Canada’s inflation rate for the month of December was up 4.8% compared to last year, representing the highest the country has seen since 1991.
Prices for gas rose more than 33% compared to last year’s figures, accompanied by record inflation numbers at the grocery store. Food prices nationwide are up more than 5%, with the cost of buying meat now 9% more expensive and the cost of dairy products 3% more expensive.
Real estate costs are not counted in the federal government’s consumer price index although the Canadian Real Estate Association reported Monday that the cost of owning a home in 2021 was 26% more expensive compared to 2020.
Conservative leader Erin O’Toole and Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre blasted the Liberals over their “failures on the economy.”
O’Toole said in a statement that “the high-tax, high-debt lockdown agenda of the Trudeau government has set the stage for inflation and COVID policies are making supply chain challenges worse.”
The Conservative leader added, “Canadians are tired of the hollow words of Justin Trudeau who never delivers on what he promises and doesn’t understand the challenges Canadians are facing.”
Poilievre noted that the record inflation figures under the Trudeau government don’t factor in the 26% increase in the price of owning a home.
The December consumer price index continues an upward inflationary trend in Canada, with November’s CPI at 4.7%.
The federal budget released last year projected a deficit of $354 billion dollars in 2020-2021 and an additional $154 billion of spending for 2021-2022.
In June 2021, the Parliamentary Budget Office reported that the federal government would not return to a balanced budget until 2070. In the same estimate, the PBO projected that the federal government would tack on another $2.7 trillion in debt before returning to a balanced budget.
Canada’s current debt is estimated to be around $1.2 trillion, with the share per person now over $31,000.
