Stop the Manipulation of Canada’s Books

Whereas the Liberal government has redefined “capital investment” to include tax breaks, subsidies, corporate welfare, and other spending that does not produce federal capital assets;

Whereas this change departs from established Public Accounts practices and significantly expands what counts as capital spending and, therefore, artificially increasing revenues and decreasing expenses resulting in a misleading representation of the operating balance and true full deficit;

Whereas the Parliamentary Budget Officer has warned that this inflates the government’s role in capital formation and contradicts international standards and risks our credit ratings;

Whereas this undermines fiscal transparency and misrepresents the true nature of federal spending.

Therefore, we the undersigned call on the Liberal government to:
Stop hiding the true full deficit;
Restore the definition of “capital investments” to match the prior treatment of capital spending in the Public Accounts of Canada;
Ensure fiscal reporting follows Public Sector Accounting Standards; and
Guarantee full transparency in how federal spending is classified and reported.