DonValley (I assume you are from TO)
I will start off by saying that it is very common to get comments like "oh, that gearing is fine" etc etc.
I would urge you to consider the number of comments here that strongly suggest lower gearing, vs those saying it is fine. Its the same in bike stores, it is very common for young, fit guys in their 20s that know it all to tell you a bikes gearing is "fine" for touring, I've seen it for 30 years, often in bike stores this view is also from folks who havent toured loaded either, so just take these views with a grain of salt.
So yes, I am in the "you want to lower the gearing" camp and back it up with lots of experience.
I have a touring bike from almost exactly the same year as this bike, toured on it a lot. 7 speeds, but with a 50/40/28 and a 13-30 that gave about 25 gear inches.
gear inches is a term that gives you an exact black and white number of your gearing, a gear inch calculator like this:
Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Gear Calculator
will give you a g.i. number for each of your gears, fill in the appropriate stuff, wheel size, tire size, change the doohicky to "gear inches" , put in your crank and cassette numbers and you will get a chart of your bikes exact gearing in gear inches. Make a screen shot, save it and print it for reference.
My first tour fully loaded in 90 or 91 I had too much stuff, probably 50lbs, I had the stock 28 granny and 30 rear, this gave that bike 25 gear inches.
The steep hills were murder, no fun, so I learned a lesson.
I changed the 28 granny to a 24t and brought the gear inches down to 21.4 Voila, made all the difference in the world plus I took less weight next time and did many trips with that bike with 21.4 gear inches and it worked very well.
As mentioned by others, you will have to load up your panniers and see how it goes with your gearing.
Easiest change as mentioned is to put on a 24t granny, but then the jump to 44 mid is really too much. My old 24t to 40t jump was a lot too, so to repeat what others said, if you change out the granny to a 24 and the mid ring to a 36 or whatever, the cost would and probably will be more than buying a new deore 44/32/22.
The only issue with doing this entire crank change is to find out is if your existing axel length will work with a 44/32/22 crank, you should get an answer at good bike store for a specific crank and your bike, they will need to see your bike to give you an answer. If not, you'd have to change the bottom bracket/axle and there will be a cost to that also, so get the quotes from a few stores (more than one cuz you can get wrong answers easily) so perhaps just changing the mid and granny rings would be cheaper.
I know that 13-30 cassettes are still made in 7 speed, but you could look into what is available that goes up to 32 or 34, but again, as mentioned, you'd have to get a proper knowledgable answer to if your rear derailleur can handle more than 30.
I'd start with asking for chainring prices, dont go fancy, just go with cheapest, will be fine. Just remember, ask for 110/74 bcd chainrings, this is the bolt pattern of your crank. You will see with internet searches that some of these are pricey, search and search again, and ask at a well established bike stores that have been around a while with experienced parts guys or mechanics.
finally, Im from Montreal, where are you planning to ride?
For carrying 35lbs or so, the old adage of having a touring bike with gearing of about 20-100 gear inches works very well, this is what my experience has shown me. Even with a mountain crank 42 or 44/32/22 you will get nice low gears AND perfectly useable gears for the vast majority of riding at 15-25kph that we do most of the day.
bottom line is that with lower gearing, you will enjoy your touring experience, and depending on your age and fitness, your knees and everything will enjoy it much much more also.
Lower gearing is a win-win, no downside.
If you are from Montreal, get back to me here and I can suggest good stores to go to.