Financial Concerns Mount as Legislature Reconvenes

22-Mar-2010

Whitehorse – The Fentie/Taylor government is mortgaging the Yukon’s future with its reckless spending habits, says Liberal Leader Arthur Mitchell. He predicts the budget delivered on March 25th will, for the fourth year in a row, project to spend more money than is coming in.

“For the last three years the Fentie regime has been spending down the savings account and we expect that pattern to continue,” he said. “Anyone who manages a household knows you can’t spend more than you take in for too long before the bill comes due.”

Since the last time the legislature met, Yukoners have learned the government plans to borrow $167 million through its crown corporations.

“The Premier has had to resort to moving expenditures off the main books to make them appear balanced,” he said. “Yukoners should not be fooled by the Premier’s slight of hand. We are now faced with borrowing our entire contribution to the Mayo B project because the government is out of cash. Mr. Fentie will be long gone but Yukoners will be paying the bills for this extraordinary spending spree for the next 30 years.”

Other levels of government are also feeling the impacts of the new YTG cash crunch. Municipalities have already been told they will not be receiving their block transfer in full on April 1. Instead they will be paid in quarterly installments.

“Municipalities usually get their block funding at the start of the year and are able to be collect interest on the money over the course of the following 12 months,” Mitchell said. “This year they will do without because the government has turned off the taps. Yukoners are owed an explanation for this change in policy.”

Mitchell says you add up all the warning signs and there is cause for concern.

“The Yukon Party knows it must go to the polls in the next 18 months and it is mortgaging the future to make it through to polling day,” he said. “The reality is the finances of the Yukon are on very shaky ground because of the Premier’s financial mismanagement. This is the same leader who invested $36 million of our tax dollars for a month in 2007 and still hasn’t got it back.”

For additional information contact:
Jason Cunning 667-8942