The Canadian Taxpayers Federation recommends that the federal government introduce legislation to require a portion of the national debt be repaid every year.

The Conservative government, having sold its more than $3.3 billion stake in General Motors earlier this month, is now on track to present a balanced budget. In a paper published on April 7, Federal Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CFT) Aaron Wudrick suggests that eliminating the deficit is insufficient, and that the government should now take steps to clear the $614 billion in debt that has been incurred over the last forty years. If the government paid $5 billion a year, indexed to inflation, the CTF says it would take 66 years to pay it all off.

“The problem is that even when governments find themselves with extra money – from higher revenues or lower expenditures – the temptation is always to spend it before it can be used to pay down debt. It’s the government equivalent of blowing your unexpected new raise on some fancy new electronics or an impromptu trip to the mall, rather than paying down the balance on your boring old credit card,” reads the paper.

The CFT says that debt repayment should be legislated as a budgeted, line item expense, and handled the same way as departmental expenses for finance, health and defence. “The competing needs of each are weighed against each other, and the government must then decide where to allocate money,” concludes Wudrick. “By legislating a line item for debt, it would ensure debt is treated as a real, live issue by politicians as opposed to an afterthought to be dealt with only if the cupboard isn’t bare at the end of the year.”