Ottawa, we’ve got some problems.

The first problem is government debt is spiralling out of control because government spending is spiralling out of control. The second problem is no one within government is taking the first problem seriously.

Prime Minister Mark Carney’s first budget shows Ottawa will borrow about $80 billion this year.

Massive government borrowing means debt interest charges cost taxpayers more than $1 billion every week.

That’s enough money to build a brand-new hospital every week, but that money is going to the bond fund managers on Bay Street to pay interest on the government credit card.

Or think about it this way the next time you’re standing in the check-out line:

Every dollar you pay in federal sales tax goes to pay interest on the debt.

The government’s own non-partisan, independent budget watchdog pulled the fire alarm back in September.

“The current path we’re on in terms of federal debt as the share of the economy is unsustainable,” the Parliamentary Budget Officer said.

Here are other ways the PBO described the government’s financial situation:

Stupefying. Shocking. Something is going to break. Everybody should be concerned.

That’s how the PBO described the situation when he projected the deficit to be $10 billion lower than Carney’s deficit in Budget 2025.

How is Carney responding to Canada’s debt crunch? Instead of acting, Carney is obfuscating.

Instead of balancing the budget, Carney promises to balance the operating budget.

Carney isn’t balancing squat when he continues to borrow tens of billions of dollars every year. The closest Carney is willing to get to a balanced budget is a $57 billion deficit in 2029.

Instead of cutting the debt, Carney is changing the budget guardrails.

Even under the Trudeau government, politicians repeatedly promised to keep the debt as a share of the economy going down.

Carney used a sneaky sleight of hand in Budget 2025 to change that guardrail.

Because Carney’s debt will grow faster than Canada’s economy, he’s changing the previous guardrail of a declining debt-to-GDP ratio to a declining “deficit-to-GDP ratio.”

Carney plans to add $324 billion to the debt by 2030. For comparison, former prime minister Justin Trudeau planned to add $154 billion to the debt over those same years.

Instead of cutting spending, Carney muddies the waters with slogans of “spending less to invest more.”

The Carney government wrote Budget 2025 in a way to try to convince Canadians that it will save about $60 billion over five years.

But the government is spending billions of dollars more every year.

The government will spend $581 billion this year. That’s $38 billion more than the government spent last year. The government will spend $644 billion in 2029.

Does that look like saving money to you?

Even if you want to be as charitable as possible, nearly all the savings Carney promises to find occur in future years.

This should give taxpayers flashbacks of the Trudeau era.

Trudeau initially promised to run “modest” deficits and balance the budget in four years. But Trudeau never balanced the budget, he doubled the debt.

Trudeau promised to find $15 billion in savings. But Trudeau never cut spending, he ballooned the bureaucracy and spent billions more.

Here’s the key lesson: When the government promises to start its diet on Monday, Monday never comes.

The government debt problem is serious.

The government is now wasting more money paying interest on the debt than it sends to provinces in health-care transfers. In 2029, thirteen cents of every dollar the government takes will be used to make debt interest payments.

But instead of acting, Carney is trying to convince Canadians that everything is fine.

Instead of acting, Carney is using slogans and changing budget guardrails to paint a rosier picture of government finances.

Carney needs to change course. Shrugging off the debt won’t make things better. Only urgent action to cut spending will.

This column was first published in the Toronto Sun.