Stop the 'soft-sell:' Roger Grimes says Ball government should act now to reduce deficit

A former Liberal premier who took office 15 years ago this month says the Dwight Ball government should stop the "soft-sell" of a budget crisis, and act now to reduce spending.

"If it was in your own home, you'd be doing something about it today, to stop it," said Roger Grimes.

• 'Deficits of this magnitude' not sustainable, Auditor General Terry Paddon warns

Governing through lean years are familiar for Grimes, who narrowlywon the leadership of the Liberal Party on Feb. 3, 2001, and was sworn in as premier two weeks later.

"We had run through a decade or more...where there was a persistent deficit of about 10 per cent of spending," Grimes told the St. John's Morning Show Wednesday.

"Every year we'd be roughlyhalf-a-billion dollars short."

The Dwight Ball government of today has it much worse with a 25 per cent shortfall, he said, "which is scary,really."

According to Grimes, "It's a big hole to climb out of and it's a similar circumstance to what we had. You got to roll up your sleeves and deal with it."

Turbulent times

His own administration was dogged by economic and political turbulence.

"We had a full decade before I became premier of wage freezes and we had layoffs, and so on. This happened annually," he said.

The program review done by his predecessor, Brian Tobin, had reduced the size of the public service and even though Grimes offered a three-year wage hike, it wasn't enough.

"The whole public service went on strike right away, and that lasted a week or so," he said.

"We had the first and only doctors' strike in Newfoundland and LabradorIt showed that we were in a financial crisis, struggling to get things under control."

Grimes said Hibernia oil and the Voisey's Bay nickelagreement brought new money into the province, allowing the Progressive Conservatives under Danny Williams to balance the budget and even run surpluses.

But he says the Williams government blew it setting up the problems that Dwight Ball is now facing.

"They decided to take oil revenues, all of it, and invest in some infrastructure and I think the problem in my mind is the infrastructure they chose," he said.

"MuskratFalls in my view is a disaster in the making."

'Grab bull by the horns'

Grimes said the project is one reason why the province's credit rating was downgraded in late January, and he believes a review of the project, due in March, will identify problems.

"I'm still one of those hanging on by my fingernails, hoping they might even be able to cancel it or alter it significantly to stop this drain of money."

• Lower Churchill deal ruinous: Grimes

In the meantime, his advice to the Ball administration is to speak bluntly and act decisively.

Grimes said the approach taken by Ball and Finance Minister Cathy Bennett has been "tosoft-sell this financial issue, not really calling it a crisis," which he thinks is wrong.

"Right now they're looking a little bit hesitant leave it with us, we'll work through it well,I think they should grab the bull by the horns," he said.

"The people will support them, knowing how severe it is," he said.