Written back in 2005. The National Debt was not closer to a Trillion than most folks wanted to think.
So some folks view we Canadians as careful saving folk, who are frugal and thrifty. For those of you who think that, let me point out a couple of examples to the contrary:
The Big OWE in Montreal for those of you unaware of this nickname, it is for the Stade Olympique in Montreal where the ’76 Olympics were held and the Expos played in until 2002. This behemoth created a DEBT (not the price of it, the DEBT) of OVER $1 Billion Canadian.
The City of Montreal owned this HUGE debt. It was off the books in 2005.
Skydome (now called Roger’s Centre, in memory of Roger Neilsen (no, not really, Rogers Communications, but what the hey)). One of the first stadiums with a retractable roof ended up costing over $600 Million dollars. Rogers Comm bought this for $24 Million in 2004 1/25 of the building cost! Someone lost their shirt there too.
The net Canadian Federal government debt is $545 Billion dollars in Canada. This is the DEBT not the deficit (we at least aren’t growing the DEBT right now). WOW! I thought I was crappy at living within my means. It is not the current Government who got us into this mess. It was our free spending governments in the 70’s and 80’s, who really built up this BEHEMOTH of a debt.
The Ontario Debt continues to grow as well.
How Much do we Owe ?
You know what is really scary is how much work I had to do to find out how much Canada and Ontario both OWE. No one writes in plain English, we owe $XX Billion dollars anywhere. You ask most folks they know within a few thousand dollars how much they owe, if you asked your MPP or MP would they know how much Canada owes?
Modern Monetary Theory suggests this is all an illusion. The concept of government debt is not that important. No one will pay this off. It will simply grow without worry, as long as we have good employment.
Modern Monetary Theory or Modern Money Theory (MMT) is a heterodox macroeconomic theory that describes currency as a public monopoly and unemployment as evidence that a currency monopolist is overly restricting the supply of the financial assets needed to pay taxes and satisfy savings desires.
Wikipedia
Just face it. We’re all screwed!