New Year’s is typically a time when individuals make resolutions. These resolutions are often about personal improvement, related to health, wealth or family.
It wouldn’t be a bad thing for government to make New Year’s resolutions either. After all, it is a good time to reflect on certain things and to reset decisions that maybe haven’t gone so well over the past year. With that in mind, I offer two New Year’s resolutions for Manitoba’s provincial NDP government to consider as we enter 2013.
The first resolution would be to develop and to reveal a real plan to bring the province’s budget back into balance. Premier Greg Selinger has already announced that he is breaking his promise to balance the province’s books by 2014. But he hasn’t provided any plan as to how he intends to get the province back into the black. In fact, things are headed in the wrong direction.
In the spring of this year the NDP said that this year’s deficit on core government operations would be $504 million. A half a billion dollar deficit is a staggering burden for a province the size of Manitoba and hardly a necessary one since provincial revenues have not decreased over the past number of years. The reason that the deficit is so large is because the NDP continue to overspend. In fact just this past week, the NDP indicated that the projected core deficit for this year has now gone up from $504 million to $602 million. And the reason for this is overspending. Manitoba is desperately in need of a realistic plan to get us out of deficit and it should be resolution #1 for the NDP.
The second resolution the NDP should consider is allowing Manitoba Hydro to focus on getting its own finances in order. As a result of the NDP ordering $20 billion of capital projects to be paid for by Hydro ratepayers, Manitobans are facing two decades worth of annual hydro rate increases. New hydro generating stations are being built despite the fact that the export market for hydro has changed dramatically over the past several years.
Cheap natural gas and a continued weakened United States economy has meant that Manitoba Hydro has been selling hydroelectricity to the United States at a loss. In fact, Manitoba Hydro has lost millions of dollars over the last two quarters and yet the NDP continue to insist billions of dollars of new generating capacity should be built and Manitobans should pay for it as we continue to sell hydro to our customers at rates lower rate than we charge Manitobans.
Former NDP cabinet ministers and former executives from Hydro have come forward publicly and asked the NDP to reconsider these massive expenditures as a way to protect Manitoba Hydro. To date, the NDP have not indicated they are willing to reconsider but with the New Year approaching, it would make for a great resolution.
New Year’s is a great time for personal resolutions to better our individual lives. It’s also a great time for government to look at ways to better the areas they govern. These are just two resolutions the provincial NDP should seriously consider.
