The Provincial Budget: A Missed Opportunity

Like many people, I think this was a purely election budget with too much spending and not enough done to pay down our crippling debt. And it may come back to haunt the Tories. It certainly will come back to haunt the province financially in the form of increased interest payments. It appears that the overwhelming desire from the electorate was to use the financial windfall to help pay down the debt, but the provincial government didn’t listen. And with the announcement yesterday that inflation is raising much faster than economists predicted, interest rates - and subsequently the money needed to pay down loans - will also increase dramatically, particularly if your balance owing is in excess of $8 billion dollars and climbing.

While additional spending is needed, the government should have a taken a more balanced approach between spending and essentially saving tens (hundreds?) of millions in interest payments. People will accuse the government of pandering to get votes. But for the love of God, how many seats do these guys need? Yes, polling numbers are down, Premier Dunderdale has shown she may be in over her head and backing Harper will hurt the Tories provincially, but they can’t seriously think they will lose the election come October. A seat or two or three could change hands, but they can afford to lose a couple of seats. So a perfect opportunity to have a balanced approach was squandered. Voters tend to like fiscally responsible governments – not ones who spend like drunken sailors.

The Tories have stated that budgets of the future (non-election years) will mean less spending. While it is impossible to appease everyone, regardless of how flush we are with cash, the Tories could have killed two birds with one stone yesterday. It was a missed opportunity.