Provincial debt becomes more of a reality when the number is racking up before your eyes. B.C.’s debt clock visited Salmon Arm July 3 on its tour to 30 communities provincewide.
B.C.’s debt sits at $57.4 billion and increases by $214 per second, according to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. It might be hard to visualize that rate, but the debt clock gives an idea of just how fast it is increasing.
Jordan Bateman, the B.C. director for the for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, parked the clock at McGuire Lake Park last Wednesday to give Salmon Arm residents the opportunity to see it for themselves.
“We need to stop this clock,” he said.
The number increases at $12,854 per minute, $771,233 per hour and $18.5 million per day. That’s about a $1 million every 78 minutes.
Bateman says the number most people are interested in is the per person total: about $12,402 when it visited Salmon Arm.
“The Premier has talked the talk on debt reduction, but now it’s time to walk the walk,” said Bateman.
“She needs to stand up against special interest groups looking for more tax money. Based on the election results, there’s clearly an appetite in B.C. for the Premier to make good on her campaign promise of a debt-free B.C.”
The national debt clock was adjusted to B.C.’s debt for this tour. It is twelve feet long, 6’6 feet high and weighs 500 pounds.
