At first glance, Premier Jim Prentice announcing a five per cent pay cut for he and his ministers seems like a good start in moving toward – something.
But, chopping pay for himself, his cabinet ministers and likely his MLAs for a grand total of a few hundred thousand in government savings is such a drop in the bucket for a province that’s now proclaiming as much as a $7 billion deficit as to be obviously nothing more than show.
A government that looks no further than oil when setting its budget shouldn’t be surprised when a drop in price for that commodity suddenly sets alarm bells ringing throughout the province. The bells are ringing loudly now.
Imagine a Bow Valley transportation company, say, that put together a budget based on today’s low fuel prices. Then, when the price jumps by 30 or 40 cents per litre, as it will, finds itself in financial distress. Would we feel bad for said company? Would the province bail it out?
We assume up next will be pressure on public sector unions to absorb a similar cut and, beyond that, what’s left to battle such a massive deficit other than raising taxes in some form so we all pay for the provincial government’s short-sightedness in building its budget around oil; over and over and over again?
Is it any wonder Prentice floated a balloon a short time ago about the possibility of a sales tax in Alberta?
Is it any wonder Prentice has alluded to the high cost of government services (the highest in Canada, he’s said) as contributing to the sad economic state of affairs? We doubt if teachers, or health staff who have a new agreement, or others, are going to be willing to absorb more cuts.
It’s not like a five per cent pay cut is new; Ralph Klein did the same thing some year ago and it’s obvious now what effect that had on the provincial budget.
Speaking of Ralph Klein, a different leader of the same party who cut deep into public sector spending such as health and education, wouldn’t it be nice – now, today – to have the $1.4 billion that was frittered away in the doling out/vote buying scheme of 400 Ralph Bucks to everyone in the province?
Those Ralph Bucks may have made a difference to a miniscule percentage of some of Alberta’s poorest citizens, but for the most part, one can assume, and we will assume, they were squandered on frivolous items that nobody really needed – all in the name of Klein’s popularity. Remember all the retail sales at the time for items priced right around the $400 mark?
Then there was the at the time popular axing of health care premiums for Albertans in 2009. At that time, at $88 per month for families and $44 for single people, we doubt many were crushed in paying premiums. Had the PCs not made the cut, or maybe adjusted to allow for low income earners to pay less and high earners to pay more, and actually put the money into health care over the past six years, who knows how those ongoing funds would have affected the current shortfall?
Or, rather than continue to be a slave to big oil, possibly our provincial politicians should think outside the barrel and embrace the energy sector in general. It seems there’s plenty of room to boost solar power activity, with accompanying provincial support, much like in Germany and other countries.
Oil, after all, is a non-renewable resource. Would it hurt to give some thought to the future, when the black stuff is no longer available? Why wait until the last minute to ponder life after oil?
