This is a weekly column by Dale Goldhawk, Canada’s best-known consumer advocate. A journalist, author and broadcaster, Dale hosts Goldhawk Fights Back For You, on AM 740 or at AM740 ZoomerRadio, Monday through Friday from 11 am to 1 pm, in the eastern time zone. Visit his website at www.goldhawk.com.

The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development has issued the kind words it usually has for Canada. Sound fundamentals. Solid banking system. The economy appears to be recovering. We have heard it all before.

But the OECD does says it is worried about the amount of household debt carried by Canadians. The total of all mortgages and consumer credit is a staggering 1.41 trillion dollars.

Said the OECD report: “the high rate of household indebtedness is a source of risk to the outlook.”

Canada ranks first among 20 wealthier countries in the world, including the United States, in its debt to financial assets ratio. We’re number one. Our households are more in hock than anywhere in the world.

The OECD is advising Bank of Canada Governor Mark Carney to raise interest rates sooner rather than later. Do it, said the OECD, “without delay.”

Just a few weeks earlier, the Certified General Accountants Association of Canada rang the same alarm bell.

The trillion-dollar-figure works out to 41,740 dollars worth of debt for every man, woman and child in Canada. By comparison, that figure is two and a half time higher than it was just 21 years ago. And the Certified General Accountants presented a survey that shows Canadians are not at all worried about taking on additional debt.

Other studies have shown that many Zoomers are entering retirement still carrying substantial mortgages and will acquire new debt in those retirement years.

The rise in interest rates, say the experts, will cool the demand for borrowed money — at least a bit. But for families already in debt, the rise in interest rates will make it tougher to keep up with payments. Families on the edge will hurt the most.