GREENE REPORT GOT IT RIGHT

It’s déjà vu all over again. In 2016 Cathy Bennett was appointed finance minister and brought down a budget that would get us back on track and try to plug the holes in the ship.

Many of the people got upset they were no longer going to be able to have ice cream on their pie.

Premier Dwight Ball got the message that if the people couldn’t have ice cream on their pie they would be upset with him. He gave in and removed Bennett, and installed Tom Osborne in her place. Everything went back to normal — we kept on spending like a drunken sailor, unions all got their raises and secured their jobs, the voters were happy, they could have ice cream on their pie and Ball was happy.

The province was in a mess, couldn’t meet our payroll, hence Prime Minister Justin Trudeau steps in and pays a one-year mortgage.

Then it seems some of the caucus finally decided Ball had to go, and along comes Premier Andrew Furey.

Four years after the Bennett budget and billions of dollars more in debt, Furey realizes something had to be done and commissioned the Greene report, headed up by well-known Dame Moya Greene, who knew how to get things done.

On that commission were a few members who I know and have a lot of respect for, and to the commission I believe you had to do what was best for this province and our children, and for that I am very grateful.

As a person who has a lot of children and grandchildren living in this province, I wanted to leave for them what my grandparents left for me. They only took what they needed, not what they wanted and there is a big difference, as most of you know.

To our politicians, the Greene report has to be administered. We can no longer kick the can down the road. Too many politicians have done that in the past and that is the reason we are on the brink of sinking this ship.

Remember the Titanic, many mistakes made. We owe it to our people to have the guts to do what is right — if you don’t, you have no right to be in the House of Assembly.

For too long we have spent our children’s money, we have to make it right for their sake and for the future of this great province and we have to do it now.

Retired Capt.

Wilfred Bartlett Conception Bay South