‘Slash and burn’ economics not the answer to global woes, Freeland warns

Despite a dire economic prognosis for the global economy, the FES still contained some $30 billion net in new spending measures over the next six years.

Canada won’t turn to “slash and burn” economics as the world braces for a looming economic downturn, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland said.

Her comment comes after she tabled her fall economic statement on Thursday, which warned Canada is set to face “significantly weaker growth” and runs the risk of stubborn and prolonged inflation in the months ahead.

Despite a dire economic prognosis for the global economy, the fall economic statement still contained some $30 billion net in new spending measures over the next six years — and Freeland defended this approach in an interview with The West Block‘s Mercedes Stephenson, aired Sunday.

“We saw a couple of weeks ago what happens when a hard-right government decides that the solution to a challenging global economy is just to slash and burn,” Freeland said.

“That’s what we saw with (former Prime Minister) Liz Truss in the U.K. And the outcome wasn’t pretty.”

The Bank of England warned this week that the U.K. is headed for its “longest recession since records began, according to reports. Truss’s plan was widely panned as trickle-down economics, and the reaction was swift with Freeland saying the world saw the British pound “plummeting.”

“We saw British pension funds on the brink of collapsing and the Bank of England had to step in to save the British economy,” Freeland said.

“We are not going to do that in Canada.”