The large mobile scoreboard showed Manitoba’s debt increasing by more than $72 per second or approximately $6.25 million per day.

The CTF was joined at the press conference by Progressive Conservative MLA Myrna Driedger and Liberal leader Jon Gerrard.

“No one would say our province is going to go bankrupt like Detroit yet,” said CTF Prairie Director Colin Craig. “However, the government definitely needs to get the debt under control by addressing its spending problem. If they don’t our province will eventually have very serious problems too.”

Craig pointed out the province’s 2013 budget notes total borrowings, guarantees and obligations were $27.837 billion at the beginning of this fiscal year and will increase to $30.117 billion by the end of it. This year the province will spend a whopping $839 million on debt interest costs; that’s enough to put the PST back down to 7% and reduce school taxes by 83%.

The Debt Clock has travelled across Canada since it was launched in 2011 and was last used in Manitoba during the 2011 provincial election.

During the 2011 provincial election tour the CTF used the provincial government’s “net debt” figure; a number that does not include Manitoba Hydro’s debt. Today, the CTF used the province’s total debt figure due to growing concerns about the risk associated with Manitoba Hydro’s $20 billion expansion plan.