Canada’s debt increases by $1,200 a second, which is more than $100 million every day. This is something the Canadian Taxpayers Federation highlights using a visual tool – a Debt Clock which shows the increase in real time. It was parked in downtown Saskatoon this morning (Wed) as the CTF advocates for the federal government to cut spending and pay down the debt.

CTF Prairie Director, Gage Haubrich, says the debt and its increasing interest is more than $1.2 trillion. Each Canadian’s share of that debt is more than $29,000. Haubrich states that by the end of the year, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will have more than doubled the federal debt since taking office in 2016. Interest charges alone will cost taxpayers $54 billion this year. Haubrich says, “That’s more money than the government sends the provinces for health transfers and it’s more money than the government is going to collect in GST this year. Because the government has refused to cut spending to balance the budget, that means billions of dollars a year wasted on interest.”

He suggests to cut the debt, the federal government can stop doling out corporate welfare. An example, he says, is the billions of dollars for future factories for electric vehicle batteries. Instead, the CTF believes it should be on the onus of the huge, multi-national automakers to fund their own plants.