In late April or more likely, early May, Finance Minister Ernie Eves will deliver what is going to be his first balanced budget in fiscal year 2000/2001. So early next month, the Standing Committee on Finance and Economic Affairs will tour the province as part of its pre-budget hearings process.

No doubt, this committee will encounter many groups and individuals demanding more government spending for health care, education and a whole host of other priorities. What the committee probably won't hear a lot about is the provincial debt.

And with the tax cutting agenda well on the way to providing prosperity for many Ontarians, the focus must now turn to reducing the tax burden of future generations. In other words, reducing the provincial debt.

According to the Ontario Economic Outlook and Fiscal Overview, the province's debt stood at $109.2 billion as of March 31, 1999. With annual provincial revenues of $59 billion, the debt represents 185% of revenues. This is a far cry from 30 years ago when the debt of $1.5 billion represented 40% of provincial revenues at $3.7 billion.

Debt interest charges amount to $9.8 billion for fiscal year 1999/2000. This is almost enough to run the province of Saskatchewan for two years. For taxpayers, this means that 16 cents out of every dollar sent to Queen's Park is wasted on debt servicing charges as opposed to going to finance public services. Broken down another way, Ontarians are paying $26.8 million each day -over $1.1 million every hour - simply to pay interest on the provincial debt.

Are you waiting in line for a MRI scan because we don't have enough of these machines to meet demand Well in just over three hours from now, Ontario's debt servicing costs will represent the amount of money needed to purchase one MRI. Or perhaps you live in Ottawa and are forced to travel to London, Toronto or Montreal for lithotripsy treatment for kidney stones. In the next 50 minutes, debt-servicing charges will equal the funds necessary to fund the operation of one lithotripter (technicians, supplies and maintenance included) - for a year.

Are you furious yet Well if your blood hasn't reached the boiling point, it should after an international perspective is applied. Recently the Fraser Institute used OECD data to rank the debt burdens of 158 countries (using 1996 data). Canada and its 12 provinces were treated as 13 separate jurisdictions in the ranking process.

The Fraser Institute ranked jurisdictions according to a debt-to-discretionary income ratio (government debt was measured on a per capita basis with each citizen's average annual income less a minimum allowance for subsistence).

Norway had the lowest (and best) rating at minus 37.0%. The U.S. was ranked #66 at plus 46.4% while Ontario was well back in 90th place at 68.2%. Ontario was ranked 9th out of 13 Canadian jurisdictions. Just ahead of Ontario in 89th place was Pakistan but taxpayers can take heart in beating out that bastion of democracy and affluence, Haiti, which was ranked in 91st place.

The Canadian Taxpayers Federation plans to inform the Finance and Economic Affairs Committee of these findings in February. If you are concerned about Ontario's debt, you should do the same. Contact the Clerk of the Committee (before January 18) at 416-325-3509 if you wish to make an oral presentation. Written submissions (due by January 31st ) should be sent to Room 1405, Whitney Block, Queen's Park, Toronto ON, M7A 1A2.

To conclude, if you read at an average speed, it took you two and a half minutes to read this edition of Let's Talk Taxes. That's $46,613.39 in tax dollars down the drain for debt servicing charges.