This Week in Alberta - Special Deficit Edition

Ed Stelmach(February 23, 2008): “A Progressive Conservative government will never put Alberta back into a deficit position”

Ed Stelmach (today): "Err...on second thought..."

Alberta has joined the deficit club!

Alberta's Finance Minister Iris Evans has let it be known that the province will post a billion dollar deficit for the 2008-09 financial year.

As a concerned (former) citizen, I sent the following note off to Alberta's Solicitor General Fred Lindsay earlier today - I encourage everyone else to follow suit.

Dear Mr. Lindsay,

Hello. I read today that your colleague, Iris Evans, has said Alberta will post a billion dollar deficit this year. As you are no doubt aware, this is a clear violation of Alberta's no-deficit law - a sober law created by Ralph Klein, and repeatedly pointed to as a sign of your government's fiscal responsibility as recently as the last election.

I am therefore asking you to answer the following questions for me:

1. When will you be issuing an arrest warrant for Miss Evans?

2. Will Iris stand trial for this?

3. If she does stand trial, who will pay for her legal fees? It does seem to be the Alberta precedence for the government to always cover a treasurer's legal fees, but I worry this could push the province even further into deficit.

4. What is the maximum sentence for this crime?

5. Could Iris continue to perform her duties as Finance Minister from jail, or would a replacement be named? Given her performance in the portfolio to date and the depth of Ed Stelmach's legislative agenda, I suspect Iris could still carry on without anyone noticing the difference - although she might not win "best dressed MLA" next year.


Finally, being a Stony Plain MLA, I know you must be a respected member of the Cabinet who the premier listens to. So I would like to plead with you to reconsider the decision to scrap your government’s consultation program to change Alberta’s license plate slogan.

Last election, Ed Stelmach promised voters a bold program of “change that works for Albertans”. Voters elected your government and were rewarded with an aggressive legislative agenda that included changing Alberta’s license plate slogan…and maybe some other stuff I missed.

Even though there is no “changing the license plate law” in Alberta, I urge you to follow through on this bold commitment. If not for the voters who elected you on a platform of change, then for poor Iris Evans who could find herself making license plates very soon, and who would much rather make them with the new slogan.

Sincerely,

Dan Arnold

hat tip - tGPOitHotW

The Asinine Folly of Balanced Budget Laws

VICTORIA — The B.C. Liberals returned to the legislature Monday to rewrite their championed balanced-budget law to clear the path for a deficit budget next week.

Premier Gordon Campbell has been forced to admit the province is bleeding red ink with the rest of the world.

The Liberals will use the next week to amend the legislation outlawing forecasts of budget deficits in British Columbia, which they passed in 2001 after taking the provincial reins from the New Democrats.

Can someone explain to me the purpose of having a balanced budget law if, when you want to go into deficit, you just repeal the law? I assume it's sort of the same principle as a fixed election date law you can break whenever you want an election, or a diet that lets you eat junk food whenever you're hungry - neither of which are overly useful.

But, while BC is prepared to overhaul their law, there is one beacon of light in all of this:

Many provinces have some form of balanced-budget law, and they all come with some form of escape clause. Only Alberta's Balanced Budget and Debt Reduction Law, appears iron clad against deficits, said Bader.

Or not.