Well I suppose it comes down to what you consider as being fiscally competent. The NDP oversaw a debt that went from ~10-11bn to ~$71bn. They had no possible way to pay that back, and in the face of credit downgrades they were unflinching in their spending. They didn’t cut public service at all, but continued to expand it. And, lest we want to forget and think they had no option, they did in fact have rising energy prices through the past two years of their term. The could’ve taken actions to reduce this deficit and S&P told them they should either cut spending and/or raise taxes.
And it’s kind of sadly amusing to remember Joe Ceci being warned a month ahead that the rating agencies were going to cut the credit rating and him denying it. Then, lo and behold the credit rating was knocked down two notches. That’s not political, it’s independent rating agencies with concrete actions. And just to reiterate, this is well after the oil price bottom in 2015…this is 2017 when the province was growing and leading growth in the country.
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