Province’s bureaucrats need schooling on balancing our books

So, over the space of the next three years, about 27,000 provincial government workers will be going back to school.

Sadly, they won’t be getting a timely brush up on how to better use taxpayers’ money and cut the mammoth amount of cash Alberta now spends keeping things ticking over here in Wild Rose Country.

No, instead, this vast assorted army of undoubtedly eager beavers will be getting appropriate lessons at taxpayers’ expense so they can emerge with a better and clearer understanding of Indigenous culture and its history here in Alberta.

Hey, here’s a thought: maybe if we actually taught a subject called history in our schools, we might have saved ourselves a cool $2.7 million, that being the supposed price tag for this latest exercise in feel-good province building, though as with most things governmental, the final bill will likely be much higher.

Apparently all of these government workers, beginning with those in the Children’s Services and Justice departments, will attend a six-hour session, which includes talking with elders, watching Indigenous films and taking part in group exercises. (Sorry, but if you’re among the hoi polloi, you won’t get in. You’ll have to make do with Incredibles 2, instead.)

Seriously, if government workers want to learn something useful, they’d be better off meeting with a bunch of Indigenous 20 year olds from both on and off reserve. What they have to say about their life and, more critically, their future hopes, would be more instructive in plotting policy and understanding today’s reality. What they say about each other would be even more eye opening.

Oh well, at least it gives these people a needed break from the torturous tedium clinging like a Super- Glued barnacle to many government jobs.

But here’s the kicker: the proposed cost of this instruction, at a shade under $3 million, is what our province spends every 30 minutes. That’s the rate we splash the cash these days: a remarkable achievement in a constituency of less than five million living, breathing souls.

The bigger picture gets murky, because when you hear $56 billion is the annual provincial budget, most folks’ eyes glaze over. Still, comatose or not, we’d better wake up soon or the debt we’re piling on will sink Alberta so deep, even that famed deepsea explorer Jacques Cousteau would never have found us.

Or at least it will sink those younger generations, now trying to make their way in our province. Us baby boomers will be OK. There are enough of us who invariably vote and thereby sway politicians of every stripe to heed our call, one that would quickly ratchet up the octave chart if anyone dared suggest cutting future pensions and old folks’ entitlements.

Meanwhile, this year alone, we’ll probably add another $10 billion to our Alberta credit card, despite now leading the nation in GDP growth. Heaven help us if we slip back into recession.

Of course, that nice social worker with his hands on the provincial tiller in all things financial is promising to balance the books in a handful of years. Well, Joe Ceci likely won’t be around to savour the conclu- sion of that herculean task, but frankly, it’s doubtful any successor will see it either.

By the time 2023 rolls around, don’t be surprised if our provincial debt approaches the $100-billion mark. That would be unconscionable, and the daft reasoning that other provinces are even more in hock doesn’t wash, unless our goal is to be a mini-me Ontario.

We spend too much and tax too little to keep up this standard of living. What bailed us out for half a century were proceeds from the energy industry. Yes, the very one we are now merrily chasing away by endlessly increasing the costs and complexity of doing business.

Either that changes, or we bite the bullet and start paying out more for less. Taking the coward’s way, by borrowing ever more money, would be a dreadful legacy to leave those younger Albertans following our footsteps.