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Sept 20/10 - Pt 1: Canadians on the Brink

Even amidst a fragile economic recovery, 60 per cent of Canadians are living paycheque to paycheque. Personal debt is at unprecedented levels. And the possibility of rising interest rates could make the situation a lot worse for Canadians who are living on the brink. We'll meet a few Canadians who are. Anna Maria Tremonti asked an economist and a debt counsellor to get their views on the situation.

Listen to Part One: (Pop-up)

PART ONE

It's Monday, September 20th.

Finance Minister, Jim Flaherty says Canada's budget deficit for the last fiscal year will be more than 50 billion dollars.

Currently, and how cool that he delivered the news from a brand new fighter jet?

This is The Current.

Canadians on the Brink

If you've heard a newscast lately, you know that the answer to that question isn't good. And according to Statistics Canada, the Canadian Payroll Association and the Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development, there's a good chance that your credit card bills, or your mortgage balance, or your student loan summary ... are telling you the same thing. As a proportion of our net worth, Canadians are carrying more debt than ever before. We're carrying more debt than any other G7 country except the United States. And according to Benjamin Tal, we're even catching up to the Americans.

What this means is that a sizeable chunk of the Canadian population is living on the brink.

On today's show we met some of those vulnerable Canadians who are living on the brink. And to help put their experiences in perspective, we were joined by two people. Scott Hannah is the President of the Credit Counselling Society. He was in Vancouver. Sherry Cooper is the Executive Vice President and Chief Economist of the BMO Financial Group. She was in Toronto.

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