View From the Legislature

NDP Premier Greg Selinger has become the province’s first billion dollar man.

He is leading the first government in our province’s history to run a billion dollar deficit. The new startling deficit figure was announced late last week. While the NDP tried to claim that the deficit for 2011-2012, which now stands at $1.12 billion, is simply the result of costs associated to fighting the 2011 flood that is just not true.

No one would blame the government for flooding and the costs associated with it, but the fact is that of the $1.12 billion deficit, no more than a third of it is flood related. In fact the vast majority of it is from good old fashioned NDP overspending and mismanagement.

And its amazing how quickly the NDP story has changed. During the fall provincial election Manitoba Progressive Conservatives were warning Manitobans that the finances of the province were much worse than the NDP were telling them. In fact, we questioned the government’s ability to meet its promise of balancing the budget by 2014 without massive cuts or huge tax increases. All of which the NDP denied.

Only now, six months after the election, have they come clean and told Manitobans that the deficit has doubled from what they initially said and now stands at well over a billion dollars. So what will become of their promise to balance the budget by 2014 now that the annual deficit is over a billion dollars? Without good fiscal management (something the NDP have not proven capable of yet) or huge tax increases, it will likely end up on the pile of other broken promises.

Most concerning is the fact that around the world and across the country governments are struggling with reducing their annual deficits and accumulated debts. While the most alarming situation is in Greece, that country is far from alone in dealing with debt and the crisis it can lead to.

All this seems to be lost on the NDP government in Manitoba. Their concern is mostly with trying to convince Manitobans that there is nothing to worry about and that running deficits is OK. In fact that is exactly what the last NDP Finance Minister said before releasing the 2011 budget.

The billion dollar deficit is not a good thing for Manitoba. Not at all. But it doesn’t mean that some good cannot come from it. The positive will be if it causes Manitobans collectively to demand better fiscal responsibility and better priority setting by the government. That is one thing that could make the news of Manitoba’s billion dollar Premier just a bit easier to take.