Canadians paying $5.3B interest a year on provincial, federal debt
Posted Jan 19, 2017 7:02 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A new report shows Canadians are paying a lot of money to cover off interest payments for provincial and federal government debt.
According to the Fraser Institute, $62.8-billion was spent on interest by governments in Canada last year, which works out to over $1,700 per Canadian.
The institute’s Charles Lammam says Albertans are paying their fair share of the bill.
“Albertans will have to pay interest on both provincial and federal debt, and we calculate that it is $5.3-billion each year,” he said.
“Now, that’s a substantial amount of money, and in fact, it’s more than what the provincial government pays each year for social services.”
Lammam points out Alberta’s debt load of $10-billion is relatively low right now, but it’s set to double in 2017 with deficits also projected for the next seven years.
