Well the Liberals are ones who made the deficit what it is today, paying their corporate friends, building roofs, a new sea to sky highway for the rich, German built ferries, The Vancouver Convention Center and all other stupid projects they had no money for. Now they want input on how to handle the 458m deficit. Just get rid of the Lieberals and be done with them.

probably hoping somebody figures it out for them so they can take credit!

Totally simplistic ….. what joker came up with that hairbrained idea????

BTW, if that is all it takes to balance the budget, I suggest we lay off all the people working on that effort and start saving …… every little bit counts.

It’s missing an option to cut MLA salaries and bonuses.

If (when) the Liberals get ousted, how much is the expected compensation for retirement/pensions/etc going to effect the budget?

*Should be affect the budget*

Is this the Liberals way of saying without the HST we are a billion short, so you (taxpayers) fix it.

Gus. Havent you noticed, that all the Liberals ideas are **hair brained** Seems they do not have the capacity to make
sound decisions.

I truly beleive that we are being led by a bunch of fools, and that we are getting into some very serious debt, that we may never be able to pull ourselves out of.

We must remember that if we elect **louts** then we are going to have some **louts** for Cabinet Ministers.

Politicians to-day live in a dream world. The best they can do is spend money, and raise taxes. One only has to note that their expenditures always match or exceed thier income.

We need a budget that is 10% less than the present just for starters. Then we can progressively reduce the budget from that point until we reach a reasonable number.

You cannot have the **fox** guarding the hen house, or you will very soon run out of chickens.

Our Provincial Government, and some Municipal Governments in BC can only be descrided as embarrassing.

You whiners are all correct. It is always good to know where one stands. If the NDP is elected than we will all KNOW that BC will go broke and become a “have not” province with high unemployment and every business that can moving away. That sounds a lot better doesn’t it? I cannot fathom where people think the money will come from if there is no business? Tourism will not fund your socialist nirvana, sorry.

LMAO! Those that love them are usually sleeping with them.

How does the ex Minister of Transportation go from being an expert in transportation to an expert in finance?

I know, he asks the taxpayers to do his job for him.

I wonder what this rocket scientist idea is costing us?

For all the compaining about the government that goes on, you never quite hear anyone say they want the NDP back.

Come on, there has to be at least one or two brave souls out there.

“We need a budget that is 10% less than the present just for starters”

The amount of money that we are short in the provincial budget for 2013-14 is 1.05% not 10%.

The first premise on that idiotic web page is that we cannot touch the “other” revenue which constitutes half of the revenue.

The second “hint” we get is that public sector compensation accounts for more than half the provincial budget.

So, half of the revenue is “other” and half of the expense is gov. employee wages.

So, reduce public sector wages by 1% and increase “other” revenue by 1% and we have a balanced budget to be simple about it.

Don’t have the faintest clue what the details of that would look like, but these guys obviously are not into details.

By all reports, public sector wages over the last 10+ years right across Canada and across federal, provincial, and municipal workers have incremented vastly over private sector to the extent that they are now higher which they were not in prior years.

Interesting that that has been the result of privatization moves over a similar time frame, isn’t it?

Part of an article in the Vancouver Sun to-day.

**Flaherty said the Conservative Government was still reviewing how deeply to cut operational spending. Government departments and agencies have been told to come up with two scenarios, one that cuts costs by 5 per cent and another by 10 per cent. The Government will decide what scenario to use**

This is how you reduce spending. You do not do a **core reveiw** and hire consultants. You have your Managers do the job that they were hired to do.

Its time this City woke up and smelled the roses. Just reduce spending and forget all about the core reveiw, BS.

The Core reveiw is a red herring created by the City Manager to slow down, or kill Councils ambition to reduce spending.

The Provincial Government can do the same thing. Its not rocket science. In fact it is so simple that even Kevin Falcon should be able to figure it out. Just reduce spending Kevin, and do it in the right places. Your Managers can tell you how its down., If they cant, give them the pink slip.

Anyway, my model is to

1. increase corporate tax by 10%
2. increase personal tax by 2%
3. increase tobacco tax by 10%
4. increase property transfer tax by 10%

Now, I have not got the faintest clue whether the model compensates for

1. the loss of businesses in the province since some may move
2.the loss of sales taxes in the province because people will have less disposable income
3. the loss of tobacco sales
4. inflation of real estate prices.
all just to throw out a few relationships in a very simplistic way.

We do not know squat about this model. But then again, I guess we are supposed to be the idiots who do not understand such things, right??

http://www.budgetsimulator.com/info

I may be off base Dragon but I got the feeling you were in the trucking industry. If that’s true than you should be the last guy that would want the NDP in power…

“Government departments and agencies have been told to come up with two scenarios, one that cuts costs by 5 per cent and another by 10 per cent”

So what is different from that from what the City admin. has been told with 10% reduction?

I think people do not understand what core services reviews are about. They think it is all about saving. That is not true. As the mayor said at Council yesterday, some areas may be assessed as requiring better a better standard.

A service review, whether just for the core functions of a city or several of the ancillary functions they have taken on, is essentially an audit, not for financial purposes which measures against a set industrial standard, but for scope and quality. There are some standards which exist and come from provincial and federal laws and then there are some areas where one has to choose which peer communities to measure against.

Audits can be done externally as well as internally. As was said at Council last night, no one recalls that such an external audit has ever been done. The results of all audits will be criticized, that is a give. Where audits are done in business, such as safety audits, the practice is to do an external audit to start which will point the way to how one can measure their operations. After that, one can do internal audits on a rotation basis to review the results of changes where recommendations have been implemented.

I think it is high time we had a services audit in this city. I think I have a pretty good handle of the purpose and the complexity, and I would not accept anything other than the best or as close to it as possible. A service review is the last place I would want to scrimp and save since it will be the best tool we have to change our ways if that is in fact what will come from it.

The 50% of the Revenue taken in by the Government from **Other Revenue** is money for Royalties, Gambling, BC Hydro, ICBC, WCB, BC Liquor Control. Federal transfers, which would include $250 Million per year from the 15% tax on lumber that is collected at the border by Canada Customs, and then given back to the Province and put into general revenue.

Its this 50% that needs to be looked at. There are some 21 or 27 Government entities, and they all get huge salaries and benefits. They generate so much money that they can run their business, and pay hundreds of millions to the Government every year. These entities are really nothing more that Government tax collecting shelters.

BC Hydro as an example sells its power through PowerEx, and they also have the BC Transmission Corp. which does absolutely nothing, but costs millions to have around. PowerEX’s top 5 executives are the highest paid civil servants in BC with an average wage of $500,000.00 per year, plus benefits and perks.

ICBC has billions of dollars in investments, and in addition will transfer some $787 million to the Government in the next 3 years.

How much money has WCB (Worksafe BC) have buried away?? Who the hell knows. What about BC Liquor Control Board, BC Lottery Corp. BC Ferries spends millions of dollars, and seems to be going broke. BC Transit is a bloody financial mess. It costs hundreds of millions to run this business, and in addition they have taxing authority to generate more revenue.

Perhaps we could increase the royalties on coal, gas, oil, and minerals???.

There is no shortage of money incoming for the Province of BC. The problem is really the amount of money that the Government spends, and where they spend it. They will always use Education and Health care as an example of the high cost of Government, however they never talk about the hundreds of millions, or perhaps billions that is paid to people to run these Government entities.

Can some of the entites be run by a Government department at a much cheaper cost?? They were at one time, and maybe its time to look at them again.

If in fact we are in dire straits, it is because of the policies and spending of the Liberal Government and no one else. They have basically buried us in a sea of debt.

And NO I am not an NDP supporter. This problem is no longer about politics, it is about our ability to keep some of our hard earned cash for ourselves, rather than paying it to laggards to fritter away on a very comfortable life style.

Gus. Are we getting confused between an audit and a reduction in City spending.

Let the department Managers come up with a 5 or 10% reduction in costs. This could be anything from staff, to purchases, overtime, travel, expenses, etc; Once we have all departments spending less, we can still go on to do a **core review** but lets cut some costs first.

Palopu there is no BC Transmission Corp any more time to update yourself. Intercepter and Johnybelt here is your chance, come get on the site and show how to balance the budget. Time to put up. Don’t forget about the payouts to all the friends of the fiberals. Oh right can’t touch that.

Our budget would be balanced if we still had all of the companies in BC that the NDP chased to Alberta when they were in power ;-)

Palopu …..

It is real easy. Council sets direction. Administration implements. Not only that, but our typical municipal governance structure in Canada has no option of a so called “strong” mayor who can take action without Council deliberation. Those powers are very limited under emergency situations

The permutations and combinations of saving money, if that is all that is needed, are endless. Someone needs direction to not spin wheels unnecessarily. I think even Council needs some direction so that they can determine how they stand from the point of view how well they are doing in delivering programs compared to a scope and quality norm or standard of comparable communities.

Read the Toronto core services review or even just a single section and you can see how a relatively good one is done.

If you read the Council agendas and minutes you will have seen the following:

Minutes from the December 12, 2011 meeting:
Report dated December 8, 2011, from Mayor Shari Green, regarding Core Review of Service Delivery
Moved by Councillor Koehler, seconded by Councillor Stolz, that Council undertake a review of city services of the City of Prince George, and that the City Manager be directed to return a report to Council by the end of January, 2012, outlining a proposed scope of work and review options regarding method, budget and schedule to undertake the review.

There is no confusion on my part how people who are approaching their work with due diligence ought to act in a case of seeing objectively where costs can be cut or revenues can be increased other than through tax and/or user fee increases. The options are virtually unlimited and one needs to go into the exercise with good information.

I think a few Councillors are still a bit weak on that point. But, some will come around to understand fiduciary responsibility a bit better than they currently display. It is not all as easy as chopping here and there.

Anyone can do that. I expect more from people I voted for.

There is no option to cut the size of government. No option to eliminate some government departments that can be privatized. Why are the only options to cut or reduce services or spend more money on existing ones? Therein lies the problem. Just like lawyers. They only ask the questions that force you to give them the answers they want. Waste of my time.

“No option to eliminate some government departments that can be privatized”

We can privatize medicine and get into the HMO hassle of the USA and privatize education and pay Harvard fees.

Those are the two biggies.

Believe it or not, we pay less tax here than they do in the USA.

Simple new revenue stream? …. 30% inheritance tax above $3 million.

“How much money has WCB (Worksafe BC) have buried away??”

The same as any other insurance company, enough to cover the liabilities they have already incurred and are likely to incur on an actuarial basis and the inome they will likely receive from their investments.

Their assessments have dropped this year after a couple of years of increases, not so much because of decreased claims, but intially a drop in the return on investments and now on an increase in return on investment.

Is there any other surplus money they have “burried away” that you are aware of?

Not to worry Interceptor, our budget will have a revenue surplus once Enbridge comes through here and we collect big time from the oil teat of Alberta.

;-)

Interceptor you are a laugh riot. How long have the NDP been gone? Give it up. Simple question. Now whatever companies left why did not the fiberals invite them back. Another simple question. I am curious, who left?
Maybe they did come back to cash on the billions in subsidies to Independent power producers orchestrated by the fiberals.

Palopu wrote: “Let the department Managers come up with a 5 or 10% reduction in costs.”

I am copying what I wrote on a thread which has long ago moved to the bottom of the pile.
————————————–
I guess you do not realize that many of these departments are used to going to the community to poll them for their opinion before they make recommendations which will affect the community.

Can you imagine parks, road maintenance, bylaws, fire safety, community groups receiving grants, etc. etc, going to the public on separate occasions to get some sense of what people think might be a way to cut expenses?

These people are not going to make such decisions. If they do, the first question Council will ask is “do you feel the community will support this?”

You know Palopu, I hate to remind you that neither you nor I nor anyone else on this site represents the community or is even representative of the community. This is a special subset with totally unknown representative value. We have no way of knowing how skewed this group is. I have an opinion about that, but it is not easily verifiable thus is irrelevant.

Wow! I am really & truly embarrassed for this man. If he doesn’t know what he is doing don’t tell everybody in the province, just get another portfolio like the rest of the goofs do.

Posted by: JohnnyBelt on January 10 2012 6:41 PM
For all the compaining about the government that goes on, you never quite hear anyone say they want the NDP back.

Come on, there has to be at least one or two brave souls out there.

I want the NDP back ASAP. They soon will be there as you know johnny. And the HST will be eztinquished too. Hope you take your buzness to ontario or something. Just get out a BC and don’t let the door hit you on the way out. WE THE PEOPLE voted to eztinquish HST and soon we will see it happen. Bye johnny you LIE beral flunky.

“For all the compaining about the government that goes on, you never quite hear anyone say they want the NDP back”

We sure hear from all the Liberal bedfellows how everyone will lose everything we worked for if the NDP takes power.

Really mature post, mattyc. I’m guessing you’re about 16 or 17? If so, you wouldn’t remember the NDP of the 90’s.

I’ll give you credit though, you’re the only one so far who has specifically said they want the NDP back.

And yes, I do believe the NDP will be back provincially. And then people will remember why they voted them into oblivion back in 2000. ‘Have you had enough yet?’ ;-)

What kind of a moron are you? I am not 16 or 17. I am in fact 56 and DO remember the 90s quite well. I seem to remeber a time when it was affordable to live. A time without HST. A time when business payed their share of tax to the tune of about 40%. I do remember the 90s.
But you re at least smart enough to realize that the time is almost up for these lie berals your favorite bunch of liars that have ruined this province far more then any damage EVER inflicted by the NDP. So why don’t you take your stuff move to ontario where you can pay your loved HST and quit assuming things about me. Tell me this you moron. How would a 16 or 17 year old say the things I say? Oh and by the way. I do NOT pay rent. In fact I sold my house in PG and kept ALL the proceeds for myself. I payed that house off many years ago before HST when I still had disposable income. So F U buddy.

Sorry, I just assumed your age by your writing style.

Hey, speaking of the HST, I see that BC recently struck a deal with the federal government to pay back the $1.6 Billion transfer payment in five years interest free!

Good deal huh? I wonder what kinds of hidden taxes we’ll pay to make up the shortfall?

If the HST uses up ALL of ones disposable income than perhaps it is time for a career change or a look at your debt.