From the 1996 provincial election campaign, here are the provincial Conservative commitments on managing the provincial government’s finances.
Lynn Verge must be cringing at what Tom and the boys are doing especially with that bit about using policy to create private sector jobs instead of creating jobs that depend entirely on tax money
Mandatory sunset clauses turned up again in 2003 but there’s no sign the current crowd are going to give it another thought.
Balanced budgets have never been a goal of the current administration. In fact, the finance minister and the premier have explicitly rejected the idea. When they had money they spent it and now that they don’t have money they are spending too.
A PC Government will:
- balance the budget over four years, through a combination of measures to stimulate economic growth and re-order spending priorities. Deficits designed to protect funding for essential services in the lean years will be offset with planned surpluses in the growth years.
- fix the rate of growth in borrowing below the rate of real growth in GDP, thus bringing down the debt-to-GDP ratio.
- use tax policy to stimulate private sector job creation - jobs that pay taxes, not depend on taxes.
- re-establish an Expenditure Review Committee to identify areas of inefficiency in government and take early and decisive action to eliminate inefficiencies.
- set priorities for program delivery and reduce spending on expendable and low-priority programs.
- streamline and consolidate regulations to eliminate duplication and reduce the number of regulations and regulatory bodies.
- put emphasis on patient care and high-quality education while seeking efficiencies.
- impose mandatory sunset clauses on spending programs and regulations.
- appoint a Public Service Pensions Task Force within 60 days to investigate ways to address existing liabilities while honouring our commitments.
- reform the MHA pension plan to bring it more in line with those of public employees.
- cut the number of seats in the House of Assembly to 40.
-srbp-
