[fenwick16]

Originally Posted by halifaxboyns

I'm not saying don't reduce the HST; but it has to be done in a careful way. The economic signs are so disjaunted - one day it's good and one day it's bad. There had been concern at one time that we could see a double dip recession or a stall - so we're not fully out of the woods yet.

Let it stay the way it is for now; so you have a buffer. Then when budget time rolls around next year; if things keep looking good - reduce it one point to 14% with a promise to examine things 6 months later. If things continue to look promising; then reduce back to 13%.

The debt takes time to pay off; I agree. But more focus should be put on living within Provincial means and paying the debt down. Nearly $2 billion of the provincial budget is debt payments! Imagine what that could be invested in - if the debt was gone?

I agree with a cautious approach. I am happy that Nova Scotia has gotten its finances under control. You are off on the debt payments though. Nova Scotia actually paid less in 2008-2009 for debt servicing than it did 10 years ago in 1998-1999. In 2008 - 2009, Nova Scotia only paid $886 million for debt servicing. (source - http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/site-fi...erview2008.pdf ) The percentage of the budget for debt servicing was 10.7% of expenses, not bad compared to what it was 10 years ago (lower interest rates are a big factor in this). I would prefer that Nova Scotia's debt was more like Alberta's debt (actually a surplus). The information for 2009 - 2010 has not been posted to the NS government website since I think it was just released, or parts of it, in the past couple of days.

(source - page 4 of http://www.gov.ns.ca/finance/site-fi...erview2008.pdf )

Total gross debt servicing costs were $909 million in 1998-99 and are $886 million today - a reduction of $23 million.
Total 2008-2009 expenses for the Province of Nova Scotia are forecast to be $8.317 billion, as of the December 2008 budget forecast update.
Departmental expenses make up 88.4 per cent of the total, at $7.349 billion. These include:
• $3.193 billion for Health, 38.4 per cent of total expenses
• $1.491 billion for Education and Universities, 17.9 per cent
• $908.5 million for Community Services, 10.9 per cent
• $1.757 billion for all other departments, or 21.1 per cent
Debt servicing costs are forecast to be $886.4 million, or 10.7 per cent of expenses.