The Jerry Earles of the world seem to be applauding their good fortune that the Ball Administration wimped out on the task of resolving our fiscal mess. Such prescience aligns completely with the agenda of the Tories and NDP. It remains a real and present danger to the province's ability to manage ourselves as a society.
There are three fundamental problems with Cathy Bennett's second Budget.
The first is that she has failed to tackle what she has described as a "culture of spending" which took root under the Tories.
Second, the Minister has aligned herself with the Great and Exalted Ditherer, the Premier, having used an all too tenuous increase in the price of oil to paper over a serious deficit and fast rising public debt.
Third, having sidestepped any plan to rectify public sector mismanagement and bloat, the Minister reinforces a public view that the fiscal crisis is really not a problem - that the Tories were bad, but not all that bad. That is a dangerous proposition when the truth is otherwise.
