According to the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Canada’s debt now stands at $5 billion.

However, Sun Media reports that Finance Minister Jim Flaherty says there are no immediate plans for any spending cuts to reduce our national debt.

The CTF's federal director says continued government spending will 'actually create more problems for future taxpayers,' but Flaherty feels it just isn't the right time to reduce spending.

“We’ll start paying it down once we’re back in surplus,” Flaherty said. “We know how to balance budgets. We know how to run surpluses and we will. We have to get Canada through this recession and protect Canadians. We can’t pretend that Canada’s an island in the world because we’re not.”

Should the government be more concerned about our national debt?