Frontier Centre for Public Policy
The PM as Leaf’s coach

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Lee Harding
The budget had a $7.5 billion surplus when the Trudeau Liberals were sworn into power on November 4, 2016 and they turned it into a $5.4 billion deficit by the end of March.
The meme where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau becomes the new coach of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who lost in the NHL playoffs to Boston May 4th, has far more depth than people realize.
Previous head coach Sheldon Keefe was fired, leaving a prime job open.
“With my unique coaching style, the cup will win itself,” was Trudeau’s quote in the meme, his fictional words matched by a fake picture of him in a Leafs jacket.
The woes of both Canada and the Maple Leafs involve leadership and economics.
In the Leafs’ case, the players salary cap is $83.5 million. Last year, the team paid four players $11 million each, leaving fiscal scraps for the other 16 players.
Prior to becoming prime minister, Trudeau was asked how committed he would be to a balanced budget.
“The commitment needs to be a commitment to grow the economy, and the budget will balance itself,” Trudeau said, on February 11, 2014, as he criticized the Harper government approach.
“They’re artificially fixing a target of a balanced budget in an election year,” Trudeau explained.
“And that’s irresponsible. What you need to do is create an economy that works for Canadians, works for middle class Canadians, allows young people to find a job, allows seniors to feel secure in their retirement.”
Trudeau pledged to run modest deficits and a return to balance in the final year of his majority term, which, ironically, was what he condemned Conservatives of doing in the interview. We are still waiting for that balanced budget, of course.
The budget had a $7.5 billion surplus when the Trudeau Liberals were sworn into power on November 4, 2016 and they turned it into a $5.4 billion deficit by the end of March.
Prior to taking power, Trudeau argued that historically low interest rates were a good reason to borrow and spend on nation-building infrastructure. If the debt-to-GDP ratio kept dropping, good enough.
That excuse of low interest rates is gone, yet the deficits remain. When this fiscal year ends next March, the federal debt will be double what it was when the Trudeau Liberals took power. Deep deficits and higher lending rates have made debt servicing costs nearly double in the past two years alone.
Among the 38 nations in the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, Canada’s growth in real GDP per capita was the fifth-weakest over 2019-22. Last November, Canada was named as one of only eight advanced countries where real incomes were lower than before the pandemic, as inflation outpaces growth.
Worse, the OECD projects Canada will be the worst performing economy among the 38 advanced economies over both 2020-30 and 2030-60.
Even before capital gains taxes were hiked in the recent budget, investors knew Canada wasn’t a good place to grow wealth. The country lost $225 billion in capital investment from 2016 through 2022.
Whether it’s a winning team or a winning economy, ignoring financial realities steals success.
Trudeau’s economic plan has relied on a burgeoning, high-paid public sector, almost limitless immigration, carbon taxes, and green spending. He has put all the money on the wrong players.
Canada was altogether different in 1967, the last time the Leafs won a cup. Since then, the first and second prime ministers Trudeau have eroded this country’s social and fiscal moorings, leaving us conflicted and financially burdened instead of celebrating our success.
So, when will Canada get a new coach?
Lee Harding is a Research Fellow for the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
Business
Canada Urgently Needs A Watchdog For Government Waste

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
By Ian Madsen
From overstaffed departments to subsidy giveaways, Canadians are paying a high price for government excess
Not all the Trump administration’s policies are dubious. One is very good, in theory at least: the Department of Government Efficiency. While that term could be an oxymoron, like ‘political wisdom,’ if DOGE is useful, so may be a Canadian version.
DOGE aims to identify wasteful, duplicative, unnecessary or destructive government programs and replace outdated data systems. It also seeks to lower overall costs and ensure mechanisms are in place to evaluate proposed programs for effectiveness and value for money. This can, and usually does, involve eliminating some departments and, eventually, thousands of jobs. Some new roles within DOGE may need to become permanent.
The goal in the U.S. is to lower annual operating costs and ensure that the growth in government spending is lower than in revenues. Washington’s spending has exploded in recent years. The U.S. federal deficit exceeds six per cent of gross domestic product. According to the U.S. Treasury Department, annual debt service cost is escalating unsustainably.
Canada’s latest budget deficit of $61.9 billion in fiscal 2023–24 is about two per cent of GDP, which seems minor compared to our neighbour. However, it adds to the federal debt of $1.236 trillion, about 41 per cent of our approximate $3 trillion GDP. Ottawa’s public accounts show that expenses are 17.8 per cent of GDP, up from about 14 per cent just eight years ago. Interest on the escalating debt were 10.2 per cent of revenues in the most recent fiscal year, up from just five per cent a mere two years ago.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) continually identifies dubious or frivolous spending and outright waste or extravagance: “$30 billion in subsidies to multinational corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Stellantis and Northvolt. Federal corporate subsidies totalled $11.2 billion in 2022 alone. Shutting down the federal government’s seven regional development agencies would save taxpayers an estimated $1.5 billion annually.”
The CTF also noted that Ottawa hired 108,000 more staff in the past eight years at an average annual cost of over $125,000. Hiring in line with population growth would have added only 35,500, saving about $9 billion annually. The scale of waste is staggering. Canada Post, the CBC and Via Rail lose, in total, over $5 billion a year. For reference, $1 billion would buy Toyota RAV4s for over 25,600 families.
Ottawa also duplicates provincial government functions, intruding on their constitutional authority. Shifting those programs to the provinces, in health, education, environment and welfare, could save many more billions of dollars per year. Bad infrastructure decisions lead to failures such as the $33.4 billion squandered on what should have been a relatively inexpensive expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline—a case where hiring better staff could have saved money. Terrible federal IT systems, exemplified by the $4 billion Phoenix payroll horror, are another failure. The Green Slush Fund misallocated nearly $900 million.
Ominously, the fast-growing Old Age Supplement and Guaranteed Income Security programs are unfunded, unlike the Canada Pension Plan. Their costs are already roughly equal to the deficit and could become unsustainable.
Canada is sleepwalking toward financial perdition. A Canadian version of DOGE—Canada Accountability, Efficiency and Transparency Team, or CAETT—is vital. The Auditor General Office admirably identifies waste and bad performance, but is not proactive, nor does it have enforcement powers. There is currently no mechanism to evaluate or end unnecessary programs to ensure Canadians will have a prosperous and secure future. CAETT could fill that role.
Ian Madsen is the Senior Policy Analyst at the Frontier Centre for Public Policy.
Energy
Federal Clean Power Plan Risks Blackouts And Higher Bills

From the Frontier Centre for Public Policy
Ottawa’s Clean Electricity Regulations could derail Canada’s energy future. Here’s what we need to do
The federal government’s push to make Canada’s electricity system net-zero is running straight into reality—and it’s not pretty.
Through the Clean Electricity Regulations (CER), the government wants all provinces to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation by 2035. It is an ambitious goal, but one that ignores a basic fact: demand for electricity is exploding, and provinces are struggling to keep up.
New technologies like artificial intelligence are supercharging this demand. AI systems, including tools such as ChatGPT, rely on massive data centres—huge warehouses of computer servers that need constant cooling and enormous amounts of electricity to function. According to a recent Royal Bank of Canada report, if all proposed data centre projects in Canada move ahead, they would consume 14 per cent of the country’s entire electricity supply by 2030. That is roughly the same as projections in the United States, where data centres are expected to use up to 15 per cent of the national total.
This is a serious problem. Provinces such as Alberta and Saskatchewan have already raised the alarm, arguing that the federal regulations overstep Ottawa’s constitutional authority. Energy supply, like natural resources, has traditionally been under provincial control. Alberta and Ontario operate their own electricity markets to attract investment and ensure reliability. Federal regulations threaten to undermine these efforts, adding risk and driving up costs.
The situation is already tense. Alberta, for example, issued multiple grid alerts in 2024 due to shortages and market disruptions. The province is now looking at “behind-the-fence” power solutions, encouraging data centres to generate their own electricity to guarantee stability.
Canada was not always in this bind. For decades, we enjoyed an abundance of clean, affordable hydroelectric power. Provinces like Quebec, British Columbia, Manitoba and Newfoundland and Labrador built massive hydro projects starting in the 1960s, creating cheap power and even surpluses to export to U.S. markets. In 2022, for example, B.C. sent 74 per cent of its exported power to the U.S., while Quebec sent 63 per cent and Ontario an impressive 81 per cent, generating billions in revenue.
But that era is coming to an end. Most of the best sites for hydro dams have already been developed. New projects would require expensive, long-distance transmission lines to bring power from remote areas to the cities that need it. On top of that, growing environmental concerns make new dam construction an uphill battle.
The truth is, there is no quick fix. A 2025 study by the Fraser Institute paints a grim picture: to meet future electricity demand solely with solar power would require 1,680 years of construction. Wind power? About 1,150 years. Even hydro would take close to a millennium. Even if we combined these sources, we are still looking at more than 1,000 years to build enough capacity.
Meanwhile, federal projections estimate that Canada’s electricity demand will double by 2050.
Without significant policy changes, Canadians could soon face the worst of both worlds: soaring electricity bills and the threat of power shortages. Our economy could also suffer as companies and data centres look to other jurisdictions with more reliable power supplies.
So what should Canada do? Here are three practical steps:
- Scrap the Clean Electricity Regulations. Provinces like Alberta and Saskatchewan are already committed to reaching net-zero by 2050. Federal interference only creates unnecessary political battles and delays investments.
- Fast-track approvals for new interprovincial transmission lines. Today, building a new transmission line can take more than a decade. Speeding up this process would help provinces share power and avoid costly overbuilding of generation capacity.
- Launch a major low-interest loan program to build new power infrastructure. We need to dramatically expand our generation and transmission systems, including natural gas-fired plants, to meet future demand.
Canadians deserve a reliable, affordable and clean energy future. But we will not get there by ignoring the realities of rising demand and provincial responsibilities. It is time for the federal government to listen to the provinces, embrace practical solutions and avoid an avoidable crisis.
Otherwise, we are on track for blackouts, higher bills and missed economic opportunities.
Maureen McCall is an energy business analyst and Fellow at the Frontier Center for Public Policy. She writes on energy issues for EnergyNow and the BOE Report. She has 20 years of experience as a business analyst for national and international energy companies in Canada.
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