Canadian taxpayers will contribute more than $1,300 per person toward government interest payments for federal and provincial debts in the next year, for a total of $68.6 billion, according to a new study.
On Feb. 2, the Fraser Institute, a public policy think tank, calculated Canada’s combined federal and provincial interest costs per person for 2022–23. The federal government will spend $34.7 billion on debt servicing charges in 2022/23, which is 7.8 percent of total federal revenues.
“In recent years, deficit spending and growing government debt have become a trend for many Canadian governments. Like households, governments are required to pay interest on their debt,” said the study, concluding the federal government spends about eight cents of every dollar in revenue on interest payments….