Statistics Canada reported 6500 job losses last month, and as far as MHA Lorraine Michael is concerned, the Liberal government isn’t doing anything to help.The House of Assembly re-opened this week, and the NDP was quick to ask questions about our province’s employment deficit. 

“Last week, the Premier presented what he called a vision statement, which says nothing about job creation objectives. I ask the Premier, after a year in power, what plans does government have – what is his vision – to address this job crisis?”

Paul Davis, Leader of the Official Opposition, has said that Premier Ball’s vision document is not the economic growth plan that the “Ball Liberals promised, the bond-rating agencies demanded, or the province needs.”

Davis said it’s “nothing but buzz words, platitudes, and unanswered questions masquerading as a plan” and that there is no economic growth plan to avoid the 30,000 job losses that the Premier’s Finance Minister just projected the province will experience in the next four years.

“A document that raises more questions than it answers is not a long-term plan,” he scolded. ” It’s an excuse for a plan from a government that has no idea where it is going.”

You can read the document, The Way Forward, here. The Provincial Government says The Way Forward will guide its actions to “achieve greater efficiency, strengthen the province’s economic foundation, enhance services, and improve outcomes to promote a healthy and prosperous province.”

The document pleads we avoid catering to short-term demands, stressing “we must think and act in a way that is long-term and across Government. We can no longer afford to be bound by short-term, reactionary thinking.”

The premier claims this vision “will hold government to a higher standard – one where success is not defined by the value of commodity prices, but by sound fiscal management. I encourage everyone to read the Vision, and appreciate how it provides the people of the province with a tangible path that will guide us to a stronger tomorrow.”