Liberal Finance Minister Bill Morneau repeatedly failed to answer questions about totals on Canada’s federal balance sheet.

Conservative MP and finance critic Pierre Poilievre repeatedly pressed Morneau to provide figures regarding Canada’s assets, equity and liabilities during Wednesday’s House of Commons special committee on the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Poilievre’s terse questions – seeking just the numbers – were answered with generic comments about Canada’s economy.

“I know we shouldn’t ask the minister about numbers, he’s just the finance minister after all but what is the equity on the government of Canada’s balance sheet?” asked Poilievre. 

“Mr Speaker, I would advise the member of Carleton to memorize those auditor general figures for his next foray into the House of Commons,“ said Morneau.

The exchange, which carried on for three minutes, shows Morneau repeating Liberal talking points to simple questions. 

“So the minister has claimed that our balance sheet is strong. There are three components to a balance sheet: the assets, the liabilities and the equity. The minister doesn’t know any of the three, so clearly he doesn’t actually know anything about our balance sheet. That’s reassuring,” said Poilievre.

“Now, according to the auditor general, the net negative net worth of our government, of Canada, will be as much as a trillion dollars by the end of this fiscal year. Can the minister, if he’s familiar with any of these numbers, tell us: is it possible his government will hit a trillion dollars of debt this year?”

“Mr Speaker, I want to assure Canadians that our approach will be to continue to make investments on their behalf and that is available to us because of our strong fiscal position but we will continue to take that approach which we think is the appropriate approach,” replied Morneau. 

Recently, Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer told the Commons finance committee that Canada’s federal debt could reach $1 trillion by this year. 

“Possible, yes. Realistic? Yes. Certainly not unthinkable,” said Yves Giroux in a response to a question on the matter.

The Liberal government’s deficit has reached an estimated all-time high for 2020 and could surpass $252 billion this year due to coronavirus spending. 

“The figure of $252 billion is very likely to be the very optimistic scenario, as opposed to the number for the deficit for the current fiscal year,” said Giroux.

The government has spent so much in the past few months that bureaucrats have lost track of how big the deficit has become.

On Tuesday Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux told the House of Commons finance committee that his office cannot keep track of the Trudeau government’s record-breaking spending.

“It’s very difficult to estimate what is a likely deficit figure given that details are missing for some of these potentially very expensive measures,” he said.

In early April Giroux said the budget deficit would be $184.2 billion in 2020-2021, but by April 30 Giroux increased that estimate to $252.1 billion. 

Giroux estimated that the deficit is at least “a few billion dollars more” as of Tuesday.

“Just how much more?” Conservative MP Michael Cooper asked Giroux.

“We don’t have that information,” replied Giroux.

On Tuesday Giroux also told MPs that the federal debt could reach $1 trillion this fiscal year.

A $252.1 billion deficit would be 458% larger than the previous record of $55.6 billion set in 2009-2010.

“The figure of $252.1 billion is very likely to be a very optimistic scenario as opposed to the number for the deficit for the current fiscal year,” Giroux added.

According to Blacklock’s Reporter the Canadian government will spend more this year than they did during the entirety of the Second World War when adjusted for inflation.

On Wednesday the Department of Finance also revealed they have no accurate information on how much the government has spent since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.

When asked by the Senate finance committee Wednesday, Associate Assistant Deputy Minister Alison McDermott said that the department is unsure what the deficit is.

“All of those estimates are subject to quite a bit of uncertainty. The federal government has not yet made a fiscal estimate public,” McDermott said.

“The Bank of Canada provides an update every week,” Conservative Senator Elizabeth Marshall told McDermott. 

“They provide a copy of their balance sheet. I just find it almost amazing, incredible that the Bank of Canada can provide this information but the Department of Finance which has all these very intelligent people can’t provide us more fiscal information.”

According to Canada’s Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO), there is a possibility that the country’s federal debt could reach $1 trillion this fiscal year. 

Yves Giroux told the Commons finance committee on Tuesday that it’s “possible” and “realistic” that Canada’s debt could pass the trillion-dollar mark. 

“Possible, yes. Realistic? Yes. Certainly not unthinkable,” said Giroux in a response to a question on the possibility. 

A few weeks earlier, the PBO announced that the Liberal government’s deficit for 2020 could surpass $252 billion due to increased coronavirus measures spending.

“The figure of $252 billion is very likely to be the very optimistic scenario, as opposed to the number for the deficit for the current fiscal year,” said Giroux. 

Giroux also told the committee on Tuesday that it was “very difficult” to estimate the likely deficit due to the fact that the Trudeau government has been spending Canadian taxpayer dollars so quickly. 

“It’s very difficult to estimate what is a likely deficit figure given that details are missing for some of these potentially very expensive measures,” said Giroux before reiterating how optimistic his past prediction of $252 billion was. 

“That points to the need for a fiscal update by the government to give Canadians a better idea as to what the deficit is likely to be, because the government probably has in mind a sense of how much it wants to spend on stimulus measures.” 

Giroux is calling on the federal government to provide a fiscal update to Canadians to determine exactly how much its stimulus programs would cost the nation. 

“We’ll find ways to share this with you but we have not yet been able to determine what the best way is of looking at a budget or an economic update or maybe another way of sharing information with Canadians about what we foresee for the months to come,” said Trudeau about the possibility of a budget update on May 4. 

Eight Mexican temporary foreign workers in British Columbia have developed symptoms of the coronavirus after arriving in Canada.

The farm workers were set to head for separate farms, but started showing coronavirus symptoms while in quarantine.

The province of British Columbia is paying to quarantine foreign workers for two weeks.

On Tuesday BC Agriculture Minister Lana Popham told the Globe & Mail that paying to quarantine foreign workers was necessary to meet business’ labour needs.

“It’s costly, but probably saves money if you look at the cost of businesses shutting down,” she said.

There have been a number of cases of foreign workers bringing the coronavirus with them to Canada, particularly in British Columbia.

In late April four foreign workers tested positive for the coronavirus upon arrival in Canada. All four had arrived in British Columbia on different flights.

Throughout the month of April, 23 foreign workers contracted coronavirus at a plant nursery in West Kelowna. Health authorities were not able to determine which foreign worker was the original carrier.

At a time of record unemployment in Canada, True North’s Founder Candice Malcolm recently called on the government to suspend its temporary foreign worker program and instead match unemployed young Canadians looking for work experience with farmers in desperate need of labour during planting season.

However, last week the head of Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program Philippe Massé  told MPs that foreign workers are still coming to Canada unabated despite the health risks and record unemployment.

When asked, program director Philippe Massé could not say how many workers have been approved to come to Canada since the coronavirus lockdowns began in March.

The federal government has pledged $50 million to pay for foreign workers to quarantine for two weeks before they can begin working in Canada. British Columbia and Prince Edward Island are also paying to quarantine.

Ontario and Quebec have introduced incentives to encourage unemployed Canadians to take jobs normally taken by foreign workers. New Brunswick has outright banned any new foreign workers as a precaution and will rely on existing foreign workers and residents to meet labour needs.

While Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defers to the World Health Organization and Health Minister Patty Hajdu defends China, Canada’s ambassador to China is pushing for a “rigorous review” of the UN body’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic once the situation has calmed down. 

According to the Globe and Mail, Ambassador Dominic Barton also had a few choice words for China during a private meeting with the Canadian International Council. 

“Canada’s voice will be heard loudly,” he reportedly said during the meeting.

The conversation, which was recounted to the Globe by several people close to the matter, supposedly reportedly involved Barton accusing China of undermining its international influence and damaging its “soft power” with its actions. 

Barton declined to comment on the story, the Globe said.

Meanwhile, Trudeau has taken a softer tone towards the WHO – widely criticized for its trust of China’s handling of the coronavirus – and even spoke out in its defence after US President Donald Trump cut funding to the organization and blamed it for spreading false information about the coronavirus.

When asked about Trump’s stance on the WHO, Trudeau reiterated the “tens of millions of dollars” Canada sends to the UN body.

“Of course, in the coming months and years there will be many reflections on various institutions and systems, both domestically and internationally on how we can improve our response, on how we can learn from things we could have done better in this process,” Trudeau said.

“These are things that will come in the coming times. Right now our focus needs to be on doing the best we can right now to protect Canadians.”

According to Der Spiegel, German intelligence believes Chinese President Xi Jinping personally threatened WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on in January to prevent the UN body from issuing a warning call about the severity of the viral outbreak. 

American intelligence reports have also indicated a belief that the WHO did not fulfil its mandate to provide a proper and timely warning.