According to the Department of Finance, the government posted a budgetary deficit of $14 billion for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2019. (Compare that, for example, with the U.S., which just recorded a deficit topping a trillion dollars.)
The federal debt (the difference between total liabilities and total assets) stood at $685.5 billion and Canada's net debt is $768 billion. Meanwhile, U.S. debt is more than $22 trillion.
Currently, Canada''s debt-to-GDP ratio stands at 30.9. According to Liberal projections, it will shrink to 30.2 per cent of GDP in 2023-2024.
For a comparison, before Chrétien and Martin embarked on a series of cuts, the federal debt-to-GDP ratio was 66.8. It was at its highest in 1946 at 108.9 per cent and at its lowest in 1913 at 11.3 per cent.
The reason the Liberals like to focus on this measurement is that Canada's debt-to-GDP ratio is the lowest among the G7 countries. For example, the figure for Japan is 237.5 per cent of GDP, 106.7 per cent for the United States and 99.2 per cent for France.
But the figure used by the Canadian government doesn't include the debt from all levels of government, like the provinces and municipalities. When those figures are included, the ratio, according to the International Monetary Fund, jumps to 88 per cent.
What about our debt per person?
That may be an easier way for people to understand our debt. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation calculated that every Canadian's share of the debt is a little over $18,000. (Compare that to the U.S., which, according to the U.S. Debt Clock, estimates debt per citizen at just under $69,000 US)