Editor:
Kevin Page, parliamentary budget officer, has told us Canada's provinces are in long-term fiscal trouble.
The taxpayers of P.E.I. rely on our government of the day to make prudent decisions when spending our dollars.
Finance Minister Wes Sheridan assured Islanders the province's books would be balanced by 2015. Guess again, 2016? When was the last balanced budget in P.E.I.? Sheridan is batting zero.
How much money is wasted by government? In Ontario, the Timmins/James Bay riding has one NDP member who covers an area larger than P.E.I. with two-thirds the number of residents. We have 27 MLAs. MLAs go on committees and receive $5,000 for each one. Four committees would garner them more than many people on P.E.I. make in a year in salary. Sheridan has told us we cannot afford indexing to reflect inflation, but the premier promised indexing of personal income tax entering his second year in power in 2008. He cannot afford to remove the HST from electricity rates. He could not afford to have a police officer in a school. He cannot afford anything.
How did we afford to buy new vehicles for the MLAs at Christmas time? How can we afford $600,000 annually for MLAs pensions? Why do MLAs go on expensive trips when teleconferencing is available? How can we now afford a two per cent MLA raise in January and another one per cent in April?
Once the HST arrives, government will give a few crumbs to taxpayers making under $55,000 per year. MLAs will not qualify, so a couple of thousand dollar raises should help them weather the new tax burden.
Sheridan and his party have us on a path of destruction similar to Greece. The only monies they should handle are Monopoly dollars.
Gary A.O. MacKay,
Birch Hill
