MACLEOD: This Liberal government will pay $86 billion in interest payments

By 2031, Ottawa expects to spend nearly $86 billion a year servicing federal debt. That’s $234 million every day, paid while Canadians wait for surgery, communities plead for infrastructure, and families struggle with groceries. In their repetitive talking points, ministers will call it manageable. Every one of us actually working for the money should call it a disgrace.The interest bill will exceed Ottawa’s main health transfer to the provinces by roughly $18 billion. Imagine explaining that to someone whose cancer treatment has been delayed. The provinces must find nurses, beds, and operating rooms. Ottawa must find the money to pay its creditors.Kirk Lubimov highlighted the government’s projected $765-billion cash requirement over five years. That includes capital purchases, loans, and other transactions, along with roughly $289 billion in deficits. However the accountants record it, Ottawa needs the cash. Even its own forecast ends with another annual deficit above $50 billion. Apparently, the reward for tolerating years of overspending is more overspending. Consider what else that $86 billion could buy. Calgary’s Arthur J.E. Child Comprehensive Cancer Centre cost $1.4 billion, and is by all reports a world-class facility. One year’s projected interest is equivalent to roughly 60 such facilities. A new, standard MRI scanner costs about $3 million, before construction and operating costs. Thousands of Canadians wait months for scans, while communities fundraise to buy the equipment. At $86 billion a year in interest, Ottawa will burn through the purchase price of that machine in less than 20 minutes..The auditor general’s reported 2024 estimate for Canada’s 88-aircraft F-35 project was nearly $28 billion. One year’s interest would cover that estimate three times. It would cover the $6.4 billion Gordie Howe bridge contract about 13 times. Let’s take a less spectacular example. Redirecting just $5 billion could fund 50,000 nursing and other healthcare positions at an illustrative annual employment cost of $100,000 each. Another $5 billion could fund 100 school construction projects averaging $50 million. These are spending illustrations, with actual costs varying by location. But the same money could repair water systems, expand sewage treatment, and service land for housing. Canadians could at least see where it went.We would still need staff, maintenance, and years to deliver these projects. But decades of greater fiscal discipline would have left room for many more projects like those. Instead, hospital foundations pass the hat while Ottawa congratulates itself on its capacity to borrow. Bring the finance minister to the next scanner fundraiser. Let him explain the priorities.For Albertans, the Government of Alberta adds its own burden. Using the 2026-27 budget projections of roughly $1.37 trillion in federal accumulated debt and $109 billion in Alberta taxpayer-supported debt, and round population assumptions of 42 million Canadians and five million Albertans, the combined allocation works out to about $54,400 per Albertan, or $218,000 for a family of four. This is an illustrative allocation of two differently defined public-debt measures, not a personal invoice, but it still describes obligations that both governments must finance from the same economy. This United Conservative Party government deserves the same scrutiny as this federal Liberal government. .Inflation makes the damage harder to bear. Borrowed spending can increase price pressure when supply cannot meet demand. Even when inflation slows, yesterday’s price increases remain. Pensioners buy less, families postpone purchases, and young Canadians watch home ownership retreat even further. Wealth buys protection against those pressures. Ordinary wages offer much less. The people making these debt decisions are often comfortably insulated from their consequences. In my view, knowingly leaving taxpayers with this mounting bill amounts to a gross failure of stewardship. Ministers know interest consumes money needed elsewhere. They choose permanent commitments anyway, then expect applause for promises to balance a portion of the budget.Fiscal conservatism requires actual decisions. Cut ineffective subsidies and overlapping programs. Take a long, hard look at the amount of federal funding going to other countries. Build a reward or incentive program for those who identify waste, duplication, or corruption. Publish the savings. Fund new permanent commitments within existing budgets. Put revenue windfalls toward reduction of the debt. Set a firm date to balance the entire budget, with annual targets independently checked.Emergency borrowing should come with an expiry date and a credible return to balance. Canadians work too hard to finance endless political indulgence. Demand balanced budgets from Ottawa and the Government of Alberta, and remove governments that refuse to deliver them.

MACLEOD: This Liberal government will pay $86 billion in interest payments

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