A surprisingly large number of people loved Monday’s post about the political impotence of protesting against Muskrat Falls now that the thing is pretty much finished. As if to confirm their impotence, some of the protesters turned up on Tuesday at the government’s dog and pony show. The Premier cut
Continue readingTag: budget consultations
The Sir Robert Bond Papers: The trouble with transparency #nlpoli
Last week, the provincial government’s communications gang tweeted a picture, which we have reprinted on the right. It was supposed to show where Premier Dwight Ball is on his little sojourn to tomorrowland that he calls “our fiscal future.” You can see how they have crossed off a whole bunch
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Office of Steve Kent
26 public meetings.More than 1,000 people showed up for them.More than 28,000 people used the government website that the folks at the Office of Steve Kent call an app to make it sound more impressive to the punters.Another 700 ideas arrived by email, …
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Budget ignorance abounds #nlpoli
The provincial government’s own economics and statistics agency conducted a telephone survey for the budget consultations this year. They released the results along with the questions and some details about how they conducted the poll. Let’s just look at the answers to some of the questions, as presented by the
Continue readingNorthern Reflections: Neutering Parliament
http://lincolncathedral.com/ If you want to know how irrelevant Parliament has become, Scott Clark and Peter Devries write, consider what has happened to the budget consultation process:
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Budget consultations and other political insanity #nlpoli
This year it is Charlene Johnson’s turn to host a series of meetings across the province that the provincial Conservatives cynically tout as a way for people to have some input into the provincial budget. It’s cynical because – as the Conservatives know – the major budget decisions are already
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: Budgeting Control and Resources #nlpoli
Shortly after the 2003 general election, the newly elected Conservative politicians accepted a proposal to cut down the number of health boards and education boards across the province. Save money, they said. Save money, the politicians repeated. And so it happened. As it turned out, the consolidation didn’t save any
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: “Doom and gloom” #nlpoli
Seems that finance minister Jerome Kennedy isn’t the only fellow out there conducting the annual budget “consultation” farce this year. According to the Southern Gazette, justice minister Darin King “acknowledged, as part of a small cabinet committee appointed by Premier Kathy Dunderdale to bring budget recommendations back to government, he
Continue readingThe Sir Robert Bond Papers: The Annual Mixed-Message Season #nlpoli
Right after Ross Reid’s new job, Jerome Kennedy’s trip back to the finance ministry was the second most overblown story of the past week or so. Most seem to think Kennedy is headed back to finance in order to tackle the public sector unions as part of the upcoming budget.
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