Cornelius Christian, Assistant Professor in the Department of Economics at Brock University, had a piece recently published in the Niagara Independent about the federal and provincial government’s economic response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He writes:

“To pay for COVID-19 programs like the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB), federal and provincial governments are expected to borrow 12 per cent of the country’s income, adding to a public debt of more than $770 billion.

As an economist, I have no problem with this. We are in a crisis, and need to spend. Governments across Canada, to their credit, are taking prompt and necessary actions, and we can even do more: universal coronavirus testing, for example, and more support for small businesses. All of this requires public money.

However, it is reckless to claim that such spending is without consequence. Last Monday, the Globe and Mail ran an editorial with the headline, ‘How is Ottawa going to pay off its COVID-19 debt? With any luck, it won’t have to.’ The editors’ argument is historical: during and after World War II, Canada ran up tremendous debts, but nothing bad happened, because the economy grew faster than the debt did — which enabled us to keep the debt under control.”

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