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Federal Debt

The Parliamentary Budget Officer (PBO) published the Supplementary Estimates (B) 2020-21 on November 4, 2020. Part of the introduction states, quite bluntly (emphasis in bold is ours):

While the sum of these measures is significant, the amount of information that is publicly available to track this spending is lacking, thus making it more challenging for parliamentarians to perform their critical role in overseeing Government spending and holding it to account.

As of the publication of this report, there is currently no public document published by the Government which provides a complete list of all measures announced to date, or updated cost estimates. There is also no consistency to which organizations publicly report on the implementation of these measures. Some organizations have proactively published this data, while others have not.

This lack of data is not a result of it not being available. The Department of Finance had been providing bi-weekly updates to the Standing Committee on Finance (FINA), but stopped when Parliament was prorogued in August 2020.

Projected total federal interest-bearing March 31, 2021 = $1.453 trillion, based on the Economic and Fiscal Outlook - September 2020.

- for every Canadian adult and child: $42,223, up 34% from March 31, 2019.

- for a family of 4: $152,401.

Note: This is only the federal debt, does not include provincial debt.

Federal interest-bearing debt at March 31, 2020 was $1.026 trillion.

Government of Canada Debt in Selected Years

The Canadian debt is confusing, because several different numbers are reported. As of March 31, 2020, which is the last financial year end for which the Government of Canada fiscal reference tables are available, here are the various numbers, in $millions:

*Total interest-bearing debt*	$1,084,776
Add accounts payable and accrued liabilities	163,833
*Federal gross debt*	1,248,609
Less financial assets	-435,718
*Net debt*	812,891
Less non-financial assets	91,531
Federal debt (accumulated deficit) used by the CTF debt clock	$721,360

We are paying over $24 billion in interest on the federal debt every year, at historically low interest rates!

When the debt includes all levels of government, the forecast for Canada's total gross government debt for March 31, 2021 is 116.3% of GDP, or $2.8 trillion, or $72,911 for every man, woman and child in Canada, or $291,644 for a family of 4. See our article on Debt in Selected Countries for the significance of this number. The Canadian government gross debt for all levels of government (total, and as % of GDP) is from the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook Database.

The total government gross debt is reported in the table below. Most organizations focus on the Federal Debt (accumulated deficit), which is a much lower total than the gross government debt.

Year Ending Mar 31	Federal Government Debt Only						All Levels of Government Debt
Year Ending Mar 31	Interest- Bearing Debt $billions	Gross Debt $billions	Debt as % of GDP	Population millions	Debt per person $	Party in Power	Gross Debt $Billions	Debt as % of GDP	Debt per person $
1967	$26.9	$28.4	43.8%	20.0	$1,419	Liberal - Apr 22/63 to Jun 3/79	Data prior to 1980 unavailable.
1971	35.7	38.0	42.2%	21.6	1,764
1976	55.0	61.0	35.1%	23.5	2,600
1979	90.2	99.2	36.9%	24.0	4,134
1980	97.8	107.1	40.5%	24.2	4,424	Progressive Conservative - Jun 4/79 to Mar 2/80	144.9	44.9%	$5,989
1981	111.7	123.6	39.3%	24.8	4,978	Liberal - Mar 3/80 to Sep 16/84	170.9	46.4%	6,892
1983	153.5	170.9	44.2%	25.4	6,728		242.7	57.6%	9,557
1984(1)	210.5	245.0	58.4%	25.6	9,569		280.1	60.6%	10,943
1985	245.7	284.5	61.8%	25.8	11,026	Progressive Conservative - Sep 17/84 to Nov 3/93	328.1	65.6%	12,719
1986	280.0	319.4	64.1%	26.1	12,236		367.6	69.8%	14,086
1991	432.8	487.7	70.4%	28.0	17,397		570.1	81.2%	20,362
1992	468.2	524.2	76.5%	28.4	18,459		638.6	88.9%	22,485
1993	504.8	563.2	80.4%	28.7	19,623		707.7	94.7%	24,657
1994	543.5	607.3	81.6%	29.0	20,940	Liberal - Nov 4/93 to Feb 5/06	772.0	97.5%	26,621
1996	616.4	691.3	83.4%	29.7	23,297		861.9	100.2%	29,021
Year Ending Mar 31	Interest- Bearing Debt $billions	Gross Debt $billions	Debt as % of GDP	Population millions	Debt per person $	Party in Power	Gross Debt $Billions	Debt as % of GDP	Debt per person $
2001	625.1	713.6	64.7%	31.0	23,004		932.4	81.5%	30,076
2002	619.8	703.0	61.6%	31.4	22,408		950.2	79.6%	30,262
2003	615.8	699.0	58.8%	31.7	22,073		952.5	75.9%	30,047
2004	614.9	700.1	56.0%	32.0	21,895		960.2	71.9%	30,008
2005	607.2	705.0	53.0%	32.2	21,863		1,004.2	70.6%	31,187
2006	601.1	702.5	49.4%	32.6	21,565	Conservative - Feb 6/06 to Nov 3, 2015	1,046.4	69.9%	32,099
2007	599.3	705.8	47.2%	32.9	21,432		1,054.8	66.9%	32,062
2008	581.9	692.3	43.9%	33.3	20,781		1,127.3	68.0%	33,853
2009	714.4	828.4	50.0%	33.6	24,655		1,247.6	79.4%	37,130
2010	767.8	887.9	56.5%	34.0	26,114		1,355.1	81.3%	39,857
2011	808.4	926.9	55.6%	34.3	27,023		1,453.1	81.9%	42,364
2012	852.5	976.5	55.0%	34.7	28,140		1,562.8	85.5%	45,037
2013	908.6	1,026.3	56.2%	35.1	29,238		1,640.0	86.2%	46,724
2014	904.1	1,014.9	53.4%	35.4	28,669		1,709.6	85.7%	48,295
2015	916.6	1,037.2	52.0%	35.7	29,053		1,817.7	91.3%	50,915
2016	950.2	1,074.3	54.0%	36.1	29,759	Liberal - Nov 4, 2015 to present	1,858.1	91.7%	51,470
2017	984.3	1,111.3	54.9%	36.5	30,409		1,901.8	88.8%	52,039
2018	1,002.6	1,150.4	53.7%	37.1	31,037		1,982.0	88.8%	53,473
2019	1,025.5	1,185.2	53.1%	37.6	31,527		2,006.2	86.8%	53,365
2020	1,084.8	1,248.6	54.0%	38.0	32,853		2,597.3	117.8%	68,341
2021 Fcst	1,452.8	1,610.0	73.0%	38.1	42,223		2,780.2	116.3%	72,911

Notes:

	The debt per person is per every man, woman and child in Canada. This means that the March 31, 2020 gross federal debt for a family of 4 was $131,413, with a forecast to increase to $168,891 by March 31, 2021. The interest-bearing debt per person is lower at $28,543, but is forecast to increase to $38,100 by March 31, 2021. The 2021 forecast is found in the Parliamentary Budget Officer Economic and Fiscal Outlook - September 2020.
	Totals of "All levels of government debt" are from the International Monetary Fund World Economic Outlook Databases. Cells shaded in grey are International Monetary Fund Staff estimates. The April 2021 report is the latest data available, used to update the above amounts.
	(1) Full accrual accounting was introduced in the fiscal year ending March 31, 1984. This made the data from 1984 onward not directly comparable with earlier years. The Gross Debt in earlier years would have been higher using full accrual accounting.

Fiscal reference tables for 2021 are not yet available at August 31, 2021.

The Federal government paid $24.4 billion in interest expense for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2020. The interest expense for each year can be found in the Department of Finance Fiscal Reference Tables 2020, Table 7 Expenses (Public Debt Charges).

The Federal Interest-bearing Debt and Gross Debt above are as reported in the Department of Finance Fiscal Reference Tables 2020, Table 15 Gross and Net Debt. These amounts are as at March 31st of each year.

The % of GDP is based on the GDP at Market Prices (Statistics Canada V498074) for the prior calendar year. For instance, the 2021 % of GDP is based on the 2020 GDP. The amounts for the GDP are obtained from Statistics Canada table for Gross Domestic Product, Income-Based, Annual, Table 36-10-0221-01. However, the 2020/2021 annual GDP was not available when this table was done, so an estimate was done based on Gross Domestic Product, Income-Based, Quarterly, unadjusted Table 36-10-0103-01. Amounts from 2017 and 2018 had revisions in the latest table of GDP amounts.

The population figures, which are as of July 1st of each year, are obtained from Statistics Canada Population by Year, by Province and Territory. The 2021 population is from Population Estimates, Quarterly, Table 17-10-0009-01, using Q2 2021.

The party in power is from the book How Canadians Govern Themselves by Eugene A. Forsey - Canadian Prime Ministers since 1867 information.

There is a wealth of information available on the Department of Finance website, including Fiscal Reference Tables where you can see not only Federal information, but also information such as the public accounts (net debt) of the provincial and territorial governments.

In 2011, the Canadian federal government committed to making their government more open, accountable, and responsive to citizens, through participation in the Open Government Partnership (OGP).