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Of course there is room for cuts.

Sunday, October 4th, 2009

 I wonder what the Stelmach deficit will really total by the end of the fiscal year? At the rate that it is escalating, it is looking likely that we will be $10 billion in the red by the time the year is finished. Iris and Ed’s fiscal predictions have proven to be utterly worthless and off the mark by as much as $15 billion in a one year period. It is frightening to think of what these clowns will do to our province with a few more years to mismanage us.

 The voices of the status-quo apologists are dwindling as most people with any degree of fiscal common sense have migrated to the Wildrose Alliance Party. These people have learned that to try and repair the tired old Progressive Conservative machine is a lost cause.

 Still, there are a dogged few who try to make excuses for the freespending ways of the Stelmach government. It is sad to see them smugly state to critics “Well, where would you cut?” as if that is some sort of knockout blow dealt to critical comment. A better question is; where to begin?

 Virtually every department has had massive increases in expenditures despite Albertans seeing little indication of benefits from this spending. The reason to put it simply is that the spending has been directionless and money is being outright pissed away. Bureaucrats are raking in millions in bonuses from Ed Stelmach while displaying gross incompetence in the spending of hard-earned Albertan tax dollars. What incentive is there for these parasites to improve performance? Firing is one of the best things these people can think of happening to them considering the multi-million dollar golden handshakes that Ed likes to give to senior civil servants.

 Special Ed and others have trumpeted that we are in the midst of an infrastructure deficit. This is a sidelong (and rather sad) way to try and blame our fiscal shortcomings on the previous administration.

 Lets assume that this infrastructure is indeed critical. Does that mean that we can’t cut the spending on it? NO!

 A regular reader of this blog (an rare breed indeed) passed on a couple stories to me that really help demonstrate the efficiency being displayed in the construction of Alberta infrastructure. The contrast is striking and I don’t doubt that hundreds of other projects can be compared similarly.

 Wal-Mart announced a few months ago that they will be constructing a giant store in Calgary’s Southeast. The store will be 185,000 square feet and will be the largest of it’s kind in Calgary. The projected cost of this project is about $11 million dollars.

 Now recently, the province of Alberta and the city of Calgary proudly cut the ribbon on the opening of a new police station in the Ramsey district. The station is 36,000 square feet and cost $19 million to build.

 Now I do understand that there are different needs between these types of facilities but come on, look at that spread in costs. I don’t doubt that Wal-Mart will be installing top of the line security that will rival the police station along with administrative space. I am sure that there are many things that the retail facility will need that the police station would not.

 I see that Canadian Tire is building a store along with a Work Warehouse and other shops in Canmore Alberta. That project is projected to come in at around $11 million dollars. This is in one of the most expensive property areas with the most expensive labor in the province.

 There is plenty of room for cost-efficiency folks and we need not eschew much infrastructure in order to save money. The first step would be to investigate and find out why government funded projects cost twice or more  as much to construct as comparable ones in the private sector. Such an investigation would mean that senior civil servants, unions and contractors with a government relationship and sense of entitlement would likely get their backs up. Alas, our current government will never have the courage to take this on.

 We have all sorts of room for spending cuts people. What other departments are wasting money? Who else is bleeding the taxpayer?  We need people in the legislature with the knackers to ask these questions and demand answers.

 ht to Max for the heads up.

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Posted in Free Enterprise, Unions, taxes, waste | 1 Comment »

Gee, go figure. Iris is surprised.

Thursday, August 27th, 2009

 I am doing rather well in my predictions. I have to admit, one does not need to be a modern-day Nostradamus to have predicted that our gang of clowns governing the province would be in shock and running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to understand how they have spent us into a record and growing deficit. Ignoring advice from many quarters, the Progressive Conservative government has continued with unrestrained, untargeted and unsustainable spending after having castrated the main industry in the province with an ill-conceived and greed driven royalty gouge. The “rainy day” savings will quickly run dry and we can look forward to putting our grandchildren in debt soon.

 The cartoon in the Calgary Herald lays it out very well.

 The PC government has realized that they were rather dependent on the revenues from the industry that they so recently demonized and drove from the province. Revenues are now down on all fronts. From field and office workers who used to pay income taxes, to land-sale revenues, to corporate tax revenue, to municipal road use revenues and of course royalty revenues the government has seen a massive drop in them all since attacking the energy industry. Sure things were going to slow down in this recession anyway. It never needed to be this bad however.The energy industry came to a screeching halt in Alberta almost a year before the world economy dropped.  This is directly due to the actions of Stelmach.

 Special Ed made a short appearance the other day and muttered some incomprehensible excuses to try and soften the blow for the coming budget update. Ed has now sunken down and will likely remain well hidden until the Calgary by-election is finished. The PCs have at least realized that whenever their leader speaks, they drop another couple points in the polls.

 Despite all of these hard lessons for Albertans, the PC government still appears to have not learned a thing. Iris Evens looks dejected and clearly realizes that she has blown it. Still, there was no uttering of terms such as spending restraint or trying to encourage business to come back to Alberta. From all appearances the PC government looks like they intend to continue with massive spending and praying for a miracle.

 I will make another prediction. Iris Evans is praying that natural gas will suddenly jump in price. Sorry Iris, hoping for it to happen will not make it happen. In the next quarter we will see yet another jump in the deficit. The world is in a slowdown and there is a glut of natural gas (not to mention energy companies don’t want to come back to Alberta right now).

 In a dark-humour sort of way, I am tempted to start a pool for how long it will take and how many budget updates we will see before the sustainability fund is completely gone. It should not be too long.

 The belt-tightening Albertan’s did through the 90s was a good thing. We eliminated our debt and saw a sustained boom afterwards. Ed Stelmach has managed to eliminate all of those benefits in a few short years in power. I shudder to think what he may do with three more years in power.

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Posted in taxes, waste | 5 Comments »

Hapless Ed is sure to express surprise again.

Monday, August 24th, 2009

 stelmach03_103961artw

 Should Premier Eddie finally make an appearance to address the gross increase in our provincial deficit, I wonder which adjective he will use to describe this? I think in most Stelmach releases he has used all of these words so he must be familiar with them: unexpected, unanticipated, unpredicted, unforeseen, unheralded or perhaps he should simply go to unreal.

 The Herald is reporting on the frightening consequence of horrific fiscal management here.

 It is little wonder that Tom Olsen responds with blasts of obscenities when reporters dare ask direct questions of Stelmach. Being Stelmach’s handler must be one of the most challenging jobs on the planet. How much can you expose the man to the public when all he can do is express astonishment that yet another of his initiatives or predictions have blown up in his face? It must be disheartening in knowing that the best possible strategy to be taken in a by-election is to hide your leader as deeply as you can.

 Will Special Ed shed his cloak of invisibility and address the looming quarterly fiscal update? What marble-mouthed excuses will be used to try and justify the latest example of the Stelmach government’s gross fiscal mismanagement?

 Hmm let’s see, in one year Eddie has taken an $8 billion dollar surplus and turned it into what is looking like an $8 billion deficit. There are still three more quarters in this fiscal year for Ed to drive our grandchildren further into debt and a sadly don’t doubt he will. I wish I could express such surprise as Ed now and then.

 How much longer can we tolerate a premier that has not made a successful move since assuming power? What sort of confidence can we have in our provincial leadership when the leader can do nothing but express shock that his management has been a disaster?

 What is shocking about our situation? Ed massively increased spending and drove our primary industry from the province. A person with a Grade 3 education can figure out the math on that one and see that poverty is sure to follow. Perhaps the reason that Eddie has been in hiding lately is that he is taking some sort of remedial classes somewhere (I sure hope so).

 Well, I have said it before and I will say it again; SEND ED A MESSAGE!!

 Calgary Glenmore has the opportunity and expect that they will indeed send a message. The rest of the province should get to work to make that message final.

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Posted in taxes, waste | 7 Comments »

As much as they can get away with.

Thursday, July 9th, 2009

 Well, this is what an ingrained sense of entitlement gets us. Calgary’s city council is expensing every little thing that they may get away with. These Aldermen make almost $100,000 per year yet they still feel compelled to try to stick as many expenses as possible on the backs of the taxpayers no matter how petty. Keep in mind that these Aldermen are already provided with $145,385 annually to cover travel, business expenses and assistants.

 Here are some of the petty expenses and the sad excuses the aldermen made for them.

Ald. Andre Chabot expensed $79 for a golf lesson. He said:

“It’s not something I expect to do on a regular basis, but I’m not a golfer, right? When I do get a chance to go out and golf with folks, I don’t want to look too foolish”

 Trust me Chabot, you are looking extremely foolish. Who in their right mind would consider golf lessons to be legitimate expenses to ding taxpayers with?

$4,014 was billed to the taxpayers by aldermen for drycleaning. Excuses below:

Alderman Gord Lowe who billed $655 for drycleaning: “In my perspective, it’s allowed because we do have a public appearance, a public presence, and we have to maintain it.”

 Sorry Lowe, laundry is an expense that everybody has public presence or not.

 Alderman Ric McIver who billed $450 for drycleaning: “In a city of a million people, I’m not sure people want their representatives looking shabby”

 Oh BS Ric. In a 7-11 of perhaps a 12 people they do not want their representatives looking shabby, thus they assure that their employees wash their clothing. I really expected better from you.

 Downtown Calgary has thousands and thousands of employees who are expected to be well dressed for their jobs and that requires drycleaning at times. The employees pay that expense themselves and understood that when taking on the employment.

 Extreme leftist Alderman Brian Pincott jumps into the mix of course. He got more creative in his personal expensing to the taxpayers than the others. Pincott expensed $87 to get a passport for example.

 Pincott sniveled: “I have, on a point of principle, not travelled to the United States and I never before had a passport in my life. If it weren’t for this job, I would never travel to the United States.”

 Kiss my ass Pincott. I don’t care about your weird socialist points of principle. People pay for their own damned passports. It does speak volumes about your ideology however in that you hold the American people in such contempt yet have never even been there. That is right up with religious leaders condemning movies that they have not watched.

Pincott spent $76.19 on One Yellow Rabbit’s High Performance Rodeo, a popular local theatre production. I am afraid that I don’t even have any sad excuse to quote out of Pincott on this one. Pincott feels that the taxpayer should pay to keep him entertained. Repugnant.

Pincott is not alone however. Linda-Fox-Mellway expensed $347.62 so her kids could go see Metallica. Fox-Mellway did repay that one. She claims that it was a mistaken credit card. I claim that she likely simply had it disallowed. It really is not that difficult to tell one credit card from another. Fox-Mellway also expensed $207 to have a shirt alteration done. She has since vowed to pay that back. Funny how their tune changes when they are caught.

 Joe Ceci expensed $156.03 to go to Theater Calgary which he paid back after his fingers were spotted in the taxpayer cookie-jar.

 Golf tournaments are a large part of the expenses of council apparently. Stevenson, Jones, Joe Connelly, Chabot and McIver all hit the taxpayer to attend tournaments. These Aldermen are not attending these tournaments in order to promote the city, they are attending in order to promote themselves. One would expect that these guys would know the difference.

Joe Connelly’s statement on billing tournaments to taxpayers: “It’s an allowable expense and I don’t feel like I have to defend it”

 Ahh that brings back memories of  Dingwall saying he was entitled to his entitlements. Yes you do have to defend it you dolt!!! It is not your money to spend! Just because it is allowable does not mean that it is right.

Connelly spent $383.25 for tickets to see Jordan’s Queen Noor, who spoke in April 2008 about global issues and the conflicts between East and West. Well, yeah I can see how many issues from Jordan can be used to learn from and better our city.

 Finally my favorite Druh Farrell had to jump into the mix of course. One of her gems was  billing taxpayers $89.39 for five copies of “Fluoride Deception”, a conspiracy theory book that apparently is better when one gets multiple copies. Druh in her typical arrogance did not even try to defend her using taxpayer money to fund her reading budget.

 Alderman Ray Jones is in charge of determining what can be expensed and what can’t be. He would not specify, but he has declined many expenses. I can’t imagine how stupid these ones must have been.

 Yes, these are not huge dollar numbers. The principle is critical however. These people are tasked with managing a city of over a million people and billions of dollars. The regard that our aldermen show for our money is reflected in what they expense to us and sadly and predictably they hold us and our funds in low regard.

 These little expenses are only what we can see. Much spending is hidden and mired in the caverns of city hall. The need for a municipal auditor general is more acute than ever and I hope Stelmach gets around to doing that soon. A private members Bill went before our legislature last winter calling for such an auditor. The bill has now been referred to a standing committee.  

 Calgary desperately needs an independent audit before the next municipal election.

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Ed gets one right.

Tuesday, July 7th, 2009

 Though I think it is more due to his having drained the provincial coffers dry with idiotic spending than any sort of visionary brilliance, Stelmach is right to pretty much drop the concept of the high-speed train between Calgary and Edmonton into the lap of the private sector.

 Let’s face it, a bullet-train between Edmonton and Calgary is simply an unviable pie-in-the-sky concept that is best left to people’s imagination. Rest assured, if there was really any need for such as project the private sector would already be racing to get a piece of this.

 Already too much money has been spent in studying the viability of this project. The studies continually find that a high-speed train would cost a fortune and the utilization would not justify the project. In one of the sudies conducted in 2004, it was found that only 3% of Albertans who travel highway 2 would consider parking their cars and taking a high-speed train. Those who take the bus or fly are at 35% and 46% in consideration. This will depend on ticket price of course which likely would be huge.

 So, the only way this train would happen would be with billions and billions of taxpayer’s dollars. In order to get people to ride, taxpayers would likely have to subsidize the tickets. Even with all of that, we would only see a 3% drop in traffic on highway 2 where the problem is. What we may see however is a strong blow to the successful bus and airlines who provide transportation between Edmonton and Calgary. Come to think of it, it is surprising that Stelmach would pass up such an opportunity to beat on successful private companies. He does seem to enjoy doing such.

 Part of the reason that Eddie would not like to initiate such a vanity project is the timeline. In Alberta we can’t even get a powerline approved accross the province. Can you imagine how long it would take to expropriate the land required for a bullet-train? How many impact studies? How many court challenges? Even if we began today, we would be lucky to see the train moving for decades. Eddie will want a more immediate legacy project.

 The drive between Edmonton and Calgary is only three hours. Depending on the vehicle, one can expect to spend about $50 in fuel going both ways. Taking a bullet-train would cost at least that much going one way. While the train trip would only take one hour, the rider will then have to either get a taxi, rent a car or take a bus to wherever they are going. Lets not forget that Calgary will doubtless gouge the riders for parking at the station. Is it really a wonder why so few people would actually use this train?

 It is past time to put this concept on the shelf forever. If some strange and wealth philanthropist wants to spend their dollars to build this thing then by all means. Alberta would be better served by expanding the capacity of highway 2. That is realistic in scope and that is where the need is.

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Posted in Environmentalism, Free Enterprise, taxes | 2 Comments »

Something is very wrong.

Monday, April 20th, 2009

 Last week while at a local convenience store, I observed a young man demonstrating the telltale signs of being homeless. His hair and beard were overgrown and unkempt and his clothing was filthy. He appeared to be in his 20s and he got in line behind me. The young man was very polite at the counter as he deposited a handful of mixed change in order to purchase a cigar. What was most striking though was that when this man spoke it became quite obvious that this man was suffering from a developmental disability.

 About a month ago I had the opportunity to be taken on a tour of  The Vocational and Rehabilitation Research Institute by a friend. This is a non-profit institute that works in affiliation with the University of Calgary and has been doing so since 1969. This institute works with people with disabilities and helps them in a community support sort of role. The facility boasts a bottle depot and a contract with the Calgary Airport that employs people with disabilities. There are also some great recreational and rehabilitation facilities provided as well as their research facilities.

 I am sure that my description of the facility is doing it terrible justice so I do suggest that people click on the link to it in order to learn more about it. What I was most impressed with was that the people there are dedicated to trying to find rational and successful approaches to helping people with disabilities in our community.

 What I was not impressed with was the condition of the facility itself. While the functional areas were as well maintained as possible by staff with limited resources, entire sections were completely shut down. The building is getting old and they simply can’t afford the maintenance on sections of it. Old dorm rooms are now being used as offices and I saw three desks jammed into what obviously served as an individual dorm rooms for patients. The floors above that level were completely closed as was what used to be a cafeteria.

 Right-of-center people are often referred to as uncaring ogres and individualists to the point of not caring for anybody aside from themselves. In reality, most conservative-minded people live by the principle that we should take care of those who can’t take care of themselves as opposed to those who won’t take care of themselves.

 It should go without question that many people with mental disabilities and disorders fall into that category of not being able to take care of themselves. The degree of need varies from some limited community support to full institutional care.

 So why the hell is this realm of government programming so chronically underfunded?

 Crime and homelessness are constantly issues that people are concerned about. Unfortunately the solution always appears to be blind spending. For a person with a mental disability, affordable housing is not going to be of aid. New expensive downtown public washrooms will not help these people nor will expansion of homeless shelters. What is required are programs suited to helping these people based on the unique challenges that they face.

 Sadly, facilities such as the The Vocational and Rehabilitation Research Institute do not provide for the photo-op ribbon cutting ceremonies that new public toilets and expansions of homeless shelters provide. Such help for people is complicated and not romantic thus gets ignored by politicians.

 Decades ago a misguided initiative of deinstitutionalization took off in general public policy. It was considered inhumane that some people be kept in institutions for life and many people have been tossed in the streets due to this. Many of those people never should have been discharged and many of these people are the ones we see covered in rags under our bridges. The number of beds in mental health facilities in Canada are now a fraction of what they used to be. That statistic is not a victory, it means that thousands of people were put out on the streets that never had the life-skills required in order to make it on their own.

 I am not fond of the NDP. They are far to the other side of the ideological spectrum from myself. Credit must be given to the Alberta NDP today though for their persistence in obtaining and exposing a damning report of the Progressive Conservative’s treatment of mental health needs in Alberta.

 As is all too common with our provincial government, they have acted very strongly to suppress information that they determine to be detrimental to the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta. A report entitled “Beyond Beds…to Balanced Care Mental Health” was commissioned and presented to Alberta Health and Wellness and the Alberta Mental Health Board in 2007 and was approved by the Steering Committee on Mental Health.

 The report then disappeared.

 Alberta Health and Wellness refused an access to information request by the NDP to see the report. Albertans paid for this report, why the hell can’t we see it? It took a leak (somebody, somewhere has a conscience) for the NDP to obtain the report.

 It is easy to see why the Progressive Conservatives wanted to hide that report. The report is very damning of the government and their complete inaction on mental health issues. It shows that Alberta has four times fewer mental health beds than the national average. The national average is too damn low as it is.

 Rather than act on shortcomings, our government works to hide them. The Stelmach government does not care about our most vulnerable in society, they simply want to remain in power.

 While on their decade long spending spree, the PC government has more than doubled provincial spending. While pissing away our tax-dollars to who knows where, the PC government was also starving our mental health programs to the point where Alberta is the shame of the country. How do we spend far more per-capita in Alberta than any other province yet have the least amount of mental health beds? What are the priorities of our government?

 It is past time to do more than pay lip-service to crime and homelessness in Alberta. How much improvement would we see in these areas if we invested in helping people with mental challenges instead of working to hide them? We will never know the answer to that as long as Ed Stelmach remains in power.

 Keep these thoughts in mind every time you see some poor soul dressed in rags while pushing a shopping cart and talking to themselves.

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The Canadian Taxpayers Federation are “Goofballs”

Wednesday, April 15th, 2009

 At least according to the President of Alberta’s Treasury Board; Lloyd Snelgrove.

 Today I engaged in one of my more masochistic activities and watched question period in the Alberta Legislature. I was watching in vain hope of seeing some critical discussion of the record deficit budget that Special Ed Stelmach has dumped on Albertans. Sadly I was in for the usual disappointment. All I heard was repeated yelping from both the Liberals and the NDP using the words “Americanized” and howling about the deregistration of some health services.

 None of these fools seem to realize that it is prolonged overspending that has led to seeking ways to cutting services today.

 It is frightening seeing where discussion is in the legislature today. The Liberals swung deeply into left-wing territory with their election of  David Swann as their leader and the NDP has always dwelled in the land of Marxism. Both of those parties are thrilled with the deficit and would eagerly make it larger should they ever get the opportunity.

 Unfortunately the only voices calling for fiscal restraint and responsibility in Alberta are outside of the legislature. The Wildrose Alliance Party has been making great strides and growth but it will be some time before the party has the chance to gain a seat in the legislature. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has been very effective in promoting a common sense approach to spending but our government dismisses them as goofballs.

 Snelgrove, had you listened to the calls for fiscal restraint that those “goofballs” had been making in the last decade you would not be sitting in the legislature looking like an idiot for being part of the government that took Alberta from a projected $9 billion surplus to a record deficit in less than a year.

 It is critical that we get voices in Alberta’s legislature promoting fiscal sanity. As things stand now, we have parties that stand; center-left, left and far left. With a few more years like this, we will be lucky if our great great grandchildren will be able to pay off the accumulated debt. The Wildrose Alliance Party is the only party promoting fiscal common sense and we need to get their members into the legislature ASAP. Lets hope for some by-elections at least as Ed Stelmach will not want to face the electorate any time soon.

 The Canadian Taxpayers Federation has a blog here with some great postings.

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Some more on Iris Evans’ “Good news budget”.

Sunday, April 12th, 2009

 It has been hard on the stomach watching our irresponsible provincial government officials patting themselves on the back due to their being able to reduce their spending increase to a mere 3.7% this year. Remember, these people have not stopped increasing spending, only the rate at which they will increase it. They have done this masterful feat by running a potential $7 billion dollar deficit and raising taxes (property owners are taking it yet again). The last decade of double digit spending increases has given the government a rather heavy addiction to our money.

 Miring through the budget documents is a painful exercise and the government works as hard as possible to find out exactly what they are spending all of our money on.

 The Executive Council is one department that seems to have been spared the savages of spending restraint. The Executive Council is the premier’s office of course. Bundled in with the Executive Council is the Public Affairs department that many fondly refer to as the premier’s ministry of truth.

 Last year the Executive Council got a funding increase of 27%. In light of our tighter times, they have limited the raise in funding this year to a paltry 20%.

 You see, in the eyes of Ed Stelmach it is much more important to convince Albertans that government is doing a good job as opposed to actually doing a good job. The Ministry of Truth employs 118 full time little monkeys who are tasked with producing pretty flyers, advertisements, press releases and lacklustre blogs that blow sunshine up the collective asses of Albertans.

 It is not hard to see why the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta is always rolling in money. The party needs not spend any of their own money on advertisers. The Public Affairs department spends almost $15 million per year telling Albertans why the Progressive Conservatives are heaven sent.

 With this tax-funded propaganda machine working around the clock, we can see part of why it is difficult to dislodge a government that has been in power for almost 40 years.

 Special Ed clearly sees this importance as well. Why else would he keep pumping these massive spending increases into that department in these times of supposed government restraint?

ministry_of_truth

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Calgary Stampede causes outrage in the East!

Thursday, April 9th, 2009

 The “stimulus” binge continues. The trend of punishing successful companies through taxation and rewarding the incompetent through bailouts is frightening to say the least.

 I see the shotgun approach of blasting tax dollars across the nation has led to the grave error of some of those dollars ending up in Calgary. Suddenly we see Central Canadians outraged with federal waste of tax dollars.

 It appears that the Calgary Stampede is going to receive stimulus bucks. Don’t get me wrong, I think it is a joke that the Stampede is getting a federal subsidy. That annual event is just fine and throwing tax dollars at it is simply a waste of money.

 What I find striking in this issue is the hypocritical outrage displayed by Eastern commenters in this article. While Central Canadians screech and demand that Bombardier, GMC and Pravda (CBC) be constant recipients of the fruits of the productive, it is inexcusable that a Calgary event get a few bucks in any circumstance.

 Alberta is the producer for the Canadian moocher. We must never forget that role and the attitude from Central Canadians demonstrates this. The tens of billions that Alberta pours into confederation with no return on investment are immediately lost when a few bucks manage to drift back West.

Here are some of  the comments:

The Centrist from Canada writes: Another sponsorship scandal in the making. This stampede is profitable. Why is the government supporting it instead of the CBC?

Catherine Wilkie from Canada writes: “Our sector is no less deserving [of support] … than the automotive industry,” Mr. Jones said, referring to the fact Ottawa has advanced big loans to ailing auto makers.’
Bone dumb statement.

Rusty Waters from Canada writes: The government is on a crazy spending spree. Future generations will be in debt up to their ears. Where is Iggy?

barb johnston from Canada writes: So, how is this going to help these festivals, who have already booked everything and set their schedules far in advance? Better to use the $100 million to help the 300 000 people who have lost their jobs this year. I don’t think the majority of the 1.3 million jobless who are ineligible for EI are going to think that the Stampede was a better use of tax dollars than reforming the EI system.

Joe Citizen from EVERYTOWN, Canada writes: FOLLOW THE MONEY. I am sure that this is just one example of how HARPER is using STIMULUS MONEY to pad the pockets of his pals.
HARPER is nothing more than a pathetic corrupt incompetent.
How can anyone really be surprised that he would pull off such a stunt. He is probably going to prop-up bankrupt his favourite right-wing propaganda machine CANWEST as well.
This guy is capable of anything. Canada has never seen such a degree of corruption at the federal level. He has turned Canada into BANANA REPUBLIC NORTH.

Anthony Bfrom Maritimes, Canada writes: Why would Harper need to give a “stimulus package” to one of the most successful events in the country? Oh right, I get it …..
Stevie = Calgary riding = election = campaign coffers.

Thomas Harris from London, Canada writes: Harpers gone mad! Come the summer and fall theres going to be a half million people unemployed in Canada alone and millions more throughout the USA…Who the hell is going to have the money to travel and visit these festivals?, Throwing money at these festivals is idiocy to say the least, they already are money makers, thats why they continue year in and year out! Who needs another dozen chuckwagon races ran so some more Horses can die at the hands of some besottened bloated nosed cowboys…Stevie, you’ve lost it pal, theres no buying it back, look in the mirror and realize your only making a fool of yourself now. Do the right thing for yourself and your country and resign… and take off that atrocious toupee already!

Disgusted Canadian from Canada writes: If this a thriving event, why does it need that much money. 100 million is alot of Money and there are more important places to put this money, anywheere but a dam stampede, Stop this carnage now. It looks like another leech is borne. Well, actually, it,s been around along time only now it’s gettin brazen and has more gaul

Honesty is the best Policy from Canada writes:
The sponsorship scheme is back!
This time the conservatives get theirs

mike sty the Coalition Centrist from Canada writes:
Sponsorship II………..the CONs way

 

 By the way, the indignant Easterners keep referencing 100 million. That is the cost of the entire program, the Stampede is only getting a tiny fraction of that. Why let facts get in the way of Western bashing though eh?

 There are many many more comments along the same line. Look at the outrage. These people who are dead silent when billions and billions are poured into Eastern industries, yet immediately they become outraged fiscal conservatives when it is discovered that a few thousand dollars are ending up in Calgary. The hypocrisy is breathtaking but it is not new or surprising.

 The flow of funding is always supposed to go out of Alberta. Never shall there be a dime flowing back in.

 There are only so many things we can do in this circumstance. What this attitude does demonstrate though is the need to build the firewall around our province. Federal efforts are a waste of time. Alberta can only be protected from within. The Alberta Agenda is an excellent beginning. Harper wrote it, Klein rejected it and Stelmach paid lipservice to it. It is now time to implement it.

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Posted in Free Enterprise, taxes, waste | 1 Comment »

Trying to polish a turd.

Wednesday, April 8th, 2009

 Yes I think the saying about the futility of polishing a turd is quite appropriate as we see Iris Evans somehow managing to table a record deficit budget and telling us it is “a good news story”. Geeze Evans, I shudder to think what you would consider a bad news story. In light of the Progressive Conservative’s astoundingly terrible fiscal management, I suspect that Evans will have to disclose a bad news budget within a year.

 I had the opportunity to go to the legislature and watch this travesty of a budget in person yesterday. Rest assured, the turd looks no more shiny when observed in person.

 The first order of business in the legislature was to sheepishly table a new version of the “fiscal responsibility act”. The reason for this of course is that the current budget is illegal. Sadly, when government breaks the law, they simply re-write the law. Sheepish is really not enough, the members of the Progressive Conservative government should all hang their heads in shame.

 The PCs are trying to present this as a budget of restraint. They have reduced the increased spending to match that of population growth plus inflation. That spending model is what fiscally wise people have been telling government to follow for over a decade. Sadly Special Ed is a decade late in figuring it out. Last summer we were projecting a surplus of almost $9 billion. In less than a year we are facing going almost $5 billion into the hole.

 The government is patting itself on the back for the fiscal restraint being shown. Reducing an increase is not an example of fiscal restraint, reducing spending is!

irisa

 Yes Evans is gazing into a crystal ball. You see, part of the budget is pure speculation. While the government is already admitting that they are spending $4.7 billion more this year than they are earning, they are sort of quiet about there being another $2.2 billion in revenue required to make their spending commitments. Essentially the government is praying that oil will massively spike in price in the next few months. If this spike does not occur, the real deficit is close to $7 billion.

 How much faith can we have in the prognostication powers of the government? Well considering the idiots were off on their projected revenue by over $10 billion over a period of some eight months or so, I must say that I am not terribly confident.

 The issue is not too complex. Our problem is not a sagging world economy or low commodity prices (though that does not help), our problem is that the government has been spending money like drunken sailors for over a decade.

reduced

 

 It does not take an economist to look at the above image and realize that Alberta has been on a collision course with deficit for years. Many voices from the Taxpayers Federation to the Fraser Institute to the Canadian Federation for Independent Business have been pointing this trend out to Stelmach for years. Stelmach blindly and idiotically ignored those voices and continued to piss away the hardearned tax-dollars of Albertans.

 How must it feel for those PC MLAs who sat in the legislature in the 90s? Those MLAs who endured the complaints and pressures to spend as Alberta tightened her belt and ended deficit financing? How does it feel to go so swiftly and deeply back into deficit after all that work guys? I watched the PC seals in the legislature pounding their desks in applause as Evans tabled that document which will place the burden of payment on our children. Can you guys really sleep at night? Have you any shred of principle left?

 This is the sad outcome of a government that has been in power for almost 40 years. There is no principle, there is no vision. The government exists for the Progressive Conservative Party’s interests. The interests of Albertans were discarded years ago. There will be no healing for this sick administration. They are entrenched, visionless and parasitic. The government takes no path aside from what they view as the path of least resistance. In cowardice they have bent to every spending demand and we now are all paying the price.

 Alberta needs to sweep this lost government from the legislature. We are prone to doing that every few decades. It is clear that such a housecleaning is more than in order now.

 The Wildrose Alliance Party is promoting fiscal responsibility and is wisely planning for Alberta’s future. Meetings are being held across the province and growth in the party is unprecedented. Despite the fast growth of the WAP, it will still be a tough and uphill battle to unseat a government that feels they are in power by divine right. It cannot be stressed enough how much Albertan’s need to shed their traditional apathy and to get involved. People need to work to make change. The campaign for election 2012 must begin now if we are to make change in Alberta. Don’t wait for somebody else to do it, they will not.

 If things are left as they are, we will be leaving a sad and shameful legacy to future generations in this province. To have so much potential wasted is intolerable.

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