22-07-2025
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
Taxpayers federation fears MLAs sleeping through debt-clock alarm
The Canadian Taxpayers' Federation parked its mobile debt clock beside the Legislative Building Tuesday to sound the alarm over the province's rising debt.
'We're seeing the debt go up about $4,000 a minute, $231,000 an hour, about $5.5 million a day, and taxpayers don't understand how those numbers are going up until you actually see it on the side of the truck,' the federation's Gage Haubrich said.
The electronic clock showed Manitoba's provincial debt ticking past $35 billion and each Manitoban's share totalling more than $23,000.
MIKE DEAL / FREE PRESS
The Canadian Taxpayers Federation brought their the Debt Clock to the Manitoba legislature to launch its provincial debt clock tour and sound the alarm about the growing provincial debt.
By the end of the year, the province is expected to be in the red by about $36.5 billion, or $24,215 per Manitoban, the non-profit organization said.
The debt clock is travelling across the province with the federation suggesting Manitobans urge their MLAs to call on the government to control spending.
'We're hoping that (MLAs) can see (the clock) from the window,' said Haubrich, who is based in Saskatoon.
'The bottom line is that, as the government borrows more money, they actually have less money to spend on services because almost 10 per cent of the entire budget is spent on debt interest.'
Interest charges on the debt are estimated to cost $2.3 billion this year — more than $6.4 million every day, and close to $1,550 per Manitoban. Taxpayers in this province pay the second-highest per person debt interest charges in the country, according to the federation.
'If they keep borrowing and kicking that can down the road, that number is only going to go higher,' Haubrich said.
Premier Wab Kinew and Finance Minister Adrien Sala have promised to balance the province's books before the end of the NDP government's first term.
The premier was in Ontario Tuesday attending a first ministers meeting. Sala said he'd respond to the taxpayers' federation later Tuesday.
Carol Sanders
Legislature reporter
Carol Sanders is a reporter at the Free Press legislature bureau. The former general assignment reporter and copy editor joined the paper in 1997. Read more about Carol.
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