Public Debt

What Canada’s governments owe and what it costs: by level of government since 1990, against 16 OECD peers, and the federal debt since Confederation

How much Canada’s governments owe, and what it costs them to carry it. The page opens with the quarterly figures for each level of government, then compares Canada’s general government with 16 OECD peers, and closes with the federal government’s own books back to Confederation. In the peer charts the most recent year or two are estimates rather than final figures. Budget balances, revenue, and the tax mix are on the Government Finances page.

Net debt by level of government

Canada’s public debt is carried at three levels: the federal government, the provinces and territories, and local governments. This chart stacks the net debt of each, quarter by quarter since 1990, so the height of the whole stack is what the three owe together. Net debt is what a government owes after subtracting the financial assets it holds, the measure most often cited in budgets. Use the dropdown to restate the dollars in today’s purchasing power, or to see each level as a share of GDP instead. At the end of March 2026, the federal government’s net debt was $1.02 trillion, the provinces and territories together owed $437 billion, and local governments $35 billion. Combined, that is $1.49 trillion, or 45.5% of GDP.

These are Statistics Canada’s quarterly government finance statistics, the same national-accounts basis as the peer comparison below. Assets and liabilities are valued at market prices, so the debt recorded here falls when interest rates rise and bond prices drop, as in 2022, even while governments keep borrowing. The figures therefore differ from those in a government’s own budget or public accounts, which follow different accounting rules. The Canada and Quebec pension plans are left out of the stack. They hold $952 billion more in assets than they owe, and counting them brings the net debt of all Canadian governments together down to $538 billion, or 16.5% of GDP. The peer charts that follow use a broader, gross measure that counts every liability before netting out any assets.

Interest on the debt, by level of government

What makes a debt burdensome is not its size alone but what it costs to carry. This chart shows the interest each level of government paid over the latest four quarters, so a lumpy quarterly series reads as a running annual total. Use the dropdown to see that interest as a share of each level’s total spending, or as a share of GDP. Over the four quarters to March 2026, the federal government paid $51 billion in interest, the provinces and territories $55 billion, and local governments $4 billion. That was 9.3% of federal spending and 7.1% of provincial and territorial spending. The federal share peaked at 27% in the four quarters to March 1997.

This is gross interest paid, before the interest governments earn on their own assets. The peer chart of interest costs below nets the two. The Federal Spending page carries the longer public-accounts version of the federal ratio, back to 1961.

Government gross debt

General government gross financial liabilities as a percentage of GDP: the broad measure of what all levels of government owe. This figure is higher than the “net” debt often cited in Canadian budgets, which subtracts financial assets the government holds.

Latest government debt: ranked

Use the dropdown to switch between two measures. Gross debt is the broad measure of what all levels of government owe. Net debt subtracts the financial assets governments hold, such as public-pension reserves. Canada’s net debt is lower than its gross figure. (Norway is omitted from the net measure: its sovereign wealth fund puts net debt at roughly −340% of GDP, far off this scale.)

Government interest costs

Net interest paid by government as a share of GDP. This is the cost of servicing public debt. Money that goes to paying interest on debt is not available for other government spending and services.

Latest government interest costs: ranked

A few countries show a negative figure: they earn more interest on their financial assets (such as public pension reserves) than they pay on their debt, so net interest is income rather than a cost.

Federal debt since Confederation

The quarterly charts at the top of this page begin in 1990. The federal government’s own books go back to Confederation. This chart shows federal net debt, what Ottawa owes after subtracting its financial assets, for every fiscal year since 1867-68, on the public accounts basis that budgets use. It opens on the debt as a share of the economy. Use the dropdown for the dollar figures, nominal or in today’s purchasing power, or for a logarithmic view that keeps a century and a half of growth legible on one axis. Two series are drawn: Statistics Canada’s historical series, which ends in 2007-08, and the Department of Finance’s Fiscal Reference Tables, which begin in 1983-84 and are updated each autumn. Where the two overlap, the newer accounting rules put the debt a few percent higher.

The ratio peaked at 107% of GDP in 1945-46, the fiscal year in which the Second World War ended, fell to 16% by 1974-75, and climbed again to 72% in 1995-96. At the end of 2024-25, the net debt was $1.39 trillion, or 45% of GDP. The figure most often quoted in budgets, the accumulated deficit, also subtracts the government’s non-financial assets and stood at 41% of GDP.

Fiscal years are labelled by the calendar year in which they end, and ended on June 30 rather than March 31 before 1907. The share of GDP begins in 1926-27, the first year covered by Canada’s national accounts. Before 1961 the denominator is gross national product from Statistics Canada’s Historical Statistics of Canada, scaled to today’s GDP basis where the two series meet in 1961. Constant dollars begin in 1914-15, when the consumer price index starts. The ratio divides each fiscal year’s debt by the GDP of the calendar year in which the fiscal year began, the convention the Fiscal Reference Tables use.

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