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Originally Posted by Slava
I was talking about 2008-2009?
I actually just read the Wildrose plan (I can't recall the official title) and they make some good points. (Hope you were sitting down for that). I'm not sure how the math works, because they still have comments about the "possibly billions" in savings from some of their actions, but there are some good points as well.
There is a certain naivete about it though. For example when they talk about the defined benefit vs. defined contribution pension plans. I happen to agree that this move should be made, but its just not that simple. If I were a union leader or negotiator there is almost nothing that would persuade me to advise my members to willingly make that move! I have no idea what other turmoil a move like this would cause either. How many people who work for the government now would bail and not go back as soon as the pension plans and such are gone and your wages are frozen for a couple of years? (How many people would stay at a company that did this?)
I also note that there are some pretty deep cuts that are outlined here. While its hard because I think that the PC's are off-track, I also think that our current education and healthcare has a lot of room for improvement. I'm not convinced that slashing their budgets, delaying new clinics and schools will help improve things there either.
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I don't know anything about the wildrose plan, and I'm not saying it's necessarily better. The report I linked to is from the Finance dep't of the Alberta Government. I try to only use official sources.
It should also be noted that 2008-2009 had nearly 12 Billion of resource revenue. This government claims they have a revenue problem that is out of their control. That is false, as the revenue that's out of their control is still huge, and they should plan better to live within it.
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2012-13 revenue is forecast to be the fifth-highest on record
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is a quote from the report I linked above. We have a significant deficit with near record revenues. Sounds like a problem of unsustainable spending to me.