PLANNING FOR THE FUTURE
Mr. Speaker, this budget will demonstrate once again that any commitment made by this government to the people of the Province will be a commitment kept. Over our term we have made commitments to enhance education and youth opportunities, to better health care and to help those most in need. We continue to honour those commitments.
We have a forward looking and focussed plan, not only for social programs, but also to better the economic circumstances of all regions of the Province. Our commitment is to creating opportunities for jobs and growth. The result is one of the best performing provincial economies in the country.
We intend to do more - in education, for youth, to improve health, to expand opportunities, to grow the economy and to create employment. Our commitment is to the whole province, but particularly to the rural areas where some of the challenges may be greater.
I travelled the Province conducting pre-budget consultations to get advice directly from the people of the Province. I thank them for their thoughtful advice. What I heard shaped the direction and thrust of this budget. This was particularly important this year because of the prospect of a widening deficit gap, at least in the shorter term. The options I discussed with Newfoundlanders and Labradorians
to address that gap were to cut social programs, raise taxes or
incur higher deficits until the economy, led by offshore oil,
generated higher revenues.
People everywhere advised me to tell government not to react
prematurely to what may be a short term fiscal challenge by cutting
back their social programs. As a government, we have worked too hard
to strengthen social programs to begin dismantling them now, in our
view unnecessarily. Instead, we will continue to manage the
Province�s finances prudently, as well as to enhance social programs
and grow the economy, all for the longer term. The course we have
set in this budget is a plan for the future that again acts on our
commitments to the people of the Province and respects their advice.
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