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.
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