Reduce, Reuse, Recycle?

As we have heard often lately from the Graham Liberals New Brunswick is in an economic crunch. We are experiencing a monster of a deficit this year ($750 million) and the future is not looking much brighter.

That's why, when TJ Burke announced he was stepping down from Cabinet last week, the Premier's reaction seemed so out of place.

With 21 Ministers the Graham Liberals already have one of the largest Cabinets in New Brunswick's history, and certainly a lot bigger than similar sized provinces. Saskatchewan has 18, Manitoba has 18, Newfoundland has 18, and the new NDP (!) government in Nova Scotia only has 12.

We at the NB Conservative think that Burke's resignation as Environment Minister would have been an excellent opportunity to reduce the size of cabinet down to a more modest level.

Think of it this way - every Minister gets an extra $40,000 in salary, gets a special housing allowance in Fredericton, gets a vehicle allowance of about $500 per month, has to have an Executive Assistant and a Secretary hired to help them out, and so on and so forth. Maybe it all only adds up to an extra quarter of a million dollars a year - but shouldn't the Premier be leading the way when money is so tight?