Government should balance its budget
Despite all of these efforts, the global recession has made a deficit in each of the next two years unavoidable. The economic downturn has caused a $6.6 billion reduction in revenue over last year’s fiscal plan.It’s simply not possible to find savings large enough to offset that revenue loss without unacceptable cuts to essential public services. We will therefore incur a deficit of $495 million this year and $245 million next year. However, we have also passed a law that requires the budget to be balanced by 2011 and every year thereafter. No ministry will be legally allowed to exceed its budget in any year, and every penny of future surpluses must first go towards eliminating the operating debt.
-Chuck van der Lee, President & CEO Rogers Retail.
