QUESTION PERIOD — Finance
Interest Costs on Federal Debt
November 5, 2025
My question is for the government leader. Government leader, we have now seen a government under Mark Carney that has not delivered a financial statement in over a year, and it took seven months to deliver a budget through which he’d promised to invest more and spend less. All we’ve seen from the government is the indebting of future generations of Canadians to a degree where they see no hope.
We’re going to have ample opportunity to dissect the budget over the next few weeks and, obviously, get to the details of it, but there’s something that struck me. The federal government is spending $54.7 billion on health care across the country, but the interest alone on the debt is $55.6 billion.
Government leader, Senator Moreau, don’t you see a discrepancy there? Doesn’t it concern you to the degree it concerns the official opposition?
Thank you for the question. The new Government of Canada was elected with a clear mandate, as you said, to spend less so it can invest more. I don’t think you disagree with that, but that’s exactly what the government has delivered with Budget 2025.
This is an investment budget, senator. The government is making generational investments in the future to build major infrastructure, homes and industries that grow the economy and create lasting prosperity. That’s the future of Canada. Protecting our communities, our borders and our way of life; empowering Canadians with better careers, strong public services and more affordable lives; investing in housing affordability — that’s what the government has delivered with Budget 2025. I understand that we will study that more over the next few weeks.
Spend less? A $78-billion deficit is a historic budget coupled with a historic debt, so you’re spending more than ever. That’s the reality.
Now, Canadians are spending more on interest on the debt — that’s for sure — while they’re getting a lot less in return. That’s why we have 6.5 million Canadians without doctors in this country. We have a government that is spending so much but in all the wrong places, as we see when we compare paying interest on the debt to helping with health care and helping the elderly and young people in this country.
Let’s talk about debt management, Senator Housakos. You know, facts are hard-headed. Canada has the lowest net debt-to-GDP ratio in the G7 at 13.3%, with Germany the second lowest at 48.7%. It’s not the government that said that. It’s the International Monetary Fund, or IMF, in their October 2025 Fiscal Monitor.
Canada also has one of the lowest deficit-to-GDP ratios in the G7, second only to Japan.
