Debt servicing charges — 50 years of carrying the national debt
- Debt-to-GDP — the federal debt burden relative to the economy, in G7 context.
- Government deficit — the annual budget shortfall Ottawa actually controls.
- Public service size & growth — the size and growth of the federal workforce behind these services.
What follows is the fifty-year arc of how Canada's federal debt and its carrying cost got here, and how the annual debt-servicing bill now compares with the major budget line items Canadians can see and feel. The annual deficit this interest is paid on, and how Canada's shortfall ranks against its G7 peers, sits on the companion Government deficit page. For the stock measure that drives this cost, see Debt-to-GDP.
Toggle between nominal dollars and share of GDP. Debt charges fell for a quarter-century, from a peak of $49.4B in 1995-96 to a low of $20.4B in 2020-21. They fell even as the debt itself grew, because interest rates kept falling. That cushion is gone.
Source: Department of Finance Canada, Fiscal Reference Tables, November 2025 (Tables 1, 13, 15). Federal debt = accumulated deficit; debt charges are gross public debt charges, Public Accounts basis.
Set the bill beside the budget lines Canadians know. The chart below tracks gross public debt charges over the past decade against five of the most significant federal expenditures: elderly benefits (OAS/GIS), the Canada Health Transfer, National Defence, the Canada Child Benefit, and the RCMP.
Sources: Finance Canada Fiscal Reference Tables (debt charges, elderly & children's benefits); Finance Canada major federal transfers (CHT); DND & RCMP Departmental Results Reports / Public Accounts (actual spending). All figures are nominal Public Accounts dollars for the fiscal year ended March 31.
| Rank | Budget line, 2024-25 | $ billions | Change since 2015-16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Elderly benefits (OAS / GIS) | 80.3 | +77% |
| 2 | Public debt charges | 53.4 | +145% |
| 3 | Canada Health Transfer | 52.1 | +53% |
| 4 | National Defence | 33.9 | +82% |
| 5 | Canada Child Benefit | 28.6 | +59% |
| 6 | RCMP | 5.7 | +101% |
The takeaway. In 2024-25, servicing the federal debt cost more than the entire Canada Health Transfer ($53.4B vs. $52.1B), more than one and a half times the National Defence budget ($33.9B), nearly twice the Canada Child Benefit ($28.6B), and over nine times the RCMP ($5.7B). Only elderly benefits, the single largest federal program, cost more. Debt charges are also the fastest-growing line on this list: up 145% over the decade, and up 162% in just the four years since the 2020-21 low.
Debt charges fell for a quarter-century, from a peak of $49.4B in 1995-96 to a low of $20.4B in 2020-21, even as the debt itself grew. Falling interest rates did that. The cushion is gone: charges hit $53.4B in 2024-25, a 162% increase in four years, as a nearly doubled debt stock met normalized interest rates.
In 2024-25 Ottawa paid bondholders more ($53.4B) than it transferred to all ten provinces and three territories combined for health care ($52.1B). As recently as 2021-22, the CHT was nearly twice the debt-charge bill ($43.1B vs. $24.5B).
At 1.7% of GDP and 10.5 cents of every revenue dollar, today's burden remains well below the 1990-91 peak of 6.5% of GDP, when 37.6 cents of every revenue dollar went to debt service. But the debt stock has nearly doubled in dollar terms since 2018-19 ($685B → $1,266B; 30.7% → 41.2% of GDP), so the carrying cost is far more sensitive to interest rates than at any time since the late 1990s.
Debt charges hit $53.4 billion in 2024-25, up 162% in four years and now more than the Canada Health Transfer. At 1.7% of GDP they remain well below the 1990-91 peak of 6.5%.
- Compared with
- Canada's own fifty-year record of federal public debt charges, with the 1990-91 peak (6.5% of GDP) and the 2020-21 low ($20.4B) as the page's reference points.
- Where Canada sits
- In 2024-25 Ottawa paid $53.4 billion in gross public debt charges, second only to elderly benefits ($80.3B) among the six budget lines compared here. That is 1.7% of GDP and 10.5 cents of every revenue dollar.
- Which way it is moving
- Up. Charges fell for a quarter-century, from $49.4B in 1995-96 to $20.4B in 2020-21, then rose 162% in four years to $53.4B. That is a deterioration, and the debt stock has nearly doubled since 2018-19.
- What the verdict follows
- Level against Canada's own past. The burden is far below the 1990s peak but rising quickly, so level and direction disagree and the verdict reflects both.
- Data basis
- Department of Finance Canada, Fiscal Reference Tables, November 2025, and the Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada 2024-25, data current to 2024–25. Page last reviewed June 2026.
Primary sources
- Fiscal Reference Tables, November 2025, Department of Finance Canada — Table 1 (fiscal transactions, $M), Table 2 (per cent of GDP), Table 10 (major transfers to persons), Table 13 (public debt charges), Table 15 (accumulated deficit).
- Major federal transfers, Department of Finance Canada — Canada Health Transfer, 2017-18 to 2024-25; historical transfer tables (open.canada.ca) for 2015-16 and 2016-17.
- DND/CAF Departmental Results Reports — actual spending (authorities used, cash basis, as per Public Accounts), 2015-16 to 2024-25.
- RCMP Departmental Results Reports — actual spending (authorities used, net of vote-netted revenues), 2015-16 to 2024-25.
- Annual Financial Report of the Government of Canada, 2024-25 — debt-charges ratio (10.5 cents per revenue dollar).
Methodology notes
- Federal debt is the accumulated deficit: the federal government's total liabilities less total assets, and the headline "federal debt" measure in the budget. It is federal-only and is not comparable to the general-government figures used on the companion Debt-to-GDP page.
- Public debt charges are gross charges (interest on unmatured debt plus interest on pension and other liabilities) as presented in the budget and Public Accounts. Net charges (after return on investments) were $38.6B in 2024-25.
- Series break. The introduction of full accrual accounting means figures from 1983-84 onward are not directly comparable with earlier years. The break is retained as published by Finance Canada.
- CHT figures exclude one-time top-ups ($500M in 2019-20, $4B in 2020-21, $2B in each of 2021-22 and 2022-23), as presented by Finance Canada.
- National Defence is total actual ministry spending (authorities used, cash basis, including internal services), which matches the Public Accounts. The 2023-24 jump partly reflects one-time retroactive pay and Ukraine-related expenditures alongside the defence-policy ramp-up.
- RCMP is net actual spending, after roughly $2B/year in contract-policing cost recoveries from provinces and municipalities. Gross spending was about $8.1B in 2024-25. Year-to-year swings reflect one-time pension and collective-agreement items.
- Elderly benefits = Old Age Security pension plus Guaranteed Income Supplement and Allowances. Children's benefits = Canada Child Benefit from July 2016 (prior programs before that).
- All figures are nominal Public Accounts dollars for the fiscal year ended March 31; %-of-GDP figures are as computed by Finance Canada in the Fiscal Reference Tables.
Why gross debt charges, and why the accumulated deficit?
Gross public debt charges are the line presented in the budget's expense table and the figure used in public debate ("debt charges now exceed the CHT"). Net charges subtract the government's return on its own investments, which is real money but not a reduction in what taxpayers pay bondholders. The accumulated deficit is used for the debt series because it is the government's own headline "federal debt" figure; interest-bearing debt ($1,869B in 2024-25) is larger because it includes pension liabilities and is offset by financial assets.
