Saskatchewan's Finance Minister 'Talking Nonsense!'
Saskatchewan's right wing provincial government is about to provide details on a massive operating deficit for this fiscal year. As a result of grossly overestimated revenues, excessive spending and rapid depletion of the surplus they inherited from the previous government, Saskatchewan's old Progressive Conservative masters (they call themselves the 'Saskatchewan Party' now), are back to their old tricks. Even small 'c' conservative business columnists are chastising the Brad Wall government for their fiscal game playing:
"If you believe Finance Minister Rod Gantefoer, Saskatchewan just had the fastest recession in history.
Asked by Saskatoon StarPhoenix legislative reporter James Wood earlier this week whether Saskatchewan was in a recession, Gantefoer responded: "No. Well, the country's in a recession, North America is probably in a recession ... While our positive growth is pretty minuscule, it's still positive. So technically we're not."
By Tuesday, Gantefoer was in full retreat: "By the end of the year, we will be in a recession," he told reporters.
By Thursday, Gantefoer had done a complete about-face and was back on the offensive. "Saskatchewan is not going into a recession, we're coming out of one," Gantefoer said in question period.
Let me get this straight.
In the space of a week, Saskatchewan went from being technically not in a recession, to being in a recession by year-end, to coming out of a recession. [...]
For Gantefoer to claim that Saskatchewan was "technically not in recession'' as late as this week is disingenuous, at best, and misleading, at worst.
Bruce Johnstone
Regina Leader-Post
Photo by Don Healy - courtesy Saskatoon Star Phoenix
See that this group of rotten Tory apples didn't fall far from "De-Vine"!
Posted by
Scott MacNeil |
11:59 am, November 14, 2009
LOL ;)
Posted by
leftdog |
12:38 pm, November 14, 2009
If right wingers didn't talk nonsense, they'd have nothing to say.
Posted by
TomCat |
1:54 pm, November 14, 2009
Tom, as a progressive American who endured 8 years of G.W. Bush ... you definitely speak with some authority on that subject!!! ;)
Posted by
leftdog |
4:27 pm, November 14, 2009
Hmmmm.... Where have we seen these games played before from the SaskParty Government???
Oh, ya, December 2007, "Shortly (and I really mean shortly) after been sworn in as the new Premier, Brad Wall claimed that Calvert and the NDP left the cupboard bare and that some belt tightening would have to be done. Wall claims that the “province’s books are not in good order, and that the future looks pretty stark.” Wall also would not rule out job cuts in the future when he was pressured by reporters."
They were disengenuous then, they are being disengenous now.
Posted by
sunnyside |
6:50 pm, November 14, 2009
Whaddaya expect? There has never been a fiscal conservative in any conservative party. Government always runs a deficit under conservative regimes, debt always grows, assets are sold off and the money used to mask the fiscal shortfalls, and in the end, we re-elect the NDP provincially and the Liberals federally to clean up the mess...then blame the people cleaning up for the pain involved, while those who made the mess go off and hide until the storm passes, or change their party name and deny they were involved in creating the mess. Sheesh!!!
We truly do need a Saskatchewan history course in our schools to acquaint students with the Devines and Walls of the world. It may not insure that crazy right-wingers are never elected, but those who vote for them will never be able to fall back on "I didn't know" when the you-know-what hits the fan...as it always does.
Tory times are tough times...
Posted by
Unknown |
8:05 am, November 16, 2009