On Tuesday provincial NDP Premier Greg Selinger was faced with choices. He could decide to stop spending money foolishly and ensure that the province wasn’t saddled with a stifling deficit this year or he could decide to keep mismanaging your taxdollars’ and drive Manitoba further into debt.
Sadly, Mr. Selinger not only made the decision to spend foolishly and increase the debt, he has committed to doing it for the next four years. The 2010 provincial budget shocked many observers by indicating that Manitoba would follow last years record $600 million deficit with another deficit this year of more than $500 million and further deficits until the year 2014.
There were few who would have predicted that Premier Greg Selinger would continue on a wild spending spree during these economic times but that is exactly what he has done, increasing spending by millions of dollars and wasting $640 million by building a new hydro transmission line on the longest and most costly route possible.
To accomplish this record spending and record debt, Premier Selinger announced that he would be using his majority in the Manitoba Legislature to put the province’s Balanced Budget legislation on ice for four years. Just recently the NDP gutted the Balanced Budget legislation to allow government to run a balanced budget over a four year average instead of balancing the books each and every year. Unwilling to live up to even this requirement, Mr. Selinger has announced he will change the legislation again so that there doesn’t have to be a single balanced budget in the province until at least 2014.
In fact he intends to increase the debt of the province by billions of dollars, and that is under the best case scenario, assuming interest rates remain very low.
Ending any requirement to follow Balanced Budget legislation will be a deep disappointment to many residents of southeastern Manitoba as it will be for many others across the province. The legislation was intended to ensure that all governments manage revenue as efficiently as possible and look to ensure waste is eliminated. It was legislation that was advanced and championed by residents of this region.
Recent surveys which I have done involving area business owners and local residents indicate they are very worried about the NDP government increasing the province’s debt. This is because they know that the money is going to have to be paid back eventually through higher taxes or cuts to services.
Greg Selinger had a choice between ending wasteful spending and mismanagement or driving the province further into debt with reckless spending. Unfortunately, he made a poor choice and one that will cost Manitobans for years to come.
