LILLEY: Carney considers appointing partisan Liberal to top court job in Ontario

Blue Jays hit home run with Rogers Centre menu additions for 2026 season

Howie Mandel snaps at Kelly Ripa in weirdly tense interview: ‘IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE’

Ben Shapiro to headline first Toronto antizionism conference

SIMMONS: 'There's no such thing as running it back' says Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro

Share this Story : Toronto Sun Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

GUNTER: Swelling size of federal Liberal government hobbles national economic growth

You can save this article by registering for free here. Or sign-in if you have an account.

Perhaps Albertans should be grateful to the federal government for spending so little per capita in our province.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.

Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.

Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.

Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.

Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.

Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada.

Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account.

Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on.

Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists.

Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists.

Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Access articles from across Canada with one account.

Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments.

Enjoy additional articles per month.

Get email updates from your favourite authors.

Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience.

Access articles from across Canada with one account

Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments

Enjoy additional articles per month

Get email updates from your favourite authors

Don't have an account? Create Account

Canadians who have paid close attention know the Alberta claim that the province pays far more into Confederation than any other province (including those like Ontario and B.C. which have larger populations. In return, it receives less per capita from Ottawa than of the other provinces in transfers to health, education and social services, as well as federal government spending on projects.

GUNTER: Swelling size of federal Liberal government hobbles national economic growth Back to video

This has long been a sore point for Albertans, but maybe it shouldn’t be.

As governments have expanded enormously, during the past decade in particular, they have become enormous drags on national and provincial economies. Many economists peg 30 per cent of GDP as the optimum size of government to provide universal services while also sustaining maximum growth. Larger than that and governments just get in the way of economic expansion and job creation.

Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond.

There was an error, please provide a valid email address.

By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.

A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder.

The next issue of Your Midday Sun will soon be in your inbox.

We encountered an issue signing you up. Please try again

Interested in more newsletters? Browse here.

Thanks in part to Ottawa spending just $1,700 a year per capita in Alberta (the highest nationally are in New Brunswick and P.E.I. at over $5,300), Alberta is the only province where combined municipal, provincial and federal spending is within the magic 30 per cent limit.

This isn’t as big an achievement for Alberta as it appears on the surface. Alberta has far and away the largest per capita GDP in the country — $97,000 per year versus the national average of just over $75,000.

That means Alberta governments can spend a lot more money than other provinces’ governments before the percentage of GDP consumed by governments exceeds the 30 per cent level.

Alberta’s governments are not being all that frugal. They just have more income to spend.

That’s not to say Alberta governments deserve no credit all. Governments, particularly in the last 10 years, have tended to spend the maximum they think they can get with.

According to a new study by Vancouver’s Fraser Institute, this spend-to-the-max attitude is why the three levels of government in Ontario now consume 43.4 per cent of that province’s GDP. Meanwhile, in Quebec the percentage is 50.1 and in Nova Scotia (the highest level), it’s 61.2 per cent, according to Fraser.

When governments grow that big, they squeeze the life out of private-sector growth. The money they borrow makes borrowing more expensive for businesses wishing to start up or expand. Their taxes are an albatross around the necks of ordinary citizens and investors, alike.

Private businesses in the economy create money; governments consume it. That’s why the bigger governments are the more of a roadblock they are to growth.

One glaring example of what this means for prosperity and per capita standard of living can be see in the Trudeau years. From 2015 through 2024, the federal government expanded by 40 per cent — the highest level in the G7. At the same time, Canada’s economy was the slowest growing in the OECD.

There may not be a direct correlation, but the connection is undeniable — massive public-sector spending slows growth.

It’s important to recognize that this connection started long before U.S. President Donald Trump and his farcical but damaging tariffs.

Have Trump’s tariffs damaged the Canadian economy? Without a doubt. But by nowhere near as much as 10 years of “green” policies and massive increases in the size of the bureaucracy brought about by Liberal governments.

As the government of Prime Minister Mark Carney has continued to grow the size of the federal government, even after promising to scale back from the Trudeau years, our economy has continued to limp along.

In February, the Canadian economy lost 84,000 jobs rather than adding the 10,000 new jobs economists predicted. And last week, the Bank of Canada revised downward it’s projection for GDP growth this year from an anemic 1.2 per cent to a pathetic rate of under one per cent.

It’s not Trump’s policies that drove away $400 billion in investment since 2015 or ran up the national debt by 50 per cent.

That was all the doing of consecutive Liberal governments.

Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add EdmontonJournal.com and EdmontonSun.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here. 

You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber. Subscribers gain unlimited access to The Edmonton Journal, Edmonton Sun, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Edmonton Journal | The Edmonton Sun. 

Share this Story : Toronto Sun Copy Link Email X Reddit Pinterest LinkedIn Tumblr

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

LILLEY: Carney considers appointing partisan Liberal to top court job in Ontario Columnists

LILLEY: Carney considers appointing partisan Liberal to top court job in Ontario

Blue Jays hit home run with Rogers Centre menu additions for 2026 season Toronto Blue Jays

Blue Jays hit home run with Rogers Centre menu additions for 2026 season

Howie Mandel snaps at Kelly Ripa in weirdly tense interview: ‘IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE’ Television

Howie Mandel snaps at Kelly Ripa in weirdly tense interview: ‘IT DOESN’T MAKE ANY SENSE’

Ben Shapiro to headline first Toronto antizionism conference Canada

Ben Shapiro to headline first Toronto antizionism conference

SIMMONS: 'There's no such thing as running it back' says Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro Toronto Blue Jays

SIMMONS: 'There's no such thing as running it back' says Blue Jays president Mark Shapiro

© Toronto Sun