It’s not a topic for discussion these days but it’s going to be once the vaccines arrive and Canadians are immunized against the COVID virus. That topic is government debt.
Right now, the primary issue on the agenda is defeating the Corona Virus but, once it has been wrestled the ground, there will be plenty of hand-wringing and coffee shop conversations about the legacy of public sector debt that is going to be left behind.
Getting the conversation started is the Fraser Institute which has just released a report on how our senior governments are doing in piling up debt to fund their on-going operations while also funding the COVID fight.
The Institute says by the end of his fiscal year, total debt for the federal and provincial governments combined will exceed $2 trillion. That is a doubling in the last ten years.
Here in Saskatchewan, that translates into total public sector debt of just over $12,500 per resident which represents an increase of 75% over the last decade….only BC produced a lower number than we did.
