24 April 2012

Significant budget digits #nlpoli

As you try and contain your excitement on provincial budget day, here are a few numbers you might want to keep in mind:

Dozens:  What CBC reported on Friday as the number of layoffs in the budget.

Fewer than 150:  What CBC reported on Monday as the likely number of layoffs in the budget.

$5.0 billion:  The amount of cash Tom Marshall had in the bank last year after the finance minister paid all the provincial government bills a year ago.  Don’t believe it?  Check Volume 1 of last year’s Public Accounts.  Windfall oil prices have delivered every penny of it.

$5.1 billion:  Total spending in the Tories’ first budget in 2003.

$13 billion:  The public debt, i.e. gross liabilities. Roughly $26,000 for every person living in the province. 

Don’t believe it?  Check the Public Accounts.

- srbp -