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The update on federal finances delivered by Finance Minister Bill Morneau this week was a happy-talk document intended, no doubt, to leave Canadians feeling warm, cozy and secure as they settled into the holiday season.

The economy is “sound and growing.” Jobs — “good, well-paying” ones — are being created. Wages are growing and business profits are “solid.” Better yet, there’s nothing but good news on the debt front. Canada’s “budgetary deficit reflects investments that help keep the economy strong and growing, with the deficit projected to be $26.6 billion in 2019–20, improving to $11.6 billion by 2024–25.”

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So good cheer all ’round. The kiddies can tear into their presents safe in the knowledge the government of Canada has their future in mind. That is, just as long as no one sneaks a peek past the smiley-face depiction offered up by the finance minister. Less partisan figures looking at the numbers reached an altogether different conclusion than the one Morneau peddled in a series of post-review interviews. “I don’t think it’s fair to say that the government has a strong fiscal plan right now,” former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page, who regularly unsettled Conservatives and Liberals alike by shining a light on the huge holes in their rosy forecasts, told Bloomberg News: “The investments that they’re talking about are really modest tax cuts. From an economic perspective, are we going to get a lot of growth from a modest tax cut at this stage of the cycle? Probably not so much. I think we need to be concerned right now. We just sort of have this weak fiscal plan.”