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By David Opinko

Canadian governments post “historic deficit” in 2020, debt per capita $74K

Nov 22, 2021 | 12:26 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – It should go without saying at this point, but the COVID-19 pandemic has not been kind to the country’s pocketbooks.

Stats Canada has released a new report on the Consolidated Canadian Government Finance Statistics for 2020. For the purposes of this article, any mention of the Canadian general government (CGG) includes all federal, provincial, territorial, and local governments.

In 2020, the CGG posted a historic budget deficit of $325.5 billion.

The federal government made up the vast majority of this, accounting for $274.4-billion of the total deficit (84.3 per cent), while the consolidated provincial, territorial, and local governments (PTLGs) recorded a deficit of $51.2-billion (15.7 per cent).

The gross debt of the CGG jumped up 129.2 per cent last year to the highest level ever recorded. The sum of all liabilities reached $2.852-trillion or $74,747 per capita in 2020.

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This marks an increase of $10,685 in debt for every Canadian in just one year.

Interest expenses on debt liabilities for the CGG totalled $60.4-billion in 2020, which is actually down from $64.7-billion in 2019. The decrease is mainly attributed to there being historically-low lending interest rates during the pandemic.

In the financial year ending on March 31, 2021, the federal government’s expenses increased 68.9 per cent to $610-billion.

Most of that increase is due to COVID-19 support programs including the Canada Emergency Response Benefit (CERB) and the Canada Emergency Wage Subsidy (CEWS).

Expenses for PTLGs grew by just 7.5 per cent in 2020.

Alberta had the second-largest budget deficit increase of all provinces and territories at 6.3 per cent. Newfoundland and Labrador’s deficit increased by 6.4 per cent.

P.E.I. and Nunavut were the only jurisdictions to post a budget deficit last year.

You can read the full report from Stats Canada here.

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