Tausi Insider

Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland during a news conference in Ottawa on April 7. BLAIR GABLE/Reuters Andrew Auerbach was formerly a senior wealth management executive at a major Canadian bank and now owns a small business with his wife, Jean. Canada’s government debt is shockingly high and the implications are not understood. In the leaders’ debate during last year’s federal election campaign, five topics were covered, but the national debt crisis did not even make the list. Imagine a scenario in which every year a family spends significantly more than it earns. To address the shortfall, they finance the gap with their credit cards, and the card balances increase each year. The compounding effect of the interest costs and the continual spending cause a significant accumulation of outstanding debt. The family’s bank is willing to increase their card limits because they have always paid their bills. But eventually – inevitably – the family will be unable to cover even the interest pay...