Now what?
I give Riley credit, when every other NB Liberal apologist blogger went completely silent on this issue, he stuck in there and defended the dreaded government spin:
In a grand gesture this week at getting Ottawa's attention, the Premier hosted a major wine-and-dine party at the National Art gallery with over 200 prominent guests. Among them were cabinet ministers, senators, Native-New-Brunwick beaurocrats, and business leaders.Although, for the record, I think he's getting the Limousine Liberals' capital wining-and-dining party confused with actual results. But again, I give him an "E" for effort.
Here's the deal, the big problem with the New Brunswick government's [plan] to become self-sufficiency by 2025 (or whatever the date is?) is that the ethos behind the so-called plan is barried in a statist, government knows best mentality. By putting all your policy eggs in one basket wherein you gamble on the notion that 50 per cent of the project must be funded by federal money, it really can be an extreme letdown if the writing on the wall becomes clear that no special deals (or side deal) will be coming your way. That commitment really was the achilles heel of the self-sufficiency policy, study or project (or whatever they call the darn thing?).
Which is why I believe they backed away from their original 50/50 position on a side deal yesterday (the same deal Donald Savoie said is due to them because of what happened in Nova Scotia with the Atlantic Accord). I think even they now realize it just isn't feasible for a fiscally conservative federal government, whose party base is also [semi] anti-statist, to blindly hand over cash to Liberals without some solid policy work behind the plan in place (remember ad scam in Quebec?) Anyway, here's Graham's new position:
New Brunswick is no longer lobbying the federal government to contribute $500 million to a $1 billion superfund to help the province wean itself off equalization by 2026, Premier Shawn Graham confirmed Tuesday.
Instead, Graham is counting on the Harper government to flow money to the province through existing programs they are already committed to, such as twinning Route 1 from Saint John to St. Stephen as part of the Atlantic Gateway trade corridor.
Wow, if the above statement doesn't take the wind out of your self-sufficiency spinnaker, I don't know what will? At least 200 bureaucrats and politicians got some wine and cheese (paid by us) with the "Graham rejection" tour.
On a serious note, the situation that is now in from of us worries me folks. Mostly because if the Graham government is still hopeful of fullfilling their ambitious agenda of self-sufficiency by 2025 without any revenue streams coming in other than equalization and [higher] taxes collected from individuals and business, then they must be seriously considering putting the economic future of this province in jeoparty by building up huge deficits? Deficits the previous government attempted to keep under control.
In other words, with government spending inevitably increasing due to policy commitments (healthcare & self-sufficiency), it means this province will remain a destination that people and business will avoid like the plague as long as regressive property taxes, higher small business and personal taxes, further government dependency and continued corporate welfare remain on the government agenda. Translation: expect to be taxed to death.
I gotta tell ya, if you are a New Brunswicker living in any part of this province, the recent backtracking by Graham has to be worrisome, especially if you are one of the very few who realize that "flow money to the province through existing programs" really means more of the same.
8 Comments:
By putting 1 billion on the table in the first place, they ruled out other policy methods of reaching the self-sufficiency goal. Now that it is gone, the plan really is just a useless piece of paper paid for by taxpayers.
Do you mean the ONE "NB liberal apologist blogger"?
Leaving aside the rhetoric, and the foolish notions-I mean, Nova Scotia at least GOT their 'side deal', while New Brunswick has gotten nothing. So a lone blogger stating that an ineffectual Premier who 'doesn't rock the boat' doesnt' make a point, as they say, a wrong man can always find a friend.
However, I'm starting to see the ingenuity of these very small, not exactly democratic 'task forces' like the self sufficiency one. You float a crazy idea, see what sticks, and take credit for those, while dismissing the others as 'just recommendations'.
But that the feds are 'anti statist' is just TOO funny, in fact you've argued just the opposite many times. The reality is that New Brunswick will get exactly what it has always gotten-propped up.
As mentioned numerous times, NB does get investment, but most of it goes to the Irvings or to existing industries, the same as everywhere. Nobody put a gun to the province's head and told them to go deeper in debt to twin a small stretch of highway (how come we never hear about that?)
The 'partnership' garbage is so funny that only people talking about politics would actually take that seriously. Guess what? There is ALWAYS a 'partnership' in Canada, its called a federal government and a provincial government. They are, by necessity, 'partners'.
It's too bad at least bloggers wouldn't just cut through the BS. The province WANTED a blank cheque (who wouldn't?), and the feds have laughed at them (who wouldn't?)
The feds are telling them, like they tell every province, do your OWN damn work and then come talk to us. That's what they've ALWAYS done.
However, I wouldn't worry so much about 'deficits', after all, they balanced the budget while adding to debt this year. That's the new invisible tool-just add it to debt. I predict though that so long as the feds have so much money there is no real fear that the increases that Lord saw coming from the feds will slow down or stop, if anything as the feds get more money then more money will continue on to the province.
It SHOULD now be deemed the 'maybe' self-sufficiency by 2027? Not sure what it will be next year when they move the date ahead ANOTHER year?
Harper is treating the provinces like secondary citizens.
bill: can't say I disagree as I'm not all that warm to studying a problem. I really do see a commission, study or task force as a way to avoid moving forward.
See the latter part of this post by DC.
mikel: notice I said [semi] statist. There is a reason I added that word in front.
anon: you're right, the date does seem to change. I even heard a government advisor say that they people should not assume self-sufficiency in 20 years. Huh? Twenty years from now almost puts us at 2028. Hey, don't blame me, I didn't start these artificial deadlines.
kingston: he is trying to move away from a centralized approach to the federation giving more power to the provinces. How is that treating them like second class citizens?
Although, I will admit, the transfornation is moving along at an incremental pace. Translation: there are still signs of the old Liberal government in his government. But I think that has alot to do with the advisors in the PMO holding the government back, not to mention, they are still in a minority siyuation.
How exactly does the federal government exercise 'power' in New Brunswick? In what way does 'decentralization' need to occur?
Let's see, health and education are both completely under provincial jurisdiction and the feds virtually never tell the provinces what to do. In health care New Brunswick has even been 'allowed' to break the national health act and not provide abortions.
Natural resources have largely been centralized in the provinces and moreso the private sector. Really, the only areas the feds have control is where they need to, international trade, military, and somewhat in law and order.
So whatever actions you are seeing that are 'decentralizing' I'd really love to see printed here, because I haven't seen ANYTHING that makes this government look ANY different from the previous one-except perhaps in selecting a Senator from Alberta who was elected. But that has nothing to do with centralizing. Statist is as statist does.
I can't guess what's going to be in the next budget, but the reduction of federal spending in provincial jurisdiction was bandied about by Flaherty?
I do believe that knew federal programs can't be added without the consent of the province. Which rules out statist loophole programs like Millenium scholarship fund which was unilaterally imposed on the provinces who already administered their own student loan programs (speaking specifically in this case of Quebec).
Thanks for the shout-out. If you read my blog regularly, you'd note I am the furthest thing from a "Liberal apologist".
Shawn Graham is going about this task in a responsible manner. We're not going to twist anybody's arm to get a billion dollars. PLUS, everyone knows that bringing NB into the 21st century is going to take a LOT more than a simple billion dollar price tag.
You'll notice that Clerk of the PCO, Kevin Lynch is the chief negotiator for the gov't. That tells me that we have Harper's ear.
So no, I don't think a wine-and-cheese get together was a waste of time, I consider it a great rally instead.
I have it on good authority that a lot of discussions are going on between NB and the feds and these discussions are going to reap major benefits in the long term. A lot more than a simple 1B price tag.
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