Great Moments in Canadian Government

Canada  has (or had) some very sensible policies involving school choice, welfare reform, corporate tax reform, bank bailouts, regulatory budgeting, spending restraint, the tax treatment of saving, and privatization of air traffic control.

But those policies are in spite of the current Canadian Prime Minister.

Justin Trudeau has been moving Canada to the left with class warfare and wasteful spending.

And “wasteful” is not an idle adjective when writing about Canadian fiscal policy.

Here are some excerpts from a story from Bloomberg about a pipeline being built by Canada’s government. And since it’s being built by government, there are giant cost overruns.

The expansion of the Trans Mountain oil pipeline will cost about $3.1 billion more than the Canadian government-owned company running the project projected in May, another financial setback for a project beset by spiralling expenses and years of delays. …That brings the total cost to about $34 billion, more than six times the original estimate of $5.4 billion in 2013. …another setback for a project that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has expended significant political capital on. …The expansion, years behind schedule, is set to go into operation in the second quarter, a delay from the previous first quarter start date, according to Trans Mountain.

Wow, from $5.4 billion to $34 billion.

This is scandalously similar to California’s infamous “train to nowhere.”

Or New York City’s subway to somewhere.

Or D.C.’s streetcar to nowhere.

The bottom line that almost every government program delivers less and costs far more than initial estimates.