Federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau says Ottawa’s positioning the country to succeed down the road – just expect a lot of debt along the way.

(Fred Chartrand / The Canadian Press)

In his fall economic statement, Morneau says Canada’s on track to pile another nearly $32-billion onto the national debt over the next five years, noting that’s largely due to the ”new norm” of slower growth.

In hopes of countering that, the finance minister’s creating an infrastructure bank with $35-billion in seed capital, meant to leverage private-sector investment and spur growth.

Other measures announced include billions in long-term infrastructure spending, a program aimed at attracting talented immigrants to Canada and creating a hub with the mandate to lure more foreign investment.

The fiscal update also contains new projections that the treasury will run a total of $114.9-billion in deficits between 2016-17 and 2020-21, along with a $14.6-billion deficit in 2021-22.

Morneau is not predicting when the government’s books would be balanced., but, during last year’s election campaign the Liberals promised that would happen by 2019-20. 

Meanwhile, Interim Tory Leader Rona Ambrose says the fiscal update’s a clear sign the government plan’s failed.