Steve MacLellan

We’re still very much in a deficit position, and to get to
surplus — and in four short years — will likely require a different tack
than the Liberals have been sailing with.

Premier Dwight Ball
has shown no appetite at all for layoffs, at least on the scale that
would make the news. The government has been eliminating hundreds of
positions over the last few years, but largely through attrition.

Getting
to the point of cutting actual spending by seven per cent per year
(this is the “highly ambitious” goal that Moody’s was talking about)
will almost certainly require actual cutting. Actually eliminating
services, and actually showing public servants the door.