HOW THE BARD SEES TWENTY TWENTY

TWENTY TWENTY

Our eyesight norm sees twenty-twenty,

Of resources, we have plenty-plenty,

Yet myopic Pols in spendthrift form

Now view the till on empty-empty:

Link power a software-fatigue tale,

Bad vibrations! Ferries fail to sail,

FooteBall games. The Recycle waste!

Rare Physicians, Deferred oil revenue? - Leaders flail.

A FINANCE MINISTER WHO BELIEVES IN SANTA CLAUS

The Government’s Fiscal Update released last Wednesday by Finance Minister, Tom Osborne, depicts a government continuing to lead the public over a steep fiscal cliff.

The decline in revenue of $393 million, which the Minister announced, is not in dispute. But his press statement to the effect that the Budget surplus for 2019-20 has been reduced by $368.7 million is transparently not true. The Government is running a seriously large deficit - not a surplus.

Osborned is engaged in a process that is worse than double counting.

CARLA FOOTE AFFAIR: DOES OPPOSITION HAVE METTLE TO FACE DOWN DISHONESTY?

Dwight Ball's effort to dump the Carla Foote appointment on Chris Mitchelmore is akin to leaving the house in the charge of a kid whom you wouldn't trust near a hot stove.

Ball is not credible on the issue. Anyone who knows anything about government in Newfoundland also knows that the kind of cronyism represented by Foote's appointment minimally requires the boss' approval. The attribution by then Rooms' CEO Dean Brinton to the Departmental Deputy and Mitchelmore, to the effect that the Premier "had offered Carla Foote the position", is simply an acknowledgement of the chain of command.

MUSKRAT COSTS “HARD WIRED”?

Guest Post by David Vardy
In August of 2018 Premier Dwight Ball told us that ratepayers would not have to pay for Muskrat Falls. Recent news reports indicate that the Premier has met with the Prime Minister and further federal support will be announced in January.  Does this mean that Nalcor CEO Stan Marshall was wrong when he told the PUB the cost was inescapable? The PUB heard little in the way of proposals to lighten the burden other than the shifting of costs from ratepayers to taxpayers. This offers little comfort because for the most part we are all both ratepayers and taxpayers.