Public Spending Connected with the PandemicUnder conditions of the pandemic and economic crisis, the federal government's fiscal snapshot declares a $343.2 billion deficit and projected federal debt to the financial oligarchs of $1.2 trillion. Regarding this deficit, it says $236 billion is going directly to businesses and individuals. The government says so far approximately $150 billion has been paid to private businesses with more to come. The program to pay 75 per cent of the wages of workers in private enterprise has been extended and broadened. To the middle of June, 223,918 private companies had applied for the wage subsidy program. The programs doling out public money to private business include: - the Large Employer Emergency Financing Facility (LEEFF), no final amount listed; - the Business Credit Availability Program (BCAP), no final amount listed; - the Canada Emergency Commercial Rent Assistance (CECRA) administered through the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC), no final amount listed; - the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS), expected to pay employers $82.3 billion; - the Canada Emergency Business Account (CEBA), expected to pay $13.7 billion; - and, the CMHC purchase of corporate and provincial bonds, ongoing. The government says the total going to individuals who have lost their jobs or are in dire need of assistance is estimated to be $85.2 billion. Much of this is to prop up consumer spending so almost all will go immediately from individuals into payments to business. Eighty billion dollars is destined for 8.6 million individuals through the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB). The government says $5.2 billion is expected to be paid to students under the Canada Emergency Student Benefit (CESB). The government has also issued one-time payments to those it calls "lower income Canadians" under the GST rebate program and to those who receive Old Age Security. Families eligible for the Canada Child Benefit received an extra $2 billion in payments in May. The government projects that by the end of the 2020-21 fiscal year next March, it will have spent about $469 billion more than planned when it last set spending targets in December 2019. The snapshot reads, "The projected contraction in federal budgetary revenues is unprecedented since the Great Depression, with an expected decline in 2020-21 more than twice as big as in 2009-10, following the global financial crisis." The government says a portion of the total deficit arises from last year's already projected deficit of $34.4 billion, and the loss this year of tax revenue and other government income from the economic crisis estimated at $81.3 billion.
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