The Bolt

It's likely no surprise that Canada isn't paying off its federal debt, and instead we continue to accumulate even more debt. I say "no surprise" because everyday type of people that I talk to about finance all seem to have heard that so many countries in the world are either bankrupt, going bankrupt, or are otherwise "in bad financial shape". However, even though most people seem to accept a deficit budget as normal, I still don't think it's warranted. Since we already have $550 Billion of federal debt to pay off, we shouldn't be adding to it and I don't think that a balanced budget is too much to ask for.

Amounts taken from Public Accounts of Canada and added to last year's graph

Sadly, this ever-growing federal debt will make a growing portion of tax dollars from upcoming generations of middle class taxpayers go towards servicing the debt. This past fiscal year $30.8 Billion was paid in public debt charges [source: Details of Expenses and Revenues 2011] That's much more than the $19.9 Billion that was paid out for Employment Insurance benefits, and it's almost as much the $35.6 Billion that was paid out for Old Age Security benefits.

I don't know about most Canadians, but personally I'd rather that we were spending less of that $30.8 Billion on servicing the federal debt, and more of it on useful programs.