OTTAWA, ON: The Canadian Taxpayers Federation is calling on federal politicians to focus on saving taxpayers’ money in light of Parliamentary Budget Officer data that predicts the federal government won’t balance its budget until 2070. 

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau promised Canadians he would balance the books in 2019, but it turns out that we will have to wait about 50 years before we see a balanced budget,” said Franco Terrazzano, Federal Director for the CTF. “Racking up trillions of dollars in debt and interest is not okay, and that’s why we need to see federal politicians start taking deficits seriously.”

The federal government won’t return to a balanced budget until 2070 under the status quo, according to supplementary data released by the Parliamentary Budget Officer in its most recent Fiscal Sustainability Report. 

The federal government is projected to rack-up another $2.7 trillion in debt before balancing the budget in 2070. This is in addition to the current $1 trillion in existing federal debt. Interest charges will cost taxpayers about $3.8 trillion by 2070.

When running for prime minister in the 2015 election, Trudeau promised Canadians he would balance the budget in 2019.

“If things don’t change, Canadians will lose out on a tonne of money to the bond fund managers because of government debt interest charges. That money can’t go to health care or lower taxes because of these huge debt interest costs,” said Terrazzano. “Politicians should not be okay with five decades of red ink and families shouldn’t be forced to pay for all the overspending, so we need the feds to roll-up their sleeves and save some money.” 

You can find the PBO’s fiscal sustainability data for the federal government, including the CTF’s balanced budget calculation here.