Just prior to Christmas, Premier Stelmach warned Albertans that it was possible his government may not balance our Province’s budget by 2013 as previously promised.
This is the same Premier who promised, during the 2008 provincial campaign, that he would never take our province back into deficit and debt.
From 2008 to 2012, the PCs have already spent or plan to spend our Province into a total deficit of about $8 billion. That doesn’t include an additional $12 billion in provincially-owned capital projects, new pension liabilities, and other debts they continually fail to include in their reported deficits. This $20 billion cash shortfall will be paid for by draining our Rainy Day Fund, formerly worth $16 billion.
It is truly amazing. After just four years of the Stelmach PCs, our Province has gone from economically stable to unsustainable. We’ve seen our no-deficit law repealed. And not only have we failed to save a dime of non-renewable resource revenue for our children’s benefit, we have actually decreased the worth of our two savings accounts (the Heritage and Sustainability Funds) by almost 50 per cent.
The PCs have been repeating the same excuses over and over again as if saying them often enough will make them true.
They say the deficits are due to lower energy royalties. Not true. Oil prices are at near historic highs. Only a brief surge to $147 per barrel a few years ago was higher. Furthermore, every year, oil production from Alberta continues to increase. And although natural gas prices have come off their historic highs of a few years ago, it is still a profitable commodity that would have poured billions more into the treasury over the last several years but for the PC government’s recently repealed royalty framework. The fact is our resource revenues are amongst the highest they have ever been.
We also hear the predictable ‘we are in the greatest world-wide recession since the Great Depression’ excuse. This, too, is a complete falsehood; not to mention incredibly disrespectful to those who actually suffered and toiled through the Great Depression. Not only was the most recent recession not even remotely as long or as deep as that of the Great Depression, it was not even as bad as the recessions of the ‘80s or early ‘90s. Furthermore, the recession ended in June of 2009; it is now almost 2011. Alberta, due almost entirely to the oilsands, is set to return to strong economic growth in the coming months ahead. So if the economy is improving, why are deficits and debt skyrocketing?
The answer is simple – the PC government is addicted to reckless overspending. They have been pouring billions into pumping carbon dioxide into the ground, opening up health facilities without any staff, giving themselves 34 per cent pay raises and handing out grants for the purpose of securing political support, rather than to address real provincial needs.
Over the next year, I guarantee you will see this Premier, his Ministers, and many of his MLAs tour the Province asking what you would rather have – a balanced budget or cuts to healthcare, education and infrastructure? This is a fallacious question meant to prey upon your fears. It implies you have to choose between perpetual deficits and debt, or suffer through cuts to core social programs and infrastructure. It is the same fear tactic left-wing socialist politicians around the world use to scare voters into rejecting policies of fiscal responsibility and restraint.
The fact is that sound fiscal management and well-administered core social programs are not mutually exclusive – in fact, they are inextricably linked. When governments try to be everything to everybody through reckless and unfocused spending, social services suffer as much as the balance sheet.
Successful governments focus on key priorities, put needs before wants and set up system incentives to ensure core social programs are efficient and effective.
More money won’t fix our problems… new and competent management will.
