Canada shifts debt-reduction burden to provinces: budget officer

By Louise Egan OTTAWA (Reuters) – A move by Canada's federal government to offload some healthcare costs onto the country's provinces will leave provincial governments facing ballooning debt unless they raise taxes or cut spending, the parliamentary budget office (PBO) says. The federal government is in good fiscal health after it introduced broad spending cuts with the goal of eliminating its budget deficit by 2015, the PBO said in a report on Thursday on the long-term fiscal sustainability of Canada's various levels of government. …