ECONOMY NEEDS MENDING AT A HIGH LEVEL

Premier Ball’s March 20, 2020 letter to PM Justin Trudeau seeking help following his Administration’s failure “to finalize our borrowing program, both short and long term”, might have reminded the PM of the Dickens character Oliver Twist, and his plea to Mr. Bumble: “Please, sir, I want some more.” Luckily for Ball, he wasn’t handy enough to Trudeau to be given a knock with the soup spoon, Oliver Twist’s reward for ingratitude; surely only distance could have spared him.

During his five years as Premier, Ball has never shown an inclination to “self-help”. That is not to suggest that the Province did not need the assistance of the Government of Canada to meet the public sector payroll. However, the economic fallout of the pandemic and an oil industry labouring under obliterated demand, has only compounded a pre-existing overspending problem; it did not originate there.