For the first time ever, each Canadian’s share of the federal debt has surpassed $24,000, according to Blacklock’s Reporter.
“The federal net debt per capita was $24,074 at March 31,” Statistics Canada spokesperson Kossi Djani told the outlet.
In comparison, the net debt per capita in 2019 was $17,276.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has been hammered by critics for his handling of Canada’s economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Following Liberal finance minister Chrystia Freeland’s latest fiscal update, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) slammed the government for “pouring fuel on (Canada’s) inflation fire.”
“Years of borrowing means taxpayers will lose out on nearly $200 billion by 2027 just to pay for interest charges on Canada’s debt,” said CTF Director Franco Terrazzano in a news release.
“That’s money we can’t use to hire more nurses or lower taxes because it’s going to bond fund managers to service the government’s debt.”
Estimates place the federal debt at $1.2 trillion by the end of 2021.
Terrazzano has called the Liberals’ spending not just unsustainable but reckless.
“The cost of living is soaring and Canadians should be worried about how the government is going to pay for its unprecedented spending and hundreds of billions of dollars in new debt,” he said. “The feds need to stop dishing out cash we don’t have and pouring fuel on the inflation fire. Freeland needs to hit the brakes on this government’s runaway spending train.”
Conservative finance critic Pierre Poilievre has chastised the prime minister for what he calls “JustinFlation.”
“Half a trillion dollars in Liberal deficits have ballooned inflation to an 18-year high. Housing and gas prices are up by a third,” Poilievre said in response to the fiscal update.
“Families will pay an additional $1000 next year to feed themselves,” he continued. “The Economic and Fiscal Update is an opportunity for the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Chrystia Freeland, to announce an end to the inflation tax by restoring fiscal discipline, returning to pre-COVID levels of spending, and by encouraging paychecks over government checks”.
On Tuesday, Poilievre demanded the House of Commons Finance committee return to Parliament early this year to raise the alarm about Canada’s housing crisis.
