in year one and $8.3-billion in year two," noted Williamson. "And let's not forget that when the 2004 budget was tabled the Liberal government said program spending would increase by 3.1 per cent. When the fiscal year ended, however, it had increased by an astounding 15.1 per cent. I think that's all we need to say about Mr. Martin's knowledge of the numbers and his ability, as prime minister anyway, to budget responsibly."