TORONTO

The Ontario Chamber of Commerce quietly released a report on the province’s finances recently that says while things haven’t reached a crisis point yet, our runaway debt and deficit are becoming “increasingly dire.”

The report raises concerns about the massive accumulation of debt and the $10.5 billion deficit the government racked up in overspending in 2013/14.

This province has the highest net debt of any province and the second highest per capita debt — behind only Quebec.

What’s more, we pay a whopping $10.6 billion to service that debt — the third largest expense behind healthcare and education. If we had a ministry of debt, it would be the third largest ministry in the province in spending.

One of the report’s authors fears today’s politicians are passing on unsustainable debt to future generations.

“Are we saddling our children with an unfair burden?” asks Josh Hjartarson, the chamber’s VP of policy.

“That’s particularly important in the context of our demographic issues and our shrinking labour force.

“In the medium to long-term, are programs that Ontarians value in jeopardy because of the debt we’re taking on today,” he said in an interview.

“It’s a slippery slope of issues that the province is facing from fiscal perspective.”

He also questions whether there’s fiscal capacity left in the provincial economy to withstand a future recession.

Finance Minister Charles Sousa will deliver his fall economic statement on Monday. While many economists are looking for belt-tightening and restraint, Opposition critics say they’re expecting more of the same: More spending, more deficit and more debt.

“This is a government that’s ignored every warning bell they’ve had from every group and every organization,” says Tory finance critic Vic Fedeli.

“The Bank of Canada tells us revenues are going down. The Conference Board of Canada says revenues are going down — and this government’s expenses continue on the upward track.

He points to a statement in the Chamber of Commerce report that says interest payments are jeopardizing program delivery.

“This is the real impact of running consecutive deficits and increasing the debt,” Fedeli said.

“These have very real consequences and real impacts,” he said.

Cuts to services such as diabetes test strips and physiotherapy for seniors make for short-term savings — but have a long-term impact on health costs, he said.

Fedeli talked to a doctor who told him 70% of his patients no longer test themselves for diabetes and as a result, they’re sick.

“They save pennies and spend dollars,” he said.

A spokesman for Finance Minister Charles Sousa said this year’s budget set out a “clear path,” to eliminate the deficit in 2017-18, with savings in each fiscal year.

“For the last five years, our government’s prudent approach has led to significantly lower than projected deficits and in 2013-14, we beat our target by $1.3B alone,” said Susie Heath.

“This year we saw a sharp decline in revenues due in part to slower than expect global economic growth, as well as a significant cut by the federal government to Ontario’s transfers. The federal government must give Ontario a fair deal and restore the transfers that have been cut,” she said.

In a separate response to federal finance minister Joe Oliver’s fall economic statement, Sousa said the feds, “continue to shortchange,” this province.

Oliver says transfers have increased to all provinces.

Well, all I know is that this province had a massive infusion of cash from the HST, from its health tax and from sneaky extra charges such as eco-fees. And they still can’t balance the books.

They’ve slopped billions of dollars cancelling gas plants, wasted millions more on the Ornge air ambulance fiasco and are in the process of losing even more tax money in bungled real estate deals such as MaRS.

If they’d been more careful and not wasted or mismanaged that money, they wouldn’t have to whine and cry poor to the feds.