Revolutionary Moderation

The other oil front: Alberta



Yesterday was budget day, and the biggest increases in spending are toward capital budgets. Two things strike me:



First, capital spending fits the philosophy of the Klein government. They like having budgets they can back out of in a hurry. That's why they like privatisation so much --- not because it's cheaper, and not because of some philosophical bent, but mostly because it's easier to tell a company that your contract with them is over than it is to fire a bunch of government employees. Capital spending is along these lines, because it's easier to build schools (paid for once) than it is to staff them (paid every year).



Second, I'm starting to think that the government is starting to prepare a legacy of buildings across the province that can be pointed to, saying "that's from the Klein era." (There's currently not much, unlike the Manning and Lougheed eras, when lots of schools and hospitals went up and were staffed... I can still drive around Calgary and tell you which were which.) I don't think Klein will be around much beyond the Centenary in 2005, so he's got to get moving on this.