Projected debt reaches high of $562.9-billion

OTTAWA

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) marked a milestone in Canada’s debt history last month, holding a stop on its National Debt Clock Tour here.

At 11 minutes and 25 seconds after midnight as of March 18, the debt clock rolled over the $562,881,000,000 mark - the previous record of 1997. The government had re-borrowed the $105-billion it had paid down between 1997 and 2008, from its own projections.

The clock is banned from Parliament Hill; the event was in front of the Peace Tower.

“Every party in parliament is responsible for the debt clock spinning out of control,” said CTF national research director and acting federal director Derek Fildebrandt.

“Every national party leader promised balanced budgets during the last election. Yet when the opposition parties demanded deficit budgets, the government gleefully obliged. The result is that every dollar of debt paid down between 1997 and 2008 has been wiped-out after only a few short years of reckless spending.

“The last time that the federal government ran ‘temporary’ deficits, they lasted for 27 consecutive years. It is a legacy that we are still paying for today,” concluded Fildebrandt.