Some might prefer not to have such a graphic and dismal reminder. But as shrinking revenues and government stimulus spending stretch on, so grows this country’s overall debt.
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has provided its own model to help citizens envision the accumulating mountain.
Using a web clock as a visual, the federation projects that the federal debt will surpass the half-trillion-dollar mark – once again – this Sunday. To be precise, it will hit that $500 billion mark at 10:56:53 p.m. ET.
To see the spinning numbers, people can log on to www.debtclock.ca. And if you thought the digits on buck-fifty gas were dizzying, you ain’t seen nothing yet.
What is particularly disheartening is that Canadians have been at this point in the fiscal path before. The country first hit $500 billion in August 1994 and climbed to an all-time high of about $540 billion in 2000 before starting to decline.
It took then-Reform Party leader Preston Manning, following his election to Parliament, to slam home a reality. Despite economic growth ticking along following a couple of bad years in the early 1990s, the government had yet to conquer its annual deficit.
When the Liberals finally did accomplish that, next followed the painful task of paying down debt with surplus funds and winding the numbers back. And if we want to imagine a clock for that exercise, rest assured the numbers will turn much more slowly.
All that was gained in pay-down is very quickly being lost – a sad reality for debt-conscious taxpayers.
Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty has said the government will get back to balancing the books as the recession slows. But at the last check, the goal of eliminating the deficit is several years off.
The federation is saying start thinking about that now. Indeed, the dollars are still flowing out, but it’s not too early for a plan of how to stop that and reverse this debt clock.