Quote:
Originally posted by Agamemnon@May 10 2005, 04:28 PM
They hit a rocky time, and had to be flexible. If oil went to $5 a barrel, Alberta might have to go back into deficit spending, despite King Ralph's assurances that this would never happen again. Would he be a jerk? No. The price of oil would be low, necessitating flexibility. This is not a bad thing.
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Not my point. After laying down the law, Germany and France have gone easy on themselves. You think they would have gone easy on Holland if they breached the target? I doubt it. The situation you are describing involves Alberta going into a deficit because of the need to borrow to make up for lost oil revenues. This is after Alta has cut massive amounts from health spending. There are not too many areas left for cost cutting in alberta.
In France and Germany, the funds are staring them in the face in the form cost cutting......massive subsidies, massive bureaucracy, etc. Low hanging fruit. But they refuse to do it because of the political backlash. Alberta bit the bullet. France and Germany won't do it.