Just a quick follow up to the labour market blog. As I have pointed out, employment is up 3.1% from September 1999 to September 2005 in New Brunswick. During the same period, the provincial budget rose 37%.
In Alberta, employment growth was 14.4% while the provincial budget rose 45% (and please don’t forget about the oil and gas revenues).
Am I the only person around who sees this as unsustainable?
I don’t care how many times you go to the Feds looking for more handouts. Employment growth of 3% and expenditure growth of 37% is irresponsible and highly unsustainable. Either they get serious about economic development (i.e. growing the tax base) or they need to get their spending under control.