OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on Prime Minister Mark Carney to prove he’s changing course in Budget 2025 by cutting spending and providing a plan to cut government debt.

“Carney sold Canadians on the idea that he would be different than former prime minister Justin Trudeau and he needs to prove that by cutting spending, debt and bureaucracy in Budget 2025,” said Franco Terrazzano, CTF Federal Director. “After a decade-long debt-fuelled spending spree, taxpayers can’t afford another Trudeau-style budget.”

The Parliamentary Budget Officer projects this year’s “deficit to increase sharply to $68.5 billion.”

Carney’s annual borrowing will add about $255 billion to the debt over four years, according to the PBO. For comparison, Trudeau planned on increasing the debt by $131 billion over those years, according to the most recent Fall Economic Statement.

Debt interest charges will cost taxpayers $55.3 billion this year, according to the PBO. That means the federal government will waste more money paying interest on the debt than it sends to the provinces in health-care transfers ($54.7 billion). Debt interest charges will cost taxpayers $82.4 billion in 2030.

The CTF’s pre-budget submission includes a clear taxpayer benchmark for Budget 2025: total spending must decrease. The submission details numerous ways for the government to find savings, including shrinking the federal bureaucracy.

The government added 99,000 bureaucrats and increased the cost of the bureaucracy 77 per cent since 2016. Despite the growth in the bureaucracy, half of Canadians say federal services have gotten worse since 2016, according to a Leger poll commissioned by the CTF.

“The government can’t keep borrowing more money forever and taxpayers can’t afford to pay $1 billion a week to cover debt interest charges,” Terrazzano said. “Carney needs to make the government more affordable for taxpayers and that means he needs to fire bureaucrats.”