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For those who worry about the sustainability of Canada’s debt load, there was a blip of good news in the budget released Tuesday: relative to the size of the economy, federal interest payments this past fiscal year were actually slightly lower than what had been forecast in last December’s fall economic statement.

Going forward, it’s a different story.

Public debt charges – the costs of servicing the federal debt – are forecast to climb steadily over the next five years, jumping 42.5 per cent to $76-billion in 2029-30. As it is, the government paid more to service its debt last fiscal year ($53.4-billion) than it sent to the provinces for health transfers ($52.1-billion).

Five years from now debt charges are forecast to be equal to 90 per cent of all the money Ottawa sends

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