Bonk says $78.3 billion deficit worrying
Federal Budget
November 10, 2025, 12:00 pm
Nicole Taylor, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The federal government released its budget on Tuesday.
The World-Spectator spoke with Souris-Moose Mountain MP Steven Bonk about his take on the budget:
What is your overall opinion of this budget?
This was a budget that the prime minister and the finance minister were trying to hype up for a long time as a generational budget with generational investments, but it turns out that the only thing generational about this budget is the debt that it is going to leave for generations as Canadians.
What are some of the things that you are most critical of in this budget?
Just the sheer amount of deficit. Just six months ago the prime minister campaigned in an election where he looked Canadians in the eye and promised that he was going to keep the deficit to $62 billion which was the Liberals’ guard rails at the time, and $62 billion is already an obscene amount, and now it’s $78 billion. So the prime minister broke his word about the budget and he promised a lower debt to GDP ratio, and that’s higher, and by printing all this money it is going to definitely create more inflation which is going to cost more for Canadians.
What we are really disappointed in is that this budget does nothing to help Canadians who are suffering with the cost of living, with having to line up at food banks, with people who have lost their jobs, and in fact what this budget does is it creates a larger deficit which means the money that we have to pay just in debt repayments is increasing.
It used to be up until yesterday we were spending a billion dollars a week on debt repayment, now that number has increased, it use to be $52 billion a year. Now it’s $70 billion a year, and that’s if interest rates hold where they are.
So basically for the new debt that this government has created, it would be like charging a 15 per cent GST just to make our debt repayments. This is completely unsustainable.
Is there anything that you are happy to see in this budget?
“I’m definitely happy to see more emphasis put on our military. That is something that has been completely neglected by this Liberal government for the last 10 years, and I think all Canadians are proud of our military and we want them to succeed and give them the tools that they need so they can be successful. So we are very happy to see that.
Any time that there is a reduction in what we feel is kind of a bloated civil service, we are happy to see those cuts made. How that plays out will be another story, but we like to see that.
If the Conservatives were releasing a budget, what would they do differently?
We would have got rid of the Industrial Carbon Tax, we would have implemented the Canadian Sovereignty Act that we’ve put forward, where we have a pre-approved list of qualifications for projects. So, for example if you wanted to start a mine or you wanted to start a saw mill or if you wanted to work in the oil field or pipelines, there is a pre set of qualifications that you must meet. If you meet those you are pre-approved for a project.
This would unleash our economy, and let people do what they do best, let our people in the pipeline industry work, let our oilfield people work, let our people in the softwood lumber industry get back to work. Just unleash our economy instead of having our government trying to stop everything. We want to be a partner with the private industry.
What in this budget will have the most effect on your constituency of Souris-Moose Mountain?
I think what will have the biggest impact on our region is the sheer amount of debt that this government is taking on because that is something that all residents of Souris-Moose Mountain will have to repay. That is going to affect everyone and just by printing money it’s definitely going to increase inflation. There is no way they get around that and inflation is a tax on everything.
So I think that is something we are going to feel very acutely. When you look at this budget, there is nothing in there for our farmers, for pipelines, for our resource sector, we are very disappointed in this budget.
Do you know if the Conservatives will be supporting it?
We will definitely not be supporting this budget.
