Every second of every day in Quebec, the public debt rises by $287.

That is $17,000-a-minute, $25,000,000 each day.

We are in deep trouble.

$212 billion and increasing by the second.

That's money that each and every one of us owes, but we lack the political courage to really do anything about it.

Oh yes, your electricity bills will go up.

You may not like an increase but we pay well below market rates for power.

You will likely pay more for certain government services

But this being Quebec, the sacred cows will remain standing and well fed.

For example, $7-a-day daycare. If you are lucky enough, you benefit from it.

Not everyone can.

The real cost of daycare is about $60 per day.

I pay for that, you pay for that, and it's become what we refer it in Quebec as 'un droit acquis' -- an acquired right

Charest raised the fee from $5 to $7; he got slapped down pretty hard and learned his lesson.

Tuition fees are another sacred cow -- the lowest anywhere.

You and I pay for subsidized education.

But try to raise the tuition to where it should be?

Forget it.

The government is allergic to student protests.

In fact the government pretty much caves to any special interest like the big unions.

Threaten protest.

Threaten civil unrest.

That's the way it works in Quebec.

You see Jean Charest's first government was supposed to fix things. Do you remember the term "re-engineering the state"?

Downsize government, reduce the number of departments, and civil servants.

Lower taxes, bring in public-private partnerships. Reduce spending.

Really not much has changed, because in the Alice in Wonderland world of Quebec, we have lost touch with reality.

It's like the mad hatter is running the show.

We want free health care, free education, daycare, drugs, cheap power and cheap transit. But we are leaving a terrible legacy.

Our population is aging faster than most.

Who will be left to pay the bill?

Right now, only 42 percent of Quebecers pay income tax.

All those wonderful services are paid by fewer than half of us, while everyone benefits.

So yes, your Hydro bill will be higher.

But the real fundamental problems will be left for another day and your children and their children and their children's children.

As Alice herself might have said if she had landed in Quebec, "nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't."