N.L. has the country's highest per-capita debt. It's all but hidden in the election.

ST. JOHN'S - Business and taxpayer organizations are calling on party leaders in Newfoundland and Labrador to stop making costly election promises, as the province carries the country's highest per-capita provincial debt.

Whoever forms government after the Oct. 14 election will inherit a net debt approaching $20 billion in a province about 545,000 people. That debt will cost more than a billion dollars to service in the current fiscal year.