The federal government has shown a lack of transparency in revealing which companies and organizations have received financial relief since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, CBC reports.
"Now is the time for us to focus on what we can do going forward to save Canadian lives and to preserve the Canadian economy," Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said before the House of Commons. "There will be a time for post-mortems, but while the plane is flying, one does not try to change the engine."
The government's deficit has ballooned in 2020 to $381 billion, by far the highest on record. Of that money, approximately $240 billion is being spent on coronavirus relief initiatives, although the government and various agencies have refused to reveal who has benefited from such stimulus.
The Export Development Corporation, for example, spent $31.6 billion on the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA) but has not disclosed which companies have received benefits under the program. Another agency, the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation, spent $2 billion to provide economic relief to landlords suffering during the pandemic, but have not disclosed which landlords received them.
Conservative Party finance critic Pierre Poilievre criticized the government for reckless and unaccountable spending during the pandemic. "The free ride is over," Poilievre declared. "We should now expect to receive the data."
Conservative Party Leader Erin O'Toole also criticized the government for their spending habits, disparaging the lack of accountability. "There is not an unlimited pot of ever-increasing deficit spending," O'Toole said in a September interview with the National Post. O'Toole further stated "it seems like they have no concern about huge, huge deficits and the impact on our fiscal capacity in the future."
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