Mr. Speaker, today we heard the Finance Minister deliver his Budget Address. This address is a culmination of weeks of speculation and frustration on the part of the public, the potentially affected employees, their families and, yes, MLAs like myself.
I’ve been an MLA for 13 years. Even taking into account the changes in the budgeting process schedule in an election year, this path has been fraught with miscommunication, lack of consultation and missteps on the part of this government.
The business plan reviews we would normally conduct at standing committees in the fall instead turned into a three-month status quo budget to get us to the end of June.
We could have extended that interim appropriation until the fall, but we thought that one full year was too long to be in office without a budget reflecting the priorities of the 16th Assembly.
Even so, in the time that was available, Ministers and their departments should have been able to come up with something much better than what we have before us today.
Most budgets contain some good news, and that’s certainly all we heard today in the Budget Address. But this budget and the process by which it was arrived at is flawed to the point that I’m not optimistic that it can be salvaged. If the interaction with Regular Members informing this budget is any indication of how much respect our input will receive during consideration of these estimates, I’m not hopeful.
I’m not one to shy away from a good debate or a good fight about anything, but as Regular Members, as Mr. Bromley said, we only have the ability to recommend additions or approve reductions. Our opportunity to affect change to this budget at this stage is limited.
In a budget already filled with too many reductions, what could be accomplished by further reductions? We could end up with something that is even worse than what was presented here today.
I’m not looking forward to the debate, negotiations and dialogue about this budget over the next four weeks, because I’m in a battle with my hands tied.
Personally, I would rather see the next four weeks devoted to this government taking this budget back to the drawing board and bringing forward a budget that demonstrates respect for consensus government; demonstrates that this is the people’s government and that quality programs and services delivered to our residents is our first and foremost priority; demonstrates respect for our public service, because the management of the human resource issues and options in this budget are completely unacceptable; demonstrates meaningful analysis of the effects of the reductions; demonstrates that the priorities of the 16th Assembly are reflected
accurately; demonstrates that any reductions must be reasoned and not random; demonstrates that this government does not support centralization and privatization of government jobs and services; and demonstrates that the budget….