We’re going to find out next week just how far the provincial government will go to remedy the mess it’s in with the provincial budget. The provincial budget will be handed down on March 22. The government has targeted 2017-18 as the year in which it would balance the document. But with a forecasted $1.2 billion deficit for 2016-17, it will be a daunting challenge for the government to balance the budget in such rapid fashion. Will the government raise taxes? People don’t complain when the government hikes the so-called sin taxes for tobacco and liquor sales, but they aren’t so understanding if the provincial sales tax or the education portion of property tax goes up. Will the government cut services? We’ve heard a variety of ideas bandied around, including reducing funding to municipalities, slashing the negotiated wage increases for the public service, having mandated unpaid days off for the public employees, and even laying off front-line health-care workers. Or will the government minimize the cuts and the tax increases, and shelve its plans
for a balanced budget? That might be the best option. The Brad Wall government has done a good job of picking and choosing the areas where it makes cuts. It knows that it can cut services in some areas. It can trim the public sector, and people will generally understand. Cut the film tax credit? It was a controversial decision, but few people now look back and say “I wish this province still had a film tax credit.” It would be foolish to have mandated days off for the public sector. It sounds eerily similar to the Rae Days brought in by former Ontario premier Bob Rae in the 1990s, a concept that became a punch-line in political circles. It would also be erroneous to cancel the negotiated wage increases slated for those in the public sector. We’ve railed in the past against the government’s plan to cut funding to urban and rural municipalities in 2017, due to the impact it would have on budgets for municipalities. And there’s nothing beneficial to cutting front line health-care worker jobs and wages.
There are already concerns about services provided at health facilities. Trimming jobs would only give the opposition more ammunition when criticizing the government’s handling of the health portfolio. The government has already made sweeping changes in health, announcing its plan to consolidate all health regions into one province-wide authority before the end of the year. The idea has been widely panned by those who are concerned it could lead to more problems in health-care delivery. MLAs have shown some leadership in trying to reduce the deficit by taking a three-and-a-half per cent wage decrease, but that’s only going to save thousands, and not millions, of dollars. So the government’s best bet might be to make a few cuts in some necessary areas, hike the sin taxes and some other taxes that don’t infuriate the public, and reduce, but not eliminate, the deficit. After all, if you ask people if they want money for health and schools, or if they want a balanced budget, we know which one they will choose.
