Opinion: Please, Santa, what Canada needs for Christmas is slimmer budgets

The federal budget has become unwieldy, packed with superfluous material that buries the key numbers deep where only experts can find them

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Initial buzz about last month’s supposedly “generational” federal budget marking a decisive break from the growth-suppressing fiscal policies of the recent past has now faded. In retrospect, far too much of the budget was discouragingly familiar: more upward revisions of projected spending and borrowing, narrowly focused tax measures and — in telling symbolism — another unwieldy document packed with superfluous material that buried the key numbers deep where only experts could find them.

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The C.D. Howe Institute’s annual report card grades the transparency and accountability of federal, provincial and territorial budgets, main estimates and financial statements. Ottawa — once a leader in providing clear, timely numbers — has recently been earning Ds and even an F (for unsubmitted work: the 2020 budget

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