Canadian Ministers Meet in Effort to Halt Nation’s Runaway Debt : Borrowing: Concerns are mounting that the spiraling deficit could result in limits being set by international investors.

Canadian federal and provincial finance ministers met Monday to plot a strategy to contain the country’s mounting debt amid concern that international investors may spurn Canada unless the debt spiral is halted.

Recent bank estimates project that the combined federal and provincial accumulated debt will rise to $551 billion by the end of the 1994 fiscal year on March 31.

Much of the borrowing by the federal and provincial governments is made in international marketplaces, but concerns are growing that the borrowing could limit the ability of Canadian governments to control their own fiscal policies.

“The people who buy our bonds are sending some pretty strong signals that if we don’t get our fiscal house in order and keep it in order, the ability for us to borrow funds will be very limited if not exhausted, and if that happens we will have lost all control of our destiny,” Nova Scotia Finance Minister Allan Maher said.

Canadian finance ministers meet regularly, but Monday’s meeting was announced by federal Finance Minister Don Mazankowski in his April budget as a special attempt to control Canada’s runaway deficits. Mazankowski said the ministers will try to ensure that coordinated debt reduction remains a focused goal of all the governments.

He also said growth in the economy will eventually bring down the unemployment rate, which has skyrocketed to 11.4%. The government reported Monday that the economy had grown a surprisingly strong 1% in the first quarter of the year.

But some of the finance ministers from Canada’s 10 provinces said they want job creation and economic growth to share the billing with deficit reduction.

“It would be a rather hollow victory if we got our deficits down to zero and unemployment was still at 10% across the land,” Ontario Treasurer Floyd Laughren said.

“Jobs are just as important as debt,” Saskatchewan Finance Minister Janice MacKinnon told reporters.

Some of the finance ministers called for an easing of the tight monetary policy being followed in Ottawa.

“Low, stable interest rates in the future will help us in the recovery and will also help us with the debt,” MacKinnon said.

At the same time, some of them signaled they agree with Finance Minister Mazankowski that debt reduction is the No. 1 priority.

Canadian provinces and the federal government have often taken their own paths on spending and taxation.

The ministers have spoken of cutting duplication of government services among the provinces and the federal government and of creating an agency that could watch over trends in spending.