“The Canadian Government’s New “Capital Budgeting Framework” - a Masterclass in Deception - Episode 32

In this episode, Kim G C Moody describes the proposal to change the way Canadian federal budgets are reported. First proposed during the Liberal Party leadership campaign, Mr. Carney expressed his desire to “separate the capital budget from the operating budget”. This old accounting trick has a long history that Kim wrote about in a March 2025 Financial Post article. The obvious question is what is considered “capital” vs “operating” for purposes of classification since, obviously, the intention would be to shift expenditures to the capital column so as to reduce the overall “operating budget deficit”. On October 6, 2025, the Department of Finance released its proposed definition of “capital” and, as expected, it is expansive and broad. Overly broad. And the independent Parliamentary Budget Officer agrees; it released a statement about that on October 7, 2025. Kim discusses all of this and concludes by asking Canadians to not fall for this simple accounting trick and to be aware of this deceptive practice.