The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) says it will be challenging for Ottawa to combine spending cuts with increased investment as the prime minister has promised.
Interim PBO Jason Jacques told the Senate committee on national finance that he couldn’t remember a time when the prime minister has said Canada needs to engage in both “austerity” cuts and increased investment spending at the same time, and noted that combining the two will be challenging.
“The foot is on the gas and the foot is on the brake and the wheels are on the car,” Jacques told senators on Oct. 1. “They’re hopefully navigating a very narrow road at 100 kilometres an hour, and I think that challenge of doing both at the same time—that definitely stands out.”…