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As federal budgets go, the 2019–20 pre-election document presented by Minister of Finance Bill Morneau on Tuesday was humdrum affair, with nothing harmful nor helpful for the average voter in putting food on the table. The deficit continues at roughly $20 billion annually over the next two years with federal net debt as a share of GDP holding steady at a bit more than 30 per cent of GDP. Federal gross liabilities, though, are a whopping $1.1 trillion, over one-half of GDP, and that’s ignoring unfunded age-related spending and tax liabilities.

Program spending will rise by five per cent in 2018–19, which is faster than GDP growth. Money is being sprayed onto hundreds of programs to satisfy endless special interest groups. The few new tax measures added are mainly technical in nature and of little interest to the broad public.

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What is more interesting is what is not in the budget. The document does lots of trumpeting about increasing job growth. A new, well-designed training credit at least fits into a growth agenda. But other than that, Morneau had little to say about labour productivity, which is key to prosperity. Mostly, the budget just treated us to more tiresome mantras about helping middle-class jobs.