Start with the elephant in the room,our deficit and its b-line toward a bankrupt province. This may sound drastic, but privatization, or a partial sell off of strategic assets owned by Nalcor, I think, should be explored. Our debt is reaching astronomical figures while a crown corporation is holding more than 18 Billion in assets. I recognize that many of these assets generate revenue; however, exploring the possibility may do more than band-aids we are currently applying, selling off our future.
Patrick A
St. Johns West
This sounds like a great starting point for the province, bringing us back or finally to the point where decisions are made with us, “not for us” I say that very loosely, as the evidence speaks to the contrary in many cases. Yet I hold out hope and belief that this home of ours can right the course. We hear about reform so much but hearing about it solves nothing we need action. Hopefully this and many other steps are taken. Stand up and be heard, engage and embrace change.
we have opened the option for potential leaders of the province to have a look and contribute. See if they tackle or want to help us tackle it.
http://gapnl2020.wixsite.com/ourvoices/forum/economic-solutions/dealing-with-our-deficit This conversation is taking on a great twist, went from economic solutions to democratic reform. Potential leadership, would you like a chance to give input? @gepelly
@FureyAndrew
@ChesCrosbie
@AlisonCoffinNDP
@votejohnabbot #gapnl #thoughtsforimprovment
Bonnie, curiosity question or concept for thought..would/could the restructuring model include regionalization, grouping together communities which have individual representation into larger groups? Combining their economic resources to have larger buying power for services and infrastructure projects? Also making for a less bloated HOA and with the added population for representation, each MHA would have less time to worry about personal issues and ego-boosting and have to get down to the business of governance?
To add onto that if I may, ministers to be nominated and confirmed by the non political HOA rather than being appointed to the position, must have relative experience to ministerial role ie. education minster should have a background in education, finance minister should be from the financial sector... accountability and consequences are necessary for abuses of office not a slap on the wrist and see you next week..we are headed for rough times before we see the forest through the trees, the people making decisions need to have the wherewithal to see things through, without trying to sugar coat the pathway forward or blame the last group who blamed the last group
My thoughts on restructure go beyond salaries and expenses into structural reform, removing or minimizing politics from governance, essentially removing the poison from the tree the decision making process has fallen to deep into partisanship and is not serving its intended purpose to choose in best interest of the people.
Bonnie, I am in absolute agreement with your points made there. I have been deep in research on another similar topic today, looking at the financials from Memorial,will be posting about that once I clarify my POV on the data.
A band-aide solution has been status quo for the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador for too long. It is time for a reset of our Government. A time arrives when you have to tear down a structure and start with a new foundation. I believe Newfoundland and Labrador has reached this point. Band-aides will not hold the province together long enough for us to become self-sustaining. We are spending beyond our means. We first should look at the money spent within Government (Salaries & expenses), how many Government officials do we really need?
This is a great issue to bring up and have a citizen conversation about.