Real-time clock stops in Sudbury to highlight rising provincial debt

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is travelling across the province to draw attention to Ontario’s $400-billion debt.

The centrepiece is a clock showing the debt going up in real-time. The 10-day tour kicked off Thursday in Thunder Bay and made stops in Sudbury and North Bay on Friday.

The Federation said it’s a real-time clock that shows the provincial debt in Ontario rising by tens of millions of dollars every day.

“It’s showing, first of all, our overall provincial debt, which is almost $425 billion," said Jay Goldberg, the Federation's Ontario director.

"We are the most indebted sub-national government in the entire world -- more than California, which is five times our population.”

Goldberg said the clock also shows the debt per person in Ontario.

“Which is almost $26,000 -- that is just the provincial debt share," he said.

"You add in the federal debt share and per person, we are over $50,000 in debt for every man woman and child here in the province of Ontario."

Doug Brown, who came to see the real-time debt clock, said it’s overwhelming to see the numbers.

“Until the governments decide that they are going to stay within their fiscal means, you know, we are going to keep paying more and more and more taxes just to support this,” Brown said.

Shocking numbers

In response to an inquiry from CTV Northern Ontario, the Ministry of Finance sent this statement in an e-mail:

"Our government is making historic investments in roads, transit, housing and health care, while continuing a clear path back to balance and with revenues up $52 billion since we took office."

The Federation said another shocking number is also hitting home with people.

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“The fact that here in Ontario we are spending $14 billion this year -- more than a billion a month -- just on interest on our provincial debt," Goldberg said.

"That’s money that is going to bondholders on Bay Street, that’s not going to building new hospitals, fixing up our schools, lowering our taxes."

“I don’t think governments are being very good stewards of our money,” said Brown.

Officials said the mandate of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is to push for lower taxes, less government waste and more accountability in government.