Sask.'s public debt — almost $20B and growing — nearly absen

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Sask.'s public debt — almost $20B and growing — nearly absent from election campaign spotlight

[ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoo ... -1.7356698 ]

Debt interest payments equal to cost of hiring 7,000 nurses or police officers, say critics

Jason Warick · CBC News · Posted: Oct 22, 2024 5:00 AM CST | Last Updated: October 22

A graph showing Saskatchewan's debt rising from 2015 to 2024.

EXCERPT: "Saskatchewan's debt has reached nearly $20 billion, but has not been a central issue during the 2024 provincial election campaign. (CBC Graphics)

Health care and education spending. Tax cuts, exemptions and rebates. Saskatchewan political leaders are promising taxpayers they will pay less, but get better public services.

One issue nearly absent from the campaign trail in the lead-up to the Oct. 28 provincial election is the recent trend toward deficit budgets and the province's rapidly-growing debt. The debt has more than tripled in the past decade, to nearly $20 billion from $5.4 billion.

"Over time, that deficit becomes debt and the debt incurs an interest payment. So that, just like a snowball, will keep loading and loading and loading bigger if you don't do anything about it," said Haizen Mou, a professor of government finance at the Johnson-Shoyama School of Public Policy at the University of Saskatchewan.

That $20-billion figure represents general debt accumulating in the operations of government ministries. The government reserve a separate category called specific debt for capital projects and other expenses. That sits at more than $11 billion. That's a $31-billion "snowball" of total debt.

Interest payments on that debt will now top $700 million per year. . . . ."

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