While it shouldn’t surprise anyone to hear the Stelmach Tories calling their 2011 provincial budget a good balance between fiscal responsibility and public service, the opposition parties have been equally quick to call it a bad plan that promises long-term trouble.
The last budget for outgoing Premier Ed Stelmach, it calls for a $3.4 billion deficit, a shortfall the PCs say will be made up by drawing on the Sustainability Fund savings account.
“We created and built the Sustainability Fund when times were good, which has allowed us to preserve and even enhance funding to priority services like health and education, even in the depths of recession,” said Finance Minister Lloyd Snelgrove.
Premier Stelmach adds: “As the province emerges from the worst global recession since the 1930s, it does so in good fiscal shape and with core services like health care and education intact.”
Yet despite the assurances of the premier and his cabinet colleagues that things are going well, West Central Alberta residents might be forgiven for wondering if something else is perhaps at work.
Specifically, does draining off huge sums of the province’s savings have anything to do with ensuring the Stelmach Tories don’t have to face the backlash that would surely follow heavy cuts to programs and services?
The opposition parties seem to have no doubt the PCs are spending public money in vast quantities to avoid the tough and potentially politically damaging decisions that would come with trying to balance the books.
“This government acts like they’re playing with an endless supply of Monopoly money, as if setting budget priorities is a game they can just start again when they go bankrupt. But it’s not a game,” said Liberal leader Dr. David Swann.
Wild Rose Alliance leader Danielle Smith, whose party is second in recent polls behind the Tories, said the government’s plan to draw on the Sustainability Fund is both irresponsible and unsustainable.
“Last year’s budget was a train wreck and this year the cars just keep piling up,” said Smith. “These guys have splashed red ink all over what used to be the best financial statement in the country. They’ve raided our savings to the point of extinction.”
With a very comfortable majority in the Legislature, the Stelmach Tories can easily pass the 2011 budget, despite the chorus of boos from the opposition parties.
Yet aren’t the PCs taking a huge gamble using up a big chunk of the Sustainability Fund in 2011 instead of leaving it in place for use in the critical pre-election budget in 2012?
