Parliamentary budget officer Yves Giroux told members of Parliament on Monday, November 28, 2022, that the federal government did not show fiscal restraint in its recent fall economic statement.
Secret reports the federal government is relying on to argue the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion is commercially viable are based on the unrealistic assumption the pipeline will operate for 100 years, Canada’s financial watchdog told Canada’s National Observer.
The latest analysis by the Parliamentary Budget Officer, released Wednesday, shows the net present value of the pipeline is negative $600 million, leaving it worth about $1.2 billion less than the PBO's estimate in December 2020.
The parliamentary budget officer says the federal government would need to spend an additional $75.3 billion on defence over the next five years for Canada to reach NATO’s target of two per cent of GDP.
Finance Canada has helped Trans Mountain secure $10 billion in new financing to complete construction of the controversial pipeline by promising investors that if the Crown corporation can’t pay back the loans, the public will.
Canada’s financial watchdog says the federal government is “very unlikely” to recoup its $4.5-billion investment in the Trans Mountain pipeline now that the project’s costs have soared by 70 per cent.
