Canada’s debt continues to grow at an alarming rate, so much that our debt interest payment alone was $26 billion last year, says the Canadian Taxpayer’s Federation (CTF).
The same group that highlights tax dollar waste with the infamous Teddy Awards is taking its Debt Clock on a cross country tour to highlight how much money — $625 billion — the federal government is borrowing, explained Aaron Wudrick, CTF federal director.
“We’re talking $1,000 a second. That’s about $80 million a day being added. That’s a lot of money,” stated Wudrick.
The clock was originally launched before the Harper government won its majority and Wudrick said that government added about $150 billion during their time in office.
“The irony though is we’ve got a new government, which was very critical of those deficits, and also ran on real change and now seems to be doing exactly the same thing,” he stated.
What he feels is worse, is that the Liberal government doesn’t seem to have a plan to get back to balanced books. What voters can do is speak with their members of parliament and voice their concern over the cost. With the national debt where it sits, every Canadian would have to pay $17,344 to ensure debt is completely paid off.
“It’s been about $1 billion added since we launched last week,” said Wudrick.
The $26 billion paid to debt interest last year was more than what Canadians spent on its military in 2015, said Wudrick.
“We didn’t get anything for it…if we want good quality programs and services, we can’t be spending billions of dollars on interest,” he said.
“Somebody has to pay the bill at the end of the day and it all comes out of our own pockets,” he added.
According to the Fraser Institute Canada’s cumulative debt is expected to rise to $1.3 trillion in 2016.