Federal and provincial governments rack up record-high debts, Canadians foot the bill
By Noah Jarvis
As federal and provincial spending reaches record levels, Canadians are footing an increasingly large bill to service the public debt.
According to a report from the Fraser Institute measuring how much Canadians are paying to service federal and provincial debts, the average taxpayer contributes thousands of dollars per year to pay off government debt at all levels.
In total, Canadians are expected to spend $81.8 billion in debt service payments with the lion share of the debt coming from the federal government.
The federal government is expected to pay $46.5 billion in payments on the national debt, accounting for 10.2% of the federal government’s revenues. For context, the federal government will spend $49.4 on the Canada Health Transfer – a major component of Canada’s healthcare funding scheme.
Per-person expenditures on the combined federal-provincial debt are the worst in Newfoundland and Labrador by far, as the average taxpayer in the maritime province will pay $3,225 in taxes to help pay off the federal and provincial governments’ debts. Interest payments on the provincial debt in Newfoundland and Labrador will cost $1.05 billion, or 10.6% of the province’s revenue.
Furthermore, payments on the debt are expected to grow at an average annual rate of 7% from 2022/23 until 2024/25, a greater increase in spending than is expected for healthcare expenditures during the same period.