Dressed in her business best last week, our Minister of Finance, Iris Evans walked up to the podium to announce to her people that all was good, except a slight miscalculation of $6.9 billion dollars. The same government that appointed Evans to probably the most sensitive post in public service, will run a budget deficit the like of which has not been seen since the Getty years.
The government propaganda machine was hard at work to soften the blow to Albertans. Some news agencies printed stories that pointed to other provinces as being in worse shape, in an effort to make us all feel 'Alberta Superior.' The Edmonton Journal ran a column from Gary Lamphier titled, “Alberta's financial troubles would be the envy of other provinces” stating “unlike most other provinces, states and countries, for that matter – will remain debt-free and cash rich, even after this year's fiscal carnage is over.” Pheew, why didn't you say so in the first place. I feel so much better.
I smell smoke mixed with cotton here folks! I believe its about time we called a spade a spade. By all appearances, its looks like our government is running our cash register with the 'no sale' function stuck.
In the last twelve months Iris Evan's budget projections have gone from a $8.5 billion dollar surplus to a $6.9 billion dollar deficit. That's a spread of a mere $15.4 billion dollars. In case you missed it, our Finance Minister’s projections were off by $15.4 billion dollars.
The reasons cited for the budget over-run was offered in two forms. The first culprit was the recession, and the second was a direct result of the first, the drop in the price of natural gas. Interesting how these causes chosen to justify the failure of the government are those problems outside their control. They would rather have Albertans believe that a reduction in Natural Gas prices, that being the cost going from $5.5 per gigajoule to $3.75. That represents a $1.75 reduction behind the cause of our situation. Admittingly, this drop would account for a reduction in resource revenue, but when it comes to governance, income is only one side of the equation.
To the public, Evans squarely blames the recession for the budget overrun even to the point of demonizing the economy, “We haven’t seen the last of that scoundrel, that recession. We haven’t seen the last of it, but in Alberta we’re on the right track to be stronger than ever as this recession is over.” She said during her April 7th budget delivery.
By July, Evans began to hint that her projections may be a bit off. With news showing that the overall Canadian economy was showing life she is quoted as saying, “It’s going to be a little longer for Alberta to feel that bounce…. I will be much more satisfied that we’re on the way to recovery when I see higher gas prices.” And, there it is… once again she is hedging her bets on higher gas prices.
By all accounts, the Alberta government have been making one bad decision after the other, during a time when the public purse should be tightened. Take for example the decision to crumble under popular pressure to introduce a $4 billion dollar carbon capture program, only to revise that plan to only a mere $2 billion dollars. Or the illusion of free health care for Albertans. A plan that in the end will only see more medical treatments de-listed to meet the reduction in revenue.
I could go on, but the end result would see me, a life long conservative, suffer through a rapid case of cognitive dissident.
But the real problem is not one of revenue. It is a problem of spending. Overruns are just that, the result of spending more than you have, and our government must be spending the tax dollars like a drunken sailor. In our case, our government have spent $6.9 billion more than we had.
What needs to really happen is our government moving away from being revenue dependant when the commodity prices and surpluses are too high to a deficit position when prices are low, causing the government to dip into the sustainability fund.
Although our government have promised Albertan’s no new taxes, and have come out with statements that suggest that no employee layoffs are considered. It is hard to believe that in light of the extreme shortfall, the old certainties in life do not hold true in this province. That being death and taxes. Maybe one should consider defenestration when casting your next vote.
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