A recession by any other name

Recession? Technical recession, or a full-blown recession? However one prefers to describe it much of the discussion in Ottawa this past week has been focused on last Friday’s news release from Statistics Canada that Canada’s economy is currently in decline.
 
What is the difference between a “recession” and a “technical recession”? A “technical recession” is often defined as the point when a country has two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Obviously if this trend of declining GDP growth continues it means that Canada is indeed in a recession.
 
This raises the question – is Canada in a recession? As it is a point of debate to some the official opposition wanted to ask Prime Minister Carney this exact question.
Unfortunately, Prime Minister Carney has been loathe to discuss this matter. In fact, at the time I write this report, Prime Minister Carney has skipped question period daily since this news broke out from Statistics Canada.
 
Recently Global News recently reported that Prime Minister Carney’s absence from question period on Monday’s was the 123rd session in our current Parliament where Prime Minister Carney has only been present for just 33 of those sessions, a dismal 27%.
 
From my own perspective and that of the Official Opposition as well as some economists, a recession is a recession, and downplaying that does not help anyone who is caught in the side effects of declining economic growth here in Canada.
 
What is important to recognize is that every country in the G20 right now is facing many challenges, including new tariff and trade barriers imposed by the United States.  Despite that fact, only Canada is experiencing a decline in economic growth. I mention this to make it clear that this is a made in Canada recession.
 
Household savings have fallen to the lowest level in two years, as Canadians pay more for less and some are forced to pay 120% of income just for food and or rent or a mortgage. Likewise, insolvencies are on the rise, food bank usage is increasing, and I am hearing from a few local realtors that court ordered sales are also on the increase.
 
For those who do follow federal politics closely you will know that going back to 2015 the argument presented by the Liberals to justify running large deficits was to “grow the economy”.
 
Although even in 2015 the Liberals also made a “cast in stone” promise to return to balanced budgets in 2019.  Of course, we know not only did this not happen, but the Liberals also made no effort to even try.
 
Fast forward to the election last year, where Prime Minister Carney famously promised to “spend less” as he pointed to the rise in spending under the previous Liberal government and said this must change and be reduced only to turn around and increase spending twice as much as the former Liberal government did.
 
Now despite all this record deficit spending we are not getting “positive growth” but an economy in decline.
 
This leads to my two-pronged question this week: Do you believe Canada is experiencing a recession- and if so, are you impacted by it?
 
Your feedback helps me do my job. You are always welcome to share your thoughts on my Facebook page, by email at Dan.Albas@parl.gc.ca , or by calling toll‑free at 1‑800‑665‑8711.