Time to rein in debt is now: Carney

Mark Carney, the Governor of the Bank of Canada, on Monday warned that the world has entered a massive deleveraging process and that the tolerance for debt has "decisively turned." But that threshold for debt doesn't appear to have washed up on Canadian shores, as households in this country currently have a record 150 percent debt-to-income ratio.

Speaking to BNN, Carney once again said the time for Canadians to reign such profligacy is now.

"We're not at some magical threshold for Canadian household debt, but the time to adjust is before you get to some threshold," he says. "The market will sometimes let you get beyond the limit for some period of time and then the constraints come and the adjustment is much more difficult."

And if Canadian households finally heed Carney's advice, somebody must step up to carry the torch of economic growth. Carney says there is nobody in better condition to do so then the country's corporate sector.

"They have balance sheets that are in fantastic shape, as good as they've ever been. And they have a financial sector, which we're telling them is going to be there in good times and in bad," he says.