I think that the Alberta PC party has just cut it’s own throat. I don’t think that the Alberta voter is dumb enough to fall for the story that Morton has been telling. Now, we do have an alternative party, and history has shown that the Alberta taxpayer is likely to take advantage of that option.

Past history has also shown that a 16% increase in the Health Care budget will simply trigger a demand for a 20% pay increase, across the board in the Health Care industry. Nobody actually wins that battle.

It is a no win situation. More debt means higher taxes. Higher taxes means fewer companies that will run their operations here. Fewer companies operating means fewer people employed, and so on. This formula applies to all levels of government. Too bad the politicians can’t seem to figure it out.

Giving money and power to politicians is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.

The problem that the Alberta government has, and so many other governments have, is that they institute social programs when times are good, and when revenues decline and they can no longer afford them, it is dificult to curtail or cancel the programs. Everyone wants to see the budget balanced but not at the cost of eliminating any of their “entitlements”.
Unfortunately, a lot of these programs such as health care and pensions were funded out of current account rather than treating them as an insurance policy and investing funds at the start of the program to cover the expenses when they start to come due as the population ages.
It will be interesting to see how the Wildrose Alliance proposes to control spending when they issue their “shadow” budget.

Speaking of rethinking basics, You need to rethink your own mantra.
If you want to vehemently oppose any increase in salaries, fine, but once you harangue them about a pay cut, you will be tuned out, and the rest of your message ignored. Simple psychology.

You need a new message

This “budget” simply indicates that the government does not know how, or want, to control its out-of-control spending. We have the highest cost health and education systems in Canada. The government cannot control a significant part of its revenue stream, but they can control spending. The difference which indicates a surplus or deficit is meaningless.
I continue to be extremely upset by the government having “bought” five years of peace with the teachers’ union. The next time around, this government must demand a rollback of salaries (including administration). How, you might ask? Get a reading of salaries across the country and use that as a base.

stelmach is busy starting the wild rose party as mulroony was the origiater of the reform party . good man !!!

Alberta budget: a tragic lack of leadership.

While I am no fan of the Alberta government and plan to vote Wild Rose for other reasons, and while I generally agree with the positions taken by the NC I find myself not persuaded the government is wrong here. Rightly or wrongly Alberta has become dependent on oil and gas revenues to meet government expenditures, it’s why for instance we don’t (yet) have a provincial sales tax. Recognizing that such dependency would put tax revenues in a vulnerable position the government some years ago set up a contingency fund specifically to aid in getting through difficult times such as what we are experiencing now. Health expenditures (to take an example) are not just going up to meet wage increases but because of the huge increase in demand for health services by a burgeoning and aging population and because our health infrastructure was so badly neglected during the Klein years. Even with proposed increases Alberta will still fail to fulfill its ’sacred’ trust to Albertan to provide adequate and appropriate health care. Do we really want to reverse ourselves again and send doctors and nurses packing to other provinces or to the U.S. - as Klein did in his time. I say No! It would be the height of irresponsibility to gut the health care system for the sake of immediate fiscal balance, particuliarly so when improved oil and gas revenues in the future are not just likely but practically certain.

What has happened to Canada? Well let me tell you what has happened.The free market system operates on supply and demand. The value of goods and services are controlled by whoever cuts the cheque.The person that is paying is subject to supply and competition.So in essence we are all slaves when we are working and Kings/Queens when we are spending.Etiquette in the service industry is bountiful.
The Governments role is to manage the system in the most efficient way possible. However the problem comes into play when Government has better working conditions and pay scales then the private sector.People begin to lobby people of influence for civil service jobs. As time goes on the civil service family begins to grow at such a rate that tax revenue alone cannot support them.Over regulation, which is basically the shrinking of our freedom comes into play.But on the other hand it produces fault. Fault in turn produces fines. Fines in turn become a hidden tax for Government, necessary to support the large civil service family. The excess taxation pushes the private sector worker closer to poverty. So at the end of the game we have a non unionized private sector and a powerful unionized civil service. The end result is a privileged citizen and an unprivileged citizen. It can be labelled a socialist Government. More freedom through less Government will only happen when we expose the surpluses of labour in Transportation,Law,Education, Utilities and all the various sectors of Government and start downsizing the Government family. PROTECT YOUR FREEDOM vote CONSERVATIVE.

There are many of us who have already decided that this government led by this leader has been a failure from day one. While I agree that short-changing Alberta Health in the immediate future is not the answer to budget problems, the government (political administration) has failed due to their own decisions and made worse by the economic recession. They keep saying that it is not their fault because the world has had the worse downturn since 1929. I agree to a point but the government has made 2 key decisions that are making things worse:

Increased royalties for oil & gas without realizing how they would affect the fossil fuel industry. This shows a general lack of understanding of how business operates which is fundamental to being able to govern.

The government has eliminated the number of regional health boards from nine to one. This had resulted in increased wait times by funnelling all decisions through one source. As an example that not everyone will remember: In the days when a carburetor was used in cars, it was well known that a four-barrel carburetor generated more power than a two-barrel or one-barrel carburetor because the four-barrel model was able to send more air-fuel mixture to the engine. What the Alberta government has down is to replace the four-barrel carburetor with a one-barrel carburetor which has now severely restricted air-fuel to the engine. The result has been delays due to the added administration having to be made by a single body instead of in the local areas. The government did this because they wanted to eliminate the cost of 9 regional health board CEOs but in the process lost the efficiency of local decision making.

Both these decisions (royalties and health boards) have put the government in its current predicament. They cannot blame the recession because our provincial neighbours are not having the same problems. So it must be Ed’s fault. But this budget is just the latest confirmation of the incompetence of this administration.

Why complain as a group of one about your goverment,join the NCC.As 1vote
you have no voice, in centralized

Government, after you?, elect it. Wake up! Be proactive and join the NCC. We are the voice for your cry of correct, Government, Unions education, health care and social awarness.
every
province
the elected government needs our grass roots to grow in the light, of providing for all citzens