Get serious about deficit

Let me get this straight: Alberta’s new NDP government announced increases to corporate and personal taxes it believes will raise, at most, an additional $1.5 billion annually. And on the same day, it also announced additional spending of $624 million over the next five months, which if maintained will equal $1.5 billion of additional spending annually. In one fell swoop, the government managed to spend every dollar of extra tax revenue the higher tax rates will generate, leaving absolutely nothing with which to start cutting into the deficit.

Is this some sort of late April Fool’s joke? If so, I’m not laughing. The provincial deficit may be the sorry legacy of the Tories’ fiscal neglect during the boom times, but it’s also the current government’s responsibility — one it seems to want to disregard.