Article content

A study from the Fraser Institute due out Wednesday attacks the “concern” now being generated in some parts of the media about Canadian household debt.

“Headlines that household debt is at record levels, or that debt is higher in Canada than the U.S., create the impression that individual Canadians are being irresponsible in managing their personal finances,” Philip Cross, a former chief economic analyst with Statistics Canada, writes in the report, which was provided to TheFinancial Post.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Fraser report downplays debt risk in Canadian marketplace Back to video

The Canadian tax system is overcomplicated and only getting worse, according to a Fraser Institute study titled Measuring Tax Complexity in Canada, released Monday.

Read more

[/np_storybar]

Much of the concern has centred around the ratio of household debt to disposable income, a ratio that hit a record 163.3 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2014. One newspaper headline went so far as to say, “There is no such thing as good debt.”