It's surprising that BCers aren't frothing at the mouth on all of these taxes on their lives.
It's amazing
Actually the polls indicate that The Left Coast generally thinks premier Horgan is being an idiot in creating this constitutional crisis that is exposing the hypocrisy of LIE-berals right across the country!
Here is an example of how utterly muddled is the entire economic policy of leftists in Canada. Ndpers do not escape the condemnation of any person worried about what happens when our govt hits the debt wall- just like the PIGS- Greece, Ireland, Greece and Spain - with their devastated pensions, huge tax increases and an entire generation of unemployed kids who own nothing and have no hope for the future! But of course govt still gets its salaries! With some comments of my own in brackets):
Guest Column: Despite improving economy, Alberta still projecting $9.1-billion deficit.
By Steve Lafleur and Ben Eisen
Published: March 9, 2018 Updated: March 9, 2018 2:39 PM EST
Filed Under: Toronto SUN, News/ Ontario
The Notley government recently released its third- quarter fiscal update.
While the update contains some good news about the Alberta economy, the outlook for provincial finances remains dire as the province expects a $9.1-billion deficit for this fiscal year, and no intention to balance the budget until 2023-24.
First, the good news.
With 90,000 full-time jobs created and a 4.5% increase in real provincial GDP this fiscal year, the province is regaining some ground after the punishing recession that saw GDP drop by 16.4% between 2014 and 2016, while Alberta shed hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The good economic news means government revenue for 2017-18 is stronger than previously expected.
In fact the government will collect approximately $2 billion more in revenue than it forecasted in last spring’s budget.
This unexpected additional revenue should have put a substantial dent in the province’s significant budget deficit, which was forecasted to be $10.1 billion in last spring’s budget- after removing a “risk adjustment” cushion included in that forecast.
Instead, despite the fiscal challenges facing Alberta, the government spent half of the unexpected extra revenue. Spending is now expected to be $1-billion higher than forecast in last spring’s budget.
(NDPers are the less cunning and less intelligent cousins to LIE-berals and they simply do not see any reason why civil service union Hogs should not have regular raises- right up until the universe gets sucked into a swirling black hole of debt and decay! A LIE-beral is a person who thinks he is entitled to spend other peoples money while an NDPer is just entitled to spend- period! Its all mindless greedy instinct!)
This has been a recurring theme for this government.
Revenues have regularly beat forecasts and expectations as Alberta’s economy has recovered, but the government has simply increased spending to largely or completely offset the potential fiscal benefit to the bottom line.
As a result, Alberta is stuck with the $9.1-billion deficit in the recent fiscal update, despite the fact revenue has grown by $4 billion since last year.
(No socialist govt and no civil service union has ever cried: “we have spent enough and do not need more!)
In its upcoming budget in March, the Notley government has an opportunity to finally begin closing the gap between spending and revenue, but it must demonstrate a level of spending discipline that has so far been absent.
(All socialists understand that Hogs require regular shipments of gravy in exchange for their votes! Happily, the 55 plus percent of Cdns who do not normally vote have now been so heavily tax gouged that it looks like they WILL be voting in the next elections- and will NOT be supporting tax mad socialists!)
A recent Fraser Institute study estimated that to meet its time line of balancing the budget by 2023-24, the government must hold spending growth to 0.8% annually between now and then.
(HAHAHAHA!!! Hold the spending line at 0.8 % annually? When socialist inflation target is TWO percent? With the added bonus that LIE-berals have made promises worth hundreds of billions of dollars of pension promises to the Hogs? Promises that are so huge they will kill our economy if a major LIE-beral effort is actually made to honour the insane promises! With NDP expected to match or exceed the LIE-beral gravy madness!)
This would be a marked reversal from the government’s approach so far, which has increased spending at an average annual rate of 6.8% in its first three years.
Given the government’s spending record to date, and the fact the recent fiscal update shows it will overshoot its spending target for this year by $1 billion, it’s clear that without a new commitment to spending discipline, this government is unlikely to achieve its own modest target of balancing the budget by 2023-24.
The government’s spendthrift approach and large resulting deficits mean more and more debt is being piled up.
(None of these people seem to understand even the basics of banking- with its focus on interest- compounded and amortized! And they certainly see NO lesson in the Greek fiscal mess! )
The cost of servicing this debt via debt interest payments will, of course, be passed along to future taxpayers.
We project that even if the government meets its 2023-24 balanced budget target date, debt-service costs will roughly double to more than $600 per year per Albertan.
(Yes- $600 per year per person in Alberta- and this includes every child in the province as well- think what your 2 year old will owe by the time the babe reaches an age to start working- 20 something years from now? With all that interest piled up for many years- the kid will be paying interest on the interest for decades!)
The evidence clearly shows the need for a more disciplined approach to spending and a more ambitious approach to deficit reduction in Edmonton.
The next generation of Albertans deserves better than to pay the bill for this government’s refusal to rein in spending.
(The NEXT GENERATION? HAHAHAHAHA!!!! The 4 levels of Cdn govt now owe something over one trillion dollars. If we totally STOP adding new debt today- a physical impossibility due to LIE-beral lust for power and Hog greed- and IF WE BEGAN paying down ten billion dollars per year on our debts, then it would take over one hundred years- FIVE GENERATIONS to pay back our debts!)
(But we are so far off paying our debts- only an insane socialist could be comfortable with it! Our idiot Boy Justin is planning an $18 billion dollar debt for this year. Add in the $6.5 billion our wicked witch Wynne-bag is planning on. Then add in the over $9 billion debt for Alberta and you get a total of over $34 billion in new debt just for this year and just for 2 provinces and Ottawa! At this rate it will take a THOUSAND YEARS to make a dent in our debts! The great grandchildren of people that our great grand children will never live long enough to meet will be paying OUR debt! This IS the face of bankruptcy- and of loonie leftist socialist madness! Such fiscal insanity is the fuel for revolutions! )
— Steve Lafleur and Ben Eisen are analysts at the Fraser Institute.
(The worst of it is that our environment is burning along with the economy! If we cut back on gravy for Hogs we could do more for the sick and aged and those genuinely in need and etc- while at the same time cutting back on the number of gas guzzling toys in operation! And HEY! YOU CAN still tour the lake in a canoe or row boat- and save the environment AND do something about your obesity and lack of exercise! And if you are paddling along quietly you will see more wildlife and will not annoy the neighbours with your engine racket! And you can even feel a little bit smug slipping along quietly while your neighbour curses a balky motor that needs another costly repair!)
(Too bad suhc solutions are too simple for our socialist horde to comprehend! They prefer the dishonest and ineffectual fakery of carbon crap and trade scams that only clean wallets of cash and leave the dirt in the air!)