Oct 2015 Alberta Budget Discussion

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

The ndp goverment isn't really giving albertans anything more than the conservatives would of except a deeper debt.

If you think the AB PC was profligate, which they were, you haven't seen NDP giving out money quicker than people giving out Halloween candy. I cringed watching Joe Ceci's budget announcement, a 100 mill here and 200 mill there as if there's a money tree growing at his backyard.

And you have to be delusional to believe that Ceci can balance the book by 2019 or balancing the book is something he gives any credence to in his mind.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by darklord700

If you think the AB PC was profligate, which they were, you haven't seen NDP giving out money quicker than people giving out Halloween candy. I cringed watching Joe Ceci's budget announcement, a 100 mill here and 200 mill there as if there's a money tree growing at his backyard.

And you have to be delusional to believe that Ceci can balance the book by 2019 or balancing the book is something he gives any credence to in his mind.

I'm just taking them for their word even though they have'nt given me any good reason to. Personally do I believe they'll balance the books by 2019? Not a chance. If households ran their budgets like the ndp they would be bankrupt. Just a bad situation getting made worse.

Ndp supporters said look at the debt the conservatives are putting us in. The ndp is doing the exact same thing but making it higher.

[darklord700]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Ndp supporters said look at the debt the conservatives are putting us in. The ndp is doing the exact same thing but making it higher.

Exactly.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Fire of the Phoenix

Nurses go on mat leave or leave for other union approved reasons all the time. Can't just hire new people when the old ones are coming back in a few months. My mom's a nurse and the OT has been crazy for as long as I can remember. I don't think it's a matter of just hiring more people or they would just do that.

You would think they would be able to go off previous years to plan for future years and just hire the right amount but it's just not that simple. It's like the most unpredictable industry around because you're mostly only needed when bad stuff happens, and you can't predict that or have a legion of people on hand to deal with every little thing just to ensure no OT gets used. You have to stay if there's an emergency and there's no telling when that could happen. It's literally impossible to plan for. Even if they hired twice as many nurses, there would still be OT, it's just the way it is.

My Coworkers wife is a nurse , but she works what is called 0.6 time, or 24 hours per week.

Well she averages 40 hours a week because they are short staffed. Hello 16 hours of double time OT every week when in reality she should just be a full time worker.

[CaptainCrunch]

You know what I'm sick of, Political Parties that run on a platform that they can fix things, or they are the better alternative, or whatever.

And then they get into power and automatically fall on the whole, well its the previous parties fault, then continue to do the same thing or worse.

It happens all of the time.

"Oh snap, everything that happens over the next four years is someone else's fault, we'll just secretly keep doing what they were doing and hope that no one notices"

For once, I'd love to have a party come in, take a look at the books and say, we know that we promised this stuff, but looking at the books from the previous party we know that we can't deliver our campaign promises for a while, but what we want to focus on is fixing the current issues without driving our province through a fricken debt ceiling.

I would have a lot of respect for the NDP if they came in and said, holy crap, with the spending issues of the last government and the Oil pricing, we won't be able to spend nearly as much especially since we need to get our operations budget under control.

Ah who am kidding.

The common refrain is, well the last party spent like drunken idiots, tried to feather bed themselves and had no idea of the realities of life, so we'll continue down that path, we'll tell you that we'll balance the budget by 2019, but when that doesn't happen we'll blame the last government and leave this mess for the next government.

[stampsx2]

Originally Posted by Weitz

My Coworkers wife is a nurse , but she works what is called 0.6 time, or 24 hours per week.

Well she averages 40 hours a week because they are short staffed. Hello 16 hours of double time OT every week when in reality she should just be a full time worker.

Inefficiencies in the healthcare system. No accountability.

[ranchlandsselling]

Originally Posted by Weitz

My Coworkers wife is a nurse , but she works what is called 0.6 time, or 24 hours per week.

Well she averages 40 hours a week because they are short staffed. Hello 16 hours of double time OT every week when in reality she should just be a full time worker.

Are you sure they are "short staffed" or is it just that nurses like to milk the system so that they can get 16 hours of double overtime every week? In addition to that, they then have the freedom to take off on trips and vacations. I know quite a few nurses who do this.

[Fire of the Phoenix]

Originally Posted by Weitz

My Coworkers wife is a nurse , but she works what is called 0.6 time, or 24 hours per week.

Well she averages 40 hours a week because they are short staffed. Hello 16 hours of double time OT every week when in reality she should just be a full time worker.

Ya it's nuts. My mom eventually went down to casual/part time when she got older because she wanted to scale down. She still ended up working full time hours pretty much. She retired 6 months ago and couldn't be happier.

With your coworkers wife, I wonder if her classification is due to her seniority? The contract is one thing but reality is another type of thing.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Zevo

Really? Up until Glen Clark and Co. pulled thier shenanagins the province was all about the NDP. Since then not so much.

You mean besides the four decades of Social Credit rule (minus one term in the 70s) prior to the NDP, and then the essentially 15 years of Liberal rule since the NDP? The NDP represents a blip in BC politics.

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by rubecube

You mean besides the four decades of Social Credit rule (minus one term in the 70s) prior to the NDP, and then the essentially 15 years of Liberal rule since the NDP? The NDP represents a blip in BC politics.

Well, they stayed in power for 10 years when I moved here, so ya they had a firm grip on things, and being that the unions are a lot stronger here than in Alberta, people were very pro NDP in the 90's. Also my wifes a nurse and I'm in healthcare so all I hear is pro-NDP rhetoric.

When did you move to Victoria?

[username]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Inefficiencies in the healthcare system. No accountability.

One word: Unions.

[rubecube]

Originally Posted by Zevo

Well, they stayed in power for 10 years when I moved here, so ya they had a firm grip on things, and being that the unions are a lot stronger here than in Alberta, people were very pro NDP in the 90's. Also my wifes a nurse and I'm in healthcare so all I hear is pro-NDP rhetoric.

When did you move to Victoria?

Fair enough. I think I moved here in 2008.

[Zevo]

Originally Posted by rubecube

Fair enough. I think I moved here in 2008.

Ah, you missed the glory years.

[stampsx2]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Alberta's sustainability fund earn more yearly than we would be paying in interest for loans? So why is the ndp looking to spend it instead of taking a bigger loan?

[chemgear]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Alberta's sustainability fund earn more yearly than we would be paying in interest for loans? So why is the ndp looking to spend it instead of taking a bigger loan?

Thanks NDP.

[darklord700]

http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/11/02...-open-to-abuse
"Critics say NDP jobs plan may be open to abuse"

Business hire people because they believe the new hire can help them make more money or reduce costs. If the businesses increase hiring, they would have done so with or without this credit but they will gladly take them nonetheless.

I don't believe a job credit like this will entice business owners to create extra employment.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by darklord700

http://www.calgarysun.com/2015/11/02...-open-to-abuse
"Critics say NDP jobs plan may be open to abuse"

Business hire people because they believe the new hire can help them make more money or reduce costs. If the businesses increase hiring, they would have done so with or without this credit but they will gladly take them nonetheless.

I don't believe a job credit like this will entice business owners to create extra employment.

Lets see, we hire this person right?

Yup

And they give us $5000.00 right?

yup

and we pay this person lets say $30,000 right?

Yup

But we're currently in a hiring freeze because of low oil etc blah blah blah right?

yup

Yeah we don't need that $5000.00 that much.

[darklord700]

It's funny that Notley last week said the government can't help with Calgary's O&G job loss situation. Fair enough. But if this kind of job credit does work according to the NDP, wouldn't giving Calgary some special job creation credit help us too?

I am not saying this is what the government should do but it's just weird that Notley believes this job credit will really help create jobs. There will be no job loss or recession if some government credits can magically create jobs. But at the very least these job credits will help create some government jobs to process and approve the applications.

[Fuzz]

Originally Posted by stampsx2

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't Alberta's sustainability fund earn more yearly than we would be paying in interest for loans? So why is the ndp looking to spend it instead of taking a bigger loan?

Acording to this article, the NDP aren't the first to raid the cabinet:
http://www.edmontonsun.com/2014/12/1...il-prices-fall

The Contingency Fund is the successor to the Sustainability Fund created in 2003. The Stelmach government leaned heavily on the fund in order to minimize red ink. By early 2009, the PC government started draining the fund by $17 billion until it hit a low of roughly $3 billion under former premier Alison Redford. The fund only recovered to $5 billion earlier this year.

That was a year ago, couldn't find the current value. I suspect it was mostly gone by the time NDP took over anyway.

[Handsome B. Wonderful]

Originally Posted by darklord700

it's just weird that Notley believe this job credit will really help create jobs.

Welcome to NDP economics. They don't even make sense in theory, let alone real world application.