The media has been consumed with what to do about the impending and some say unavoidable energy cost increase coming from Muskrat Falls.
Some mainland media have latched onto our Muskrat Falls dilemma as an example of all that is wrong with the province.
One pointed to what he termed our excessive spending on infrastructure such as schools, hospitals and roads during the years when oil revenues were high. He declared we could have had budget surpluses in those years. There were similar mainland media grumblings when Hibernia was about to fail and had to be rescued by the federal government.
That turned out to be an incredibly good investment. A compelling argument can also be made that those were necessary expenditures that have allowed us to close the gap somewhat between what we had and what most other provinces already enjoyed.
We joined Canada in 1949 and have never caught up to the Canadian standard of living in many areas. In the meantime, Canada has benefited greatly from the resources we brought into the confederation. Confederation must be a two-way street, otherwise its only working for one party and that's not a fair arrangement.
Our fish resources were in great shape in 1949 when Canada took over management of the stocks off our coast. Today, many of those stocks are at perilously low levels and, unbelievably, are still being handed around to interest outside of the province while our provincial fishing interest are struggling to make ends meet.
We have half a million people living in Newfoundland and Labrador within an area just over 405,000 square kilometres. That’s more than three times the size of N.S., N.B. and P.E.I. combined. Our population is widely dispersed throughout the province.
No one should be surprised then, that our per ca-pita cost for health care, education, communications and transportation services is higher than the national average. That is the reality of this province and our politicians, federal and provincial, should get on with providing services as is done in all other provinces. New Brunswick, for example, has a rail line and two twin highways traversing the province, and no one has to use a ferry to travel.
We have one two lane TCH, a very expensive ferry, and about 100 km of twin highway that we had to give up our rail line to get.
This country was built by hard working industrious and innovative people, who have created one of the best countries in the world in which to live, work and raise a family. Our Canadian standard of living is the envy of tens of millions of people living elsewhere. To get there we have helped each other along the way.
This province is in a difficult spot now, and yes in the case of Muskrat Falls, it’s largely, but not entirely, of our own making. Furthermore, we are still running year over year provincial budget deficits at a current rate of around $3 million every day of the year, just to keep operating, and the end is not in sight.
That’s just not sustainable.
The federal equalization program was designed to address regional standard of living disparities, however, the rules for funds distribution exclude the current circumstance our province finds itself in. Changes to the program were proposed prior to the last federal election that would have seen additional funds flow to Newfoundland and Labrador, however, the feds decided to maintain the status quo going forward.
There is no reason for panic or despair, at least not yet.
There will be if immediate steps are not taken to right the ship. The means to fix this exist within our own province. This province is blessed with great natural resources that are in world demand. We have an abundance of minerals, oil, and hydroelectric potential.
Those can be developed to the benefit of the provincial economy such that the residents here can enjoy a standard of living at least equal to the Canadian average.
To get there, however, our federal government must step in now, to help with finding a solution to rate mitigation for Muskrat Falls that will maintain our electrical energy cost going forward in line with that of our neighboring provinces; and they must fix equalization or provide a program solution that effectively addresses the standard of living and infrastructure deficiencies that exist between Newfoundland and Labrador and the rest of Canada.
Rolly Card,
St. John's