Canadian MPs now worried about potential second lockdown

The opposition caucus met for the first time yesterday since the start of the pandemic, and those two items were first on the agenda, although Parliament itself has been recently suspended by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau until September 23.

It appears that the throne speech scheduled for that same day will be similar to the last one, which took place on December 5, 2019. Trudeau has stated that he wishes to focus mainly on environmental issues and “ambitious climate action”. No further details are available on the issue.

“I’m reading what all the folks in the Ottawa bubble are saying might be in there, and it looks like it could be an outrageous Throne Speech,” commented MP Marilyn Gladu in an interview yesterday. “Sometimes there’s work done to prepare for the worst, and then when it comes out and it’s only half-crazy, people will accept it. We’ll wait and see what happens.”

“We’re seeing a rise in cases,” Calgary MP Rempel Garner stated. “We don’t have a plan from this government beyond another shutdown of the economy, and that’s just not something my community can deal with.”

The Department of Finance recently issued a statement saying, among other things, that “The toll on the broader economy in 2020 is expected to be the largest and most sudden economic contraction since the Great Depression.”

Canada currently has a debt load of close to $1.3 trillion, according to the Parliamentary Budget Office. This only includes current and direct debt, and not things like crown corporation liabilities, or future commitments to other subsidies like pensions.

Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux has already stated back in May that another lockdown like the one that happened back in March, or even ongoing measures like the ones currently in place, are unfeasible in the long term.

“These measures have to be temporary and they will have to be allowed to sunset,” said Giroux. “Otherwise we’d be looking at a level of taxation that’s not been seen for generations in this country.”