Good luck to whoever is running things in 2025 when it comes time to cancel the benefits offered in the 2024 budget.
Even with a historic deficit looming, the NDP government has discovered there’s enough money lying around to bestow two one-time-only direct gifts to voters.
More realistically, it’s a calculated decision that — debt be damned — it’s time for the NDP to take voter friendliness to the next level. There was no particular rationale for the temporary care packages — other than helping with affordability — because none was needed. The linkage to the election could not be more clear.
It will get added to an accumulated debt load that is heading into the stratosphere over the next three years, from $104 billion to $165 billion by 2027. Deficits are going up, not down, and they are adding to debt that is going up faster than ever before. That’s already happening, as companies increasingly look to partner up with First Nations on new projects. The fund is designed to accelerate that trend, alongside a similar federal program in the works.