Here’s what it looks like when the swollen debts of Canadians rise at a much faster pace than their incomes:

And it’s only going to get worse, warns the chief economist at BMO Nesbitt Burns.

Douglas Porter was referring to the latest official numbers on total consumer debt, which climbed in April by 5.1 per cent from a year earlier, fuelled by a mortgage surge of 6.2 per cent.

“These growth rates remain well above underlying income gains,” Mr. Porter said in a research note titled “Canadian housing debt: You ain’t seen nothing yet, b-b-building,” a reference to a once-popular song.

Indeed, compare those debt rates to the 3.4-per-cent annual pace of disposable income growth, as Mr. Porter did, and it’s no wonder that groups like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development are warning there could be trouble ahead.

Or why the chief executive officer of Bank of Nova Scotia is urging Ottawa to step in and cool down the country’s hot housing markets, as The Globe and Mail’s David Berman and Tamsin McMahon report.

“As a result, the much-watched debt-income ratio is set to rise again, Mr. Porter warned.

“It’s tough to see anything turning this canoe around, as home prices continue to soar in Toronto and Vancouver (and environs), while there’s little prospect of a big bounce in personal incomes.”