The Chief Economist with the Conference Board of Canada believes the province’s debt lies more on the shoulders of a spending problem, rather than a revenue problem.

Today the NL Employers’ Council is hosting a summit entitled: Transforming our Future, how modernizing government services is key to prosperity.

Pedro Antunes is in the capital city for the summit. He says the revenue side of the equation is not bad, indicating the problem is really on the expenditure side.

He says this is where the province is off-kilter, stating that expenditures need to come down. He understands the province is widespread with many rural communities, but when looking at the cost of delivering services in comparison to other regions across Canada that suffer many of the same difficulties, Newfoundland and Labrador is by far, way above the rest.

Antunes says there are ways to deliver services more efficiently, and that’s something that the province needs to explore, especially in healthcare and education.

He says when you look specifically at hospitals, there are many in rural Newfoundland that the province cannot afford to keep going. Antunes says it’s the same for education facilities.

Antunes says that’s not to mention the steep declines in population and understands the difficulty in closing facilities like hospitals and schools.