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Opinion: Ottawa's fiscal guardrail is driving us toward the cliff

Fiscal rules are supposed to keep the economy safe. Ottawa's rule of 'spend whatever comes in' raises the risk of future fiscal disaster

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In its 2020 and 2021 budget and updates, Ottawa talked a lot about “fiscal guardrails,” a term that met with much derision. Hard targets like a balanced budget or a dollar reduction in total spending are clear commitments a government can be held to account for (which, of course, governments usually prefer to avoid). A “guardrail” is vaguer — implying safety, even if the driver is careless. More derision followed when it turned out that if Ottawa wanted to spend more than the guardrail allowed, it just leapt over it, borrowing and spending whatever it wanted.

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