The Largest Debt Pay-Down
Ever
September 20, 2000
The government today announced a surplus for 1999-2000 of $12.3 billion.
All of this amount will be paid against the public debt --
making it the largest debt pay down in Canadian history.
It also marks the third straight surplus – the first time a
federal government has achieved this in over 50 years.
A few years ago we said we would cut up the federal government’s
credit card—now we’re paying the credit card off.
This record debt payment is yet another dividend from the
extraordinarily effective economic and balanced fiscal management that the
Liberal government continues to provide Canadians.
In the last three years, we have reduced the debt by close to
$19 billion. As a result more than $1 billion a year in interest payments will
now be freed up to address the top priorities of Canadians -- like health care,
access to higher education, investing in knowledge and innovation and lower
taxes.
Since balancing the books, fully two-thirds of all new
spending has been directed to health care, education and innovation.
Ongoing surpluses mean that we can afford the $23-billion new
investment announced for the Health Action Plan that will sustain and renew
Medicare.
It means that we can accelerate the $58 billion we’ve
already allocated to our Five-Year Tax Reduction Plan.
It means that we can keep the debt burden on a permanent
downward track.
In 1995, the debt to GDP ratio was 71 per cent – an all-time
high. It has now fallen to 58.9 per cent - a drop of more than 12 percentage
points.
And the fiscal plan outlined in Budget 2000 projected it to
fall below 50% by 2004-05.
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