We can have a brighter future if
government makes the right choices now
We can have a brighter future if
government makes the right choices now
We can have a brighter future if
government makes the right choices now
We can have a brighter future if
government makes the right choices now
We’ve waited long enough
Our political leaders must act now to modernize and restructure government services. Every day that government delays, our problem gets worse.
We are here because of a spending problem, not a revenue problem. We all must share the burden of fixing our fiscal crisis, and some temporary tax increases may be necessary. But NL has one of the highest per-person tax burdens in the country. Before taking more money from hardworking Newfoundlanders & Labradorians, our political leaders must first modernize and restructure government to be affordable and perform better.
The sooner we take action, the sooner we’ll see a brighter future for NL.
Let’s raise our voices and tell government: the time to act is now.
It’s time to act
Get your voice heard
Want to take action but not sure where to start? Here’s how you can influence our province’s future.
Support action – send this email to all elected Members of the House of Assembly (MHAs).
Our political leaders must take action to modernize and restructure government services. Here’s what this will mean for you:
Less money going to interest charges, more for services and infrastructure.
Better outcomes from government programs, shorter wait times.
The right services, in the right place, at the right time.
A stable and secure public service.
More accountable leaders.
Certainty that we will have a bright future.
Showing the rest of the country we can stand on our own two feet.
Once we have an affordable government, here’s what we can look forward to:
A growing economy with businesses motivated to invest.
Tax rates that make NL an attractive place to live and work.
More jobs in growth industries.
Hope for our children that they can build a successful life in NL.
It’s time to act
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Want to make a difference? We’ve prepared this email that clearly lets Members of the House of Assembly know they need to act now. All you have to do is press send.
Please have the courage to fix our spending problem. The longer we delay, the worse the problem gets. Give us hope that things will get better. I will support you.
ItsTimeToAct,NewfoundlandAndLabrador,NLpoli
I support many of the suggestions here to fix our spending problem. This has gone on far too long. Every day that government delays, our problem gets worse. I believe that we can have a brighter future with an affordable government, less debt, and better access to the right services if we make the right choices now.
Speak out – Click the copy button on each MHA below to have the message and the tag automatically copied to your clipboard. Click the icon above to post the message on Facebook or write your own and @ your MHA from the list below.
Facebook page for members of the House of Assembly (MHAs)
Premier Andrew FureyPremierHumber – Gros Morne@AndrewFurey.caCopy
Honourable Siobhan CoadyMinister of FinanceSt.John’s West@SiobhanCoadyMHACopy
Honourable Derrick BraggMinisterFogo Island – Cape Freels@derrick.bragg.92Copy
David BrazilMHAConception Bay East – Bell Island@MHADavidBrazilCopy
Jordan BrownMHALabrador West@JordanLabWestCopy
James DinnMHASt. John’s Centre@jamesdinnsjcCopy
Paul DinnMHATopsail – Paradise@PaulDinn.TopsailParadiseCopy
Jeff DwyerMHAPlacentia West – Bellevue@jeffrey.dwyer.7Copy
Lela EvansMHATorngat Mountains@LelaEvansNLCopy
Pleaman ForseyMHAExploits@pleaman.forsey.5Copy
Eddie JoyceMHAHumber – Bay of Islands@eddie.joyce.9Copy
Paul LaneMHAMount Pearl – Southlands@paul.lane.5811Copy
Helen Conway OttenheimerMHAHarbour Main@HelenConwayNLCopy
Craig PardyMHABonavista@CraigPardyBonavistaCopy
Lloyd ParrottMHATerra Nova@lloydparrottmhaCopy
Barry PettenMHAConception Bay South@BarryPettenCBSCopy
Paul PikeMHABurin – Grand Bank@paul.pike.5496Copy
Scott ReidMHASt. George’s – Humber@ScottReidLibNLCopy
Lucy StoylesMHAMount Pearl North@LucyStoylesMPNCopy
Chris TibbsMHAGrand Falls – Windsor – Buchans@chris.tibbs.96Copy
Perry TrimperMHALake Melville@perry.trimperCopy
Tony WakehamMHAStephenville – Port au Port@TonyWakehamNLCopy
Joedy WallMHACape St. Francis@JoedyRWallCopy
Brian WarrMHABaie Verte – Green Bay@BrianWarrLiberalCopy
Please have the courage to fix our spending problem. The longer we delay, the worse the problem gets. Give us hope that things will get better. I will support you.
Share your voice – click each Tweet button below to share the message above on Twitter and automatically @ your elected officials.
Member of the House of Assembly (MHAs)
Premier Andrew FureyPremierHumber – Gros MorneTweet
Honourable Siobhan CoadyMinister of FinanceSt.John’s WestTweet
Honourable Derrick BraggMinisterFogo Island – Cape FreelsTweet
Honourable Gerry ByrneMinisterCorner BrookTweet
Honourable Steve CrockerMinisterCarbonear – Trinity – Bay de VerdeTweet
Honourable Bernard DavisMinisterVirginia Waters – PleasantvilleTweet
Honourable Lisa DempsterMinisterCartwright – L’Anse au ClairTweet
Honourable Dr. John HaggieMinisterGanderTweet
Honourable John Hogan, Q.C.MinisterWindsor LakeTweet
Honourable Krista Lynn HowellMinisterSt. Barbie – L’Anse aux MeadowsTweet
Honourable Elvis LovelessMinisterFortune Bay – Cape La HuneTweet
Honourable Tom OsborneMinisterWaterford ValleyTweet
Honourable Andrew ParsonsMinisterBurgeo – La PoileTweet
Honourable Pam ParsonsMinisterHarbour Grace – Port de GraveTweet
Honourable Sarah StoodleyMinisterMount ScioTweet
Derek BennettMHALewisporte-TwillingateTweet
David BrazilMHAConception Bay East – Bell IslandTweet
Jordan BrownMHALabrador WestTweet
James DinnMHASt. John’s CentreTweet
Paul DinnMHATopsail – ParadiseTweet
Jeff DwyerMHAPlacentia West – BellevueTweet
Lela EvansMHATorngat MountainsTweet
Pleaman ForseyMHAExploitsTweet
Sherry Gambin-WalshMHAPlacentia – St. Mary’sTweet
Paul LaneMHAMount Pearl – SouthlandsTweet
Loyola O’DriscollMHAFerrylandTweet
Helen Conway OttenheimerMHAHarbour MainTweet
Craig PardyMHABonavistaTweet
Lloyd ParrottMHATerra NovaTweet
Barry PettenMHAConception Bay SouthTweet
Paul PikeMHABurin – Grand BankTweet
Scott ReidMHASt. George’s – HumberTweet
Lucy StoylesMHAMount Pearl NorthTweet
Chris TibbsMHAGrand Falls – Windsor – BuchansTweet
Perry TrimperMHALake MelvilleTweet
Tony WakehamMHAStephenville – Port au PortTweet
Joedy WallMHACape St. FrancisTweet
Brian WarrMHABaie Verte – Green BayTweet
Call Members of the House of Assembly and let them know it’s time for action. The people of Newfoundland and Labrador are ready for change and we need a plan for fiscal reform now.
Phone number for members of the House of Assembly (MHAs)
Premier Andrew FureyPremierHumber – Gros Morne(709) 729-3565
Honourable Siobhan CoadyMinister of FinanceSt.John’s West(709) 729-3775
Honourable John AbbotMinisterSt.John’s East – Quidi Vidi(709) 729-0659
Honourable Derrick BraggMinisterFogo Island – Cape Freels(709) 729-3705
Citizens ultimately pay interest payments through taxes. NLers face by far the highest per-person federal-provincial interest payments ($2,604) in the country, most of which is provincial. And when interest costs rise, fewer resources are left for important public programs. Would you rather your money go to banks for interest or be used to fund services? Every day that government waits to act on spending reform means our debt and associated interest payments grow exponentially. Government now spends more on interest than on education and income assistance combined. Meaningful, structural spending reform will actually lead to better-resourced programs. Modernizing and restructuring will allow us to pay down our debt and free up money currently leaving the province in interest payments to be invested here.
Simply throwing more money at these situations has not solved our problems. Innovative service delivery models can improve access to services while also reducing spending. The Health Care Task Force, PERT, Quality of Care NL, the NL Medical Association, and other think tanks, academics and experts recommend the following changes:
Better allocation of resources to spend less on maintaining buildings and more on providing quality services.
Centralization of specialized hospital services, increased use of community care teams and transportation in our health care system can improve access and outcomes.
The use of technology can improve access to services and reduce wait times.
Publicly funded, privately delivered partnerships to deliver services such as ferries, motor vehicle and other registries, clinics for low-risk health procedures, diagnostic imaging, and more can improve access at a lower cost.
Outcome-based contracts with construction companies and private and non-profit service providers used by government can reduce cost overruns, delays, and wait times.
Mandatory reporting of outcomes and implementing a program evaluation framework for all departments and entities receiving public funding can ensure programs and investments better achieve desired outcomes.
There are no shortage of suggestions; government simply needs to act.
The right services, in the right place, at the right time.
Our public systems were developed more than 50 years ago for NL’s demographics of that time. But the Health Care Task Force found that there has been a dramatic population shift in NL, with fewer people under 15, many more over 65, and significant migration from rural to urban communities. We need more community and long-term care services instead of hospital care in health care. Other services, including ferries and our K-12 school system, struggle with resource issues and provide poor value for our high investment due to population changes. NL has a high educator-student ratio, but these resources are not allocated equitably. PERT found 22 English schools have 25 or fewer students, including three schools with no students and 11 with between one and ten students. In 2018 the Eastern School District recommended the closure of 5 schools with 89 students, who could be bused to nearby schools less than 40 minutes away for a savings of $1.7 M, or $19,101 per student annually. The school board trustees voted to keep these schools open. According to the PERT, keeping a small school open with one or two students costs around $150,000 per year; helping a family take the student(s) to the next nearest community costs around $10,000-$15,000. Last year, marine service operations cost the provincial government just under $82 million. More than 10% (4,100) of the nearly 38,000 runs were made without any passengers. Government’s cost per resident for ferry services can be up to $28,000 annually for some communities. Publicly-funded, privately delivered ferry services are much more cost-effective.
What does this mean for you?
A modern system will provide the services people want and need in 2021. Wholesale service cuts are not a good idea, but a shift in how we deliver services is needed. Changes that allow for better allocation of resources can create centers of excellence and actually improve access and quality of services. The public supports these types of changes, but political leaders have been resistant.
If debt levels get too high, NL is at risk of not being able to make its financial commitments such as paying salaries, operating hospitals, offering other public services or making payments to pension plans.
–PERT
Borrowing money to pay public servants puts their wages, benefits and jobs at risk. In 2020, NL could not borrow to maintain operations, and Premier Dwight Ball wrote a desperate letter to Prime Minister Trudeau for support. If bond ratings further deteriorate, interest rates increase, or another oil price drop or unforeseen economic situation occurs, we have no buffer or plan.
Modernizing and restructuring government will require change and will not always be easy in the short term. But, it will mean more secure and stable public sector jobs and less uncertainty in the long term. Every time we have a provincial budget, public servants live in fear their jobs will be cut. This uncertainty leads to a lack of stability in the public sector. Over the last five years government has operated under continuous budget restraint, with no meaningful attempts to restructure and no long-term plan. This has not worked and has led to doom, gloom and inefficiency. Mass layoffs may be unnecessary. Attrition can and should be used to reduce the public sector’s size wherever possible. Other cost-saving but job-saving changes, such as increased remote work, reduced workweeks, and job-sharing, have been implemented in the private sector to survive downturns. PERT has recommended performance-based incentives and pay structures that reward achieving budget targets. Early retirements and changes to salaries and benefits can also save jobs. However, resizing must also be strategic and part of a plan for modern, restructured service delivery and improved outcomes to citizens. An affordable public sector well resourced in the right areas will be a secure and productive public service. The longer government takes to act, the more severe action will be required in the future, and those actions may not be our choice. NOT acting is the path to deep and severe austerity. Public sector workers will be the most impacted if the government does not put a plan in place now.
In Budget 2016, the government laid out a seven-year plan to achieve a balanced budget by 2021-22. After backlash from their nearly $1 B in tax increases, government cancelled a planned fall supplementary budget that was meant to include spending reductions, saying it had never been intended to be more than the usual fiscal update. In Budget 2017 government updated the 7-year plan, maintaining the targeted annual spending reductions for 2019, 2020, 2021, and 2022. In 2018, they projected one more deficit budget in 2021-22 but maintained their commitment to return to surplus in 2022-23. Government never released detail on how they would achieve these goals, and a plan for addressing our spending problem never materialized. Without a plan, not only did government not achieve targeted spending reductions for 2019/20 and 2020/21, spending has increased substantially year over year since 2017. In 2019 when revenues increased due to the one-time Atlantic Accord payment, government increased spending and pushed planned expenditure reductions further down the road. After winning a minority government in the 2019 election, the government backed away from achieving surplus by 2022-23. Then Finance Minister Osborne said these long-term forecasts were just projections that are subject to change and that he doesn’t plan more than a year at the time.
Source: NL Government Budgets 2016-2021 *projected as of Budget 2020
What does this mean for you?
We need our government to be more accountable to the long-term needs of the province. Increased transparency, more reliable budget targets, and better adherence to those targets are critical. The PERT outlines how our large number of electoral districts with small populations means decisions do not always serve the entire province. The four-year election cycle hampers long-term decision-making. The PERT recommends implementing balanced budget legislation requiring the mandatory meeting of budgets for all departments, Agencies, Boards and Commissions (ABCs), ensuring five-year projections in each budget, and setting long-term budget targets in legislation. This legislation would also tie Ministers, DM’s and ADM’s salaries to the meeting of budget targets, implement an external advisory group of experts to review annual budgets, and ensure that 50% of oil and mineral royalties be used to pay debt or placed in a Future Fund. This recommendation could be the single biggest way to remove short-term politics from the budgetary process, reduce real or perceived cronyism and ensure citizens receive value for their tax dollars. Increased transparency and accountability will also increase the province’s credibility and help attract investment and grow our economy.
Source: Public Accounts (actual); Department of Finance (forecast)
In 2016 NL was in crisis. Our deficit was $1.09 B and our net debt was $14.25 B. In an attempt to deal with our ballooning deficits and debt, government took nearly $1 B more in taxes and fees from citizens annually and secured $2.4 B from the federal government in Atlantic Accord payments. The problem has gotten worse. In 2020, our deficit was $1.84 B and our net debt was $16.44 B. Government now has difficulty borrowing. These revenue increases have not fixed our fiscal crisis because it is rooted in a spending problem, not a revenue problem. Every year government waited to solve the problem we accrued more and more debt and interest on that debt. According to the PERT, government has added $12.6 B to our total debt over the last seven years alone. if nothing is done, the province will add at least another $7 B to our debt over the next six years – $2 B more than was accrued during the first 45 years of confederation.
What does this mean for you?
Source: Statistics Canada Table 17-10-0005-01
People want to know they can count on a plan for things to get better, or else they will leave. In a June 2017 survey by Corporate Research Associates, 43% of NLers 18-34 and 37% of those between 35-54 said they were considering leaving the province due to the 2016 tax increases. 49% of citizens earning $75,000 or more and 43% of NL residents who had graduated post-secondary said they or someone in their family has considered leaving due to tax increases. Since 2016 NL has experienced significant population decline and is the only province in the country with negative population growth. We need to provide certainty to our young people, our best and brightest, and newcomers that NL is a place where you can have a bright future. Inaction has led to 6 years of doom and gloom and uncertainty. We have a chance now to switch that doom and gloom to hope and opportunity IF government implements a plan to fix our structural spending problem and move forward with an affordable, modern and stable government. ACTING is the solution that will lead to a growing economy, population, and brighter future.
Some believe that the federal government will step in to solve our problems. NL already receives significant support from Ottawa, and increased support from the federal government will not come without a cost. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed demands on all provinces, many of whom have been hit much harder than NL. Our fiscal crisis is due to decisions that pre-date the pandemic. Other provinces would contest NL getting no-strings-attached support from the federal government because we have the highest per capita revenues of any province but have managed these revenues poorly. The province has only balanced the budget ten times in the 71 years since confederation. The last 16 years have been particularly bad. Spending increased 80% from $4.97 B in 2004-05 to $8.97 B in 2020-21. The PERT says most of the increased spending was on public sector hiring, wage increases well beyond inflation and offers of more government services, which we could not afford.
What does this mean for you?
Any support from the federal government will come with demands to get our spending under control. If government cannot pay its debts, lenders will dictate changes that must be made. This would mean massive cuts overnight. The PERT attributed our overspending to our large public sector, high public sector wages, and large pension liability. These will be the very items on the chopping block if outside groups dictate changes. If the province doesn’t act, the federal government or bond rating agencies will force changes upon us. Homegrown solutions will take our values into account and ensure the difficult choices are our choices. Do we want to be the first province that required a bailout? Do we want to leave our fate to decided by bankers outside our province? Let’s show the rest of the country that NL can credibly manage our own financial affairs.
