For most Canadian provinces and territories debt is on the rise. A recent Statistics Canada report indicates that the overall provincial and territorial net debt stands at $258.1 billion as of March 31, 2003, representing an increase of $6.4 billion over March 31, 2002.

Alberta, Northwest Territories and the Yukon were the only provinces whose financial assets were greater than their liabilities. New Brunswick and Ontario saw minor decreases to their net debt compare to March 2002. British Columbia saw the greatest increase in debt, with a 21.5% increase over the previous year.

Per capita, the net debt increased from $7,980 in 2002 to $8,112 with the highest per capita net debt in Newfoundland and Labrador ($18,326), Quebec ($12,757) and Nova Scotia ($12,714).

The following two table summarizes the debt for each province and territory and the annual change in provincial and territorial debt since 1983.

Table: Net debt of provincial and territorial general governments as of March 31, 2003

Province or territory	Net debt	Change in net debt over 2002	Per Capita	Population at April 1
	$ millions	% change	$	'000
Newfoundland and Labrador	9,511	4.7	18,326	519
Prince Edward Island	1,150	6.3	8,394	137
Nova Scotia	11,888	5.3	12,714	935
New Brunswick	5,921	-1.3	7,884	751
Quebec	95,330	3.9	12,757	7,473
Ontario	102,611	-0.9	8,416	12,193
Manitoba	10,217	2.5	8,808	1,160
Saskatchewan	9,877	2.5	9,927	995
Alberta	-10,575	0.0	-3,366	3,142
British Columbia	20,119	21.5	4,864	4,136
Yukon	-262	0.0	-8,452	31
Northwest Territories	-184	0.0	-4,381	42
Nunavut	278	1.5	9,586	29

Table: Provincial and territorial general government net debt as of March 31

	Net Debt	Net debt as a % of GDP	Per capita net debt	GDP first quarter	Population at April 1
	$millions	%	$	$ millions	'000
1983	42,259	10.7	1,670	394,600	25,301
1984	51,976	11.9	2,035	437,096	25,540
1985	63,074	13.4	2,447	471,260	25,775
1986	76,065	15.1	2,923	503,852	26,020
1987	89,532	16.6	3,398	538,112	26,348
1988	97,494	16.4	3,654	595,656	26,682
1989	101,510	15.8	3,739	643,120	27,152
1990	112,015	16.6	4,062	676,764	27,573
1991	116,652	17.2	4,176	678,172	27,936
1992	143,065	20.6	5,062	692,940	28,265
1993	173,691	24.3	6,074	714,776	28,597
1994	202,446	27.0	7,004	750,696	28,905
1995	224,041	27.9	7,670	801,904	29,211
1996	235,896	28.8	7,992	819,976	29,515
1997	241,746	27.9	8,107	867,828	29,819
1998	245,223	27.0	8,152	906,904	30,082
1999	258,271	27.2	8,519	949,136	30,317
2000	256,166	24.6	8,372	1,042,100	30,597
2001	241,813	21.7	7,822	1,115,408	30,913
2002	249,431	22.2	7,980	1,121,528	31,256
2003	255,881	21.1	8,112	1,214,880	31,543

Source: Statistics Canada, The Daily for: 2004-08-11

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