)[3]: 1044 Interest on the debt was Quebec's third largest spending item after health and education, and represented 12.7 cents of each dollar of budgetary revenue.
[9] TD Bank economist Rishi Sondhi says the Fund provides a testament to the Quebec government's priority to lower its debt burden.
[7] Quebec's debt levels and credit rating improved following the introduction of the Generations Fund, along with the Balanced Budget Act of 1996, says University of Sherbrooke economist Luc Godbout.
The Quebec government's practice of treating a payment to the Generations Fund as an expense, rather than an investment "makes sense only for political marketing.
"[11] Globe and Mail columnist Barrie McKenna says that by directing revenues into the Generations Fund and investing the profits "Quebec is essentially issuing more debt than it really needs and taking on the risk of market corrections along the way.