"This is not a normal situation."
You're right Curtis. It's not a normal situation.
Normally when the global community goes to pot, Manitoba doesn't have record low employment, record home prices, low interest rates, record population growth and over ten years of balanced budgets going for it before the trouble hits.
In fact, the last time we faced real trouble - say that early 90's recession - that was exactly the time that governments tightened their belts and really got the books in shape. And what was the result of that foolishness? Only the most prosperous economic stability in post-war Manitoban history.
You can't be seriously telling us that deficits can be logically argued for when the country is still only 50-50 to even experience a recession. (By the way, I still like my chances in our wager better than yours...Wanna double down?)
Are you really telling me that Manitoba - at a time of record spending and record population growth - really needs to spend its way out of,....what's the problem again? It's not unemployment, because we're at near record lows. Not home foreclosures, because while the overheated market is slowing down, it's not stopping yet. So what are we spending ourselves out of again right now?
Oh yeah. Government spending and federal transfers not growing faster enough to match that record spending growth. (Completely doubled annually over the NDP's term. Has Manitoba really seen its government services doubled?)
Seriously Curtis? The problem here is the government not spending enough?
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PS for Finance Minister Brown: As a fun little exercise, I challenge you to rustle up the estimates book for any portfolio of your choosing. Any one of them. Give me one week to go through it and find at least 5% of that portfolio's expenditures where a cut could be made on a one or two year basis to ride out the economy woes we're in right now and avoid deficit financing.
Here's where it'll really be fun. I'll even make you the judge of our game.
That's right. If you feel I didn't find the 5%, I'll buy dinner at a reasonable establishment. (No $20 potatoes at 529 Wellington). If you feel that I'd found 5% that you'd have a tough time putting a higher priority on than on avoiding a deficit, you're buying my eats.
Sounds pretty easy to me Curtis. Wanna try?
Normally when the global community goes to pot, Manitoba doesn't have record low employment, record home prices, low interest rates, record population growth and over ten years of balanced budgets going for it before the trouble hits.
In fact, the last time we faced real trouble - say that early 90's recession - that was exactly the time that governments tightened their belts and really got the books in shape. And what was the result of that foolishness? Only the most prosperous economic stability in post-war Manitoban history.
You can't be seriously telling us that deficits can be logically argued for when the country is still only 50-50 to even experience a recession. (By the way, I still like my chances in our wager better than yours...Wanna double down?)
Are you really telling me that Manitoba - at a time of record spending and record population growth - really needs to spend its way out of,....what's the problem again? It's not unemployment, because we're at near record lows. Not home foreclosures, because while the overheated market is slowing down, it's not stopping yet. So what are we spending ourselves out of again right now?
Oh yeah. Government spending and federal transfers not growing faster enough to match that record spending growth. (Completely doubled annually over the NDP's term. Has Manitoba really seen its government services doubled?)
Seriously Curtis? The problem here is the government not spending enough?
*****************
PS for Finance Minister Brown: As a fun little exercise, I challenge you to rustle up the estimates book for any portfolio of your choosing. Any one of them. Give me one week to go through it and find at least 5% of that portfolio's expenditures where a cut could be made on a one or two year basis to ride out the economy woes we're in right now and avoid deficit financing.
Here's where it'll really be fun. I'll even make you the judge of our game.
That's right. If you feel I didn't find the 5%, I'll buy dinner at a reasonable establishment. (No $20 potatoes at 529 Wellington). If you feel that I'd found 5% that you'd have a tough time putting a higher priority on than on avoiding a deficit, you're buying my eats.
Sounds pretty easy to me Curtis. Wanna try?
I think Curtis' point is more to the idea that the cuts would all be to your basic sacred cows. Witness the Tories cutting a few excess arts programs. Didn't go to the heart of Arts funding just some programs, but it was still cuts to the Arts, and was treated as if the WBC was thrown out of its building.
You have to sell the concept of excess first. And explain why, if you're finding inefficiencies, you're not reinvesting that money into USEFUL areas in that same department.
Posted by
Iain |
10:10 AM
The heart of the problem is the unwillingness of the government to make a difficult decision. We voted in a pussy who care far more about staying elected than doing what's necessary. I don't know if the McFadyen Tories would be much better, but this province desperately needs a leader who is able to make those difficult decisions and explain to the public why they're required.
Posted by
cherenkov |
10:33 PM