5. SOUND PUBLIC FINANCES FOR A GROWING ECONOMY

Mr. Speaker, today we are making choices. This Budget has forced us to take a long and careful look at where we spend our money. The Estimates indicate significant savings in some areas and investments in others. Detailed press releases and backgrounders have been prepared by each department.

Government is challenging the status quo. In years past, we did not have sufficient funds for pay equity in the public service, salary increases for rural doctors, a clean-up of the St. John's Harbour, or new computers for our schools. Mr. Speaker, we did not have these things because we could not afford them. We could not afford them because we were unwilling to make difficult choices. These choices have been made. We are announcing our priorities today. And we are reshaping Government to fit those priorities.

The people of our Province have exercised discipline and restraint. Their Government should do no less. We are not relying on increasing deficits. We are moving to eliminate them. We are not increasing personal or corporate taxes. And, Mr. Speaker - while we now have the highest retail sales tax in the country - as of April 1, 1997, that distinction finally comes to an end.

We will break the cycle of dependency, deficits, and debt. The years of borrowing the most and taxing the most have not helped. They have deeply hurt us. Those days are over.

In the foreseeable future, we are moving toward a permanent end to deficits. We are moving to a point where we can ask ourselves whether, four years from now, we should pay down our debt, make new investments for better services, or lower our taxes. These are the choices this Government wants the people of our Province to face. These are the kinds of choices our people will have before them at the completion of the three-year plan set out in this Budget. We will ask the people of Newfoundland and Labrador to give us the answers.

Mr. Speaker, I repeat: We are challenging the status quo. Together, we will work for growth and job creation, especially in rural areas. We will guard the integrity of our treasured social programs. We remain prudent in our spending, progressive in our thinking.

We are witnessing today the re-awakening of a spirit of entrepreneurship, ingenuity, and confidence that is fundamental to the character of Newfoundland and Labrador. The Cabot Year is less about celebrating the past and more about shaping the future that we know can be ours.

Today, the Government of Newfoundland and Labrador has put a plan for partnership to the people our Province. It is a measured plan designed to bring a prosperous and confident Newfoundland and Labrador into the next millennium.

In the spirit of John Cabot,
Our course has been charted,
Our sail has been fastened.
Let an exciting new journey begin.

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