The Globe and Mail reports in its Saturday edition that Canada will fork out $54-billion this year in debt costs -- more than Ottawa will send to the provinces in health transfers. The Globe's Jason Kirby writes that all told, by 2028 the gross public debt of advanced-economies worldwide is forecast to exceed 122 per cent of GDP, the highest level since World War II. Some experts say we are approaching an inflection point. For one thing, credit rating agencies have begun kicking up more of a fuss about the sustainability of government borrowing. Last fall, Fitch, one of the big three rating agencies, cut the United States' credit rating from AAA to AA+, while another, Moody's, later lowered the outlook on its U.S. credit rating to "negative" from "stable." Canada owes just over $1.1-trillion compared with $40-trillion (in Canadian dollars) for the U.S. In the lead up to last week's budget, Royal Bank of Canada issued a warning that Canada should not take its AAA credit rating for granted. "Key metrics indicate its fiscal position is among the more vulnerable relative to other AAA rated economies," economist Rachel Battaglia wrote. "This suggests Canada is at a greater risk of a downgrade than other top-rated peers."