Phendrana Drifts

I read with interest both the Liberal and Tory costing of their platforms the past two days. Good on both of them to develop that information which I think is an important test of a party's readiness for government. The Liberal costing did contain one item that you see often in opposition platforms: "Reallocation from Core Program Review." Essentially the Liberals think the Conservative government is misallocating money that should be spent on Liberal priorities. That's good - why else would you run for the Liberals unless you wanted to spend the government purse differently. The amount however, is another thing. The Liberals think the Conservatives are misallocating $1.6 billion and are convinced they will find it when they look over the budget.

To prove their point they put out a news release listing all the places they would find money: $14 million by axing the Public Affairs Bureau (I think the government will need to put out news releases after March 4, but whatever), $60 million to Alberta's horse racing industry and not paying the Hon. Cindy Ady and Barry McFarland $19,000 to improve our ties with Idaho. There was also something about ending the duplication of Alberta Health Care numbers but no word on how much that will save. So, they are planning on saving $1.6 billion and gave us a list of $74.02 million in savings - I'm not too sure yet where the other $1.525 billion will come from. And either the Liberals don't know either, or they don't want to tell you. Basically we have two options:

Option #1: The Liberals don't have a clue how to figure this out. This is the line the PC party took yesterday pointing out how absurd that claim is - after all $1.6 billion (or $1.525 billion, they did find $74.02 million after all) is bigger than the entire budget of Alberta Seniors and Community Supports. $1.6 billion represents about 5% of the entire budget of Alberta. If you begin removing those target areas the Liberals want to spend in, some areas of government should be looking forward to 10% and up in cuts in Budget 2008 should Taft get the chance to govern. But I'll disagree with the PC party - I don't think this is the option that is going to happen.

Option #2: The Liberals are chicken shit. They know where (more or less) they are going to have to cut to give you the promises they made with your money, they just don't want to tell you. Dr. Taft has sat in the Legislature for seven years and voted on seven budgets - opposed of course, but one would assume he read the budget before voting against it and likely has a vague idea of how government works. The Liberals have a gang of researchers that YOU pay for with your taxes. They go though every word and every figure of the government budget. They already have to know exactly where they will "reallocate" from - so why don't they want to tell you? We already know it won't come in the form of school closures, tuition hikes, and increased health care premiums. What's left? Which department is going to be told to close its doors for good? Which government program is going to stop serving Albertans?

There is of course a third option. Taxes.

Labels: alberta politics

21 Comments:

At 8:49 AM, Anonymous said…

Liberals LOVE taxes!
At 9:48 AM, Anonymous said…

"Taft bristled at the suggestion that some programs might need to be eliminated to pay for the party's promises. "This is not cuts, it's re-allocation," he said from the steps of the legislature."

I think he has NO IDEA. That's an awful lot of money to "re-allocate" in one year - someone is going to suffer (a whole lot of someones - you and me). Although I agree they likely figure they can fix anything they do wrong by raising taxes. You are bang on with that call.

Also, why is Taft always news releasing from the "steps of the Legislature?" Is he camping out there to be the first in the door after the election or will no other place actually have him? Isn't there a campaign on - shouldn't he be out campaigning?
At 2:58 PM, Anonymous said…

Lots of parties (especially opposition parties) make announcements on the steps of the legislature--it's symbolic, etc., etc.

As for the "review and re-allocate" plan, I think that $1.6 billion is going to be hard to find, but it's not as out to lunch as it seems (maybe it's just out to breakfast).

It's worth pointing out, though, that the PC platform costs as much as or more than the Liberal platform--given that they left out a bunch of costs as "policy initiatives" or "to be determined". So how do the PCs intend to pay for it?
At 7:01 PM, Anonymous said…

Well put Duncan. Taft: No Plan.
At 7:45 AM, Toby said…

I think you're missing the most likely option:

The classic opposition-to-government' we didn't realize how bad the books were' option. The situation is far worse than you could have predicted in opposition, and will take some time to clean up.

My friend Dalton recommends it.
At 10:38 AM, Anonymous said…

This government already has the highest per-capita spending, even before Stelmach's $940/second election give-away spending spree. That's higher than Quebec, but we're not getting anywhere near Quebec's level of service on the ground. How could anybody think that there isn't at least 5% of the budget currently being wasted on crap (like Las Vegas bachelor parties, for example) is beyond me, espcially given that this government regularly ignores its own auditor's recommendations (such as for royalties)

We need some government other than the PC's in to look over those books in detail. Get'em in as a minority and turf'em out early if you want, but at least get someone else in for a while.
At 3:58 PM, Duncan said…

Aren't a government's books public? I mean can't Taft look them over right now? I can certainly provide links to the actuals and auditor's reports.

Toby: That is very true.
At 6:50 PM, Anonymous said…

Stelmach has made everything public - its all on the web for the average joe to look over and see. They would just rather make accusations, spur innuendo and fear monger than actually look for it themselves.
At 7:37 PM, Duncan said…

Ah - and while we're discussing it, we didn't pay for the bachelor party - it was paid back long before it was made public. Do we really think there is $1.6 billion of bachelor parties? Has any party ever come into power in a democracy and found that level of coin just sitting around.

I noted that Taft suggested yesterday that he would liquidate the Sustainability Fund to pay for his promises.
At 12:07 AM, Anonymous said…

Anonymous@6:50--where on the web? There's only very vague budget documents. You can find how much the government spends on each department. Likewise, the government's "blue book" lists grants and expenditures, but not in any particular detail. I stand to be corrected, if you can supply a source.

As for "make accusations, spur innuendo and fear monger"--well, yes, those damn fiscal hawk Liberals and all. How screwed up is this province when the Conservatives are attacking the Liberals for wanting to freeze spending?

Duncan-how are the PCs planning to pay for their promises?
At 1:31 AM, Anonymous said…

The highest per capita spending in Canada. Multi-year bugetary surpluses higher than expected every single year, yet middle of the road tuition with a PSE plan that is surpassed by every other party except Wild Rose and the Rhinos. The Rhinos, fer chrissakes.

And this is the party you're lending your support to?
At 6:11 AM, Duncan said…

Anon@12:07: Vague? The estimates each budget are anything but vague. They are hundreds of pages. Best place to start is http://www.finance.gov.ab.ca/publications/budget/index.htmlstart. But there is way more.

Anon@1:31: Highest per capita spending matched with highest per capita revenue along with the highest per capita infrastructure deficit (particularly given the hundreds of thousands who come each year from elsewhere without their roads and hospitals). PSE... I would suspect anon@1:31 that you know me well given that my blog rarely mentions PSE. You know you can leave your name. It is even easy... Nevertheless, I don't comment on provincial PSE policy here. You can call me if you want that however.
At 9:21 AM, The Space Cowboy said…

Nice talking points. Did Tom Olsen think those up all by his little old self?

You guys are going down.
At 12:36 PM, Anonymous said…

The Spaced-Out Cowboy is more like it.

You must be smoking some excellent B.C. bud, my friend. Last week of the campaign and Taft is having to spend a lot of time in his own riding defending a seat he won easily last election. "Redmonton" no more.
At 10:59 PM, Anonymous said…

Duncan@6:11: there are hundreds of pages of performance measures and targets; there are lots of principles and goals. But there's relatively little detail on where the money goes. For instance, I can find out that the Advanced Education Department is spending $6.2 million this year on "policy and planning" but there's no breakdown beyond that.

I'm not saying that there's no information out there--but this is nowhere near the level of detail the Liberal plan seems to want to get to.
At 11:10 PM, Anonymous said…

"'m not saying that there's no information out there--but this is nowhere near the level of detail the Liberal plan seems to want to get to."

Look, my friend. The biggest, most important line item in the Liberal "budget" is the $1.6 billion in cost savings that they expect to find... immediately, in the first year. There is no graduation in savings here, no rising slope. They are trying to convince the public that their promises don't cost anything, with an accounting sleight-of-hand called "funds re-allocation".

Taft is quick to say these are not spending cuts. Well, what the hell are they? you can't have your cake and eat it too. If you think you can find $1.6 billion to move out of programs and services to pay for your election promises, then be brave enough to tell us where it is coming from.
At 8:46 AM, Quynn said…

Oh come on folks, the answer is obvious, they'll liquidate the sustainability fund and then resort to Paul Martin's favoured tactic in the '90s - offloading on to other jurisdictions. It will be goodbye to Calgary's ring road, Edmonton's LRT extension will be 'postponed' and the universities will just have to do more with less. Best of all, it will be Dave and Stephen who take most of the heat.

Classic Liberal strategy that - and like most of their strategies, you can't be specific about it during an election, only afterwards!
At 8:11 AM, Anonymous said…

Well said Quynn!

Alberta, beware the Liberal Party!
At 11:10 PM, Simon said…

Hey Duncan!
Nice job stealing the election! How many ballot boxes was your partner responsible for stuffing? And all the other Tory appointed returning officers?
I have to admit, it's a pretty clever strategy. Well done.
At 12:23 PM, Duncan said…

Wow, that's pretty bitter of you. Care to make that accusation in an affidavit?
At 9:07 AM, Anonymous said…

Poor sad Liberal losers.

<< Home

Twitter Updates

21 Comments: