The Stelmach administration’s latest quarterly financial update is short on details but paints a compelling picture of Conservative leadership failures.

The update claimed $430 million in savings, but noted $575 million in new expenditures. It also notes that over half the Stelmach administration’s cuts are to core public services, which are vital to Alberta’s prosperity and social fabric.

A responsible government wouldn’t use its own wasteful spending as an excuse to cut core public services such as education, children’s services and health care. For Lloyd Snelgrove to claim that government has been at the public trough for ten years is true, but his administration is punishing the wrong people.

The Alberta Liberal cost savings plan takes a different approach, saving $577 million by reducing the size of cabinet, eliminating the Public Affairs Bureau, and cutting wasteful spending such as subsidies for horseracing and grants to golf courses.

If this administration were really serious about cost savings, they would take a long, hard look in the mirror and cut back on the fat. But it’s been a long time since Alberta has enjoyed that kind of leadership, and we won’t get it back until Albertans choose a different government.

David