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March 25, 2006
Recent Reports Raise Questions About Province’s Financial Health |
| From: Leanne Rowat, MLA Minnedosa Constituency |
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Just before Christmas, Manitoba’s NDP government quietly released the province’s second quarter financial report, which revealed that Manitoba’s total provincial debt was now a whopping $20.584 billion. This report also confirmed that, while only halfway through the 2005-06 fiscal year, the NDP had already surpassed its total annual projected debt by $1/2 billion!
The bad news for Manitobans continued last week, with the release of Auditor General Jon Singleton’s Audit Of The Public Accounts For The Year Ended March 31, 2005 report, which indicated that interest on Manitoba’s burgeoning debt was an astounding $1.281 billion in 2004-05.
When you consider that a one percent increase in interest rates would cost our province an additional $205 million a year in interest alone, you can only imagine what would happen if interest rates spiked. Sadly, this NDP government would just continue to borrow more money to pay for the increased interest, which would add more debt and even more interest. It’s a vicious cycle of debt and interest…and more debt and interest…and so on.
This NDP government has benefited from low interest rates so far, but at some point there will be a shift and the crushing reality of the province’s debt load will be realized.
Ultimately, all Manitobans will pay if the NDP government continues to ignore this $21 billion elephant. |
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