Canada's Ontario Downgraded

Moody’s Investors Service’s downgraded Canada's Ontario, following a sharp warning and dimmer outlook one day earlier by Standard & Poor.

The downgrade reflect the provinces very high debt and dim prospects for improvement.

The Globe and Mail says that Moody’s downgrade of the province’s debt rating to Aa2 with a stable outlook from Aa1 with a negative outlook brings the agency’s score more in line with S&P and DBRS, which both downgraded Ontario by one notch in the fall of 2009. DBRS, which also weighed in Thursday on Ontario’s fiscal state, decided to maintain its “stable” outlook on its debt rating for Canada’s largest province, saying the government’s increased focus on controlling spending was “an encouraging step in the right direction.”

But DBRS, too, struck a note of caution. Limiting debt growth will be very challenging and require a “significant pickup in fiscal resolve,” DBRS analysts Travis Shaw and Eric Beauchemin said in a report to clients.