The word “billion” is constantly used to describe something government-related that we have become immune to it. Trillion, on the other hand, is a bit more unique because it is completely unfathomable how a government can spend $1 trillion or become indebted by that much.
Well, that happened in the Great White North recently as the Canadian government’s total debt topped $1 trillion. With rising interest rates, just to service this debt is going to be costly.
As the fiscal year comes to an end on Saturday, the nation’s total “debt stock” will stand at $1.029 trillion.
Former parliamentary budget officer Kevin Page is sounding the alarm that the government needs to wake up and adopt strategies to balance the books and manage the debt.
(No, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, budgets still don’t balance themselves.)
Page told the CBC:
“It’s important for Parliament to wrap its head around borrowing.
It’s debt that generates interest. And Canadians will be surprised at how fast interest on the public debt is going to grow over the next five years.
When I think of of my Ukrainian mother in Thunder Bay, [Ont.], she understands debt is going up. Most Canadians understand that. And it’s going up by a lot.”
Ottawa is dismissing the numbers, claiming that it has plenty of assets and debt to GDP is quite low. But Page isn’t buying it.
“The government is trying to get us to focus on the best possible numbers. You need to look at [the] fuller picture,” he said.
dtinusforcongress says
To us it doesn’t seem much considering we are 21+ trillion in debt. God what am I saying! Consider Canada has an economy about the same a Texas. Put’s in in perspective.