Shortly after the 2003 general election, the newly elected Conservative politicians accepted a proposal to cut down the number of health boards and education boards across the province.
Save money, they said.
Save money, the politicians repeated.
And so it happened.
As it turned out, the consolidation didn’t save any money. It certainly didn’t reduce the public service payroll, a goal the Conservatives set out in their election platform.
labradore has done the province one of his usual fine jobs of reminding everyone just how the consolidation of education boards didn’t live up to the claims made for it. “To gain efficiencies in administration” is how the education minister at the time – John Ottenheimer – put it in March 2004. Fewer students, projected decline in enrolment by 2011 and all that, you know.
Now here we are about 10 years later.
The government is in a . . . → Read More: The Sir Robert Bond Papers: Budgeting Control and Resources #nlpoli