By Ed Hollett (AIMS Senior Fellow) The Telegram, 15 September 2018 There are three rather obvious problems with Weston Raske’s suggestion on Sept. 6 (“Letter: We need to focus on selling surplus power”) that we should export surplus electricity and encourage greater local consumption to lower the impact Muskrat Falls will have on electricity rates [...]
By ED HOLLETT (AIMS Senior Research Fellow) The provincial government continues to predict that its annual budget will return to surplus by 2022. There are reasons to doubt this forecast let alone avoid financial problems in the future. First, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador faces the same strategic financial problems it has faced for most [...]
The Telegram, 17 October 2017 By Ed Hollett (AIMS Senior Research Fellow) Reports by the province’s Auditor General and the federal Parliamentary Budget Officer are reminders that the provincial government continues to face a serious financial problem. If current trends continue, the cash deficit this year will be almost $2.0 billion. Muskrat Falls costs may [...]
By ED HOLLETT (Senior Fellow) The Telegram, 2 May 2017 The Government of Newfoundland and Labrador's 2017-18 budget includes a $3-million funding cut for Memorial University. The university's Board of Regents could bring in more than enough money to offset the reduction by increasing tuition fees by a mere 10 percent. Unfortunately, Advanced Education Minister [...]
By ED HOLLETT (AIMS Senior Fellow) Troy Media, 11 April 2017 The Telegram, 17 April 2017 The budget strategy laid out by Newfoundland and Labrador in 2016 was simple: government would hold down program spending, allow for some increases in total spending from higher debt servicing costs, and let rising oil prices and other income balance [...]
By ED HOLLETT (AIMS Senior Fellow) The Telegram, April 4, 2017 Based on their experience with tax increases last year, many Newfoundlanders and Labradorians are looking to Thursday’s budget with some understandable worry. This public anxiety is one of the reasons the provincial government should make a course correction. Here are three specific things the provincial [...]
By ED HOLLETT (AIMS Senior Fellow) The Telegram, March 13, 2017 Troy Media, March 13, 2017 Battlefords News-Optimist, March 18, 2017 In setting its budget for 2017, Newfoundland and Labrador needs to correct a public finance crisis, ushered in by years of high spending and big drops in oil-based revenues. It is a critical time for the province’s [...]