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Briefing materials prepared by Finance Canada, and released to the Citizen in December under access to information, said expanding CPP would likely hurt the economy in the short term but would help Canadians over the long term.

“In the long run, expanding the CPP would bring economic benefits. Higher savings will lead to higher income in the future and higher consumption possibilities for seniors,” say the briefing materials, originally prepared in December 2013 for the Conservative government ahead of that year’s finance ministers’ meeting but just released a few weeks ago.

“In the short term, however, CPP expansion is expected to have some negative impact on the economy as higher labour costs and lower take-home pay for workers would lead to reduced demand for labour by businesses and reduced supply of labour by workers.”

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The Liberal government is already facing enormous fiscal pressures, due to what it says is an anemic economy it inherited, federal finances that are worse than expected, and campaign promises that aren’t adding up. Expanding the CPP could cost the federal government even more revenue.

Trudeau and Morneau have backed off of their election promise to cap short-term annual deficits at $10 billion. They’ve also revealed the government’s promised middle-class tax cut won’t be fully funded by a tax hike on wealthy Canadians, and will instead leave a $1.2-billion annual fiscal hole.

The revenue gap will make it even more difficult for the Liberals to balance the budget before the next election, as promised in their campaign platform.