The PC’s are reiterating claims from the NDP, calling government’s “11th-hour pre-budget consultations” a sham.
PC Finance Critic Tony Wakeham says the departments and agencies prepared their budget submissions for the Department of Finance in the Fall, so these consultations and requests for input are happening too late to shape the budget.
He says the Liberal minority government does not have a mandate to exclude the Opposition from the process since they will need their support to pass the budget; however, they have shut the Opposition out of the process by denying them the wealth of information government has at its disposal.
Wakeham says the Liberals are not genuinely interested in input or collaboration, calling their pre-budget consultation process nothing but smoke and mirrors, something he says is disgraceful.
NDP Leader Alison Coffin says she is surprised that after all of government’s talk about collaboration, that asking for input from all MHAs through a news release is what they’ve come up with.
Coffin slammed government saying they should be embarrassed by such a fundamental lack of understanding about how meaningful collaboration actually occurs.
She says the NDP are appalled by what they call government’s “hollow gestures of collaboration” and the behavior of this Liberal government suggests they do not respect the will of the people.
The party leader suggests government make time to sit with them, show the challenges they are facing with developing the budget and how the NDP can help identify possible solutions.
