Welcome to 2012, the year that the bills for the Great Recession of 2008 start coming in. As usual, governments took the easy way out in 2008 when the crash hit, and their revenues dropped. Rather than adopt a prudent reduction in government spending, commensurate with their falling revenues, Canadian governments simply ran deficits, and piled on the debt, or in Alberta’s case, burned through billions of dollars in hard-won savings to feed their spending addiction. The result is inescapable: deficits mean debt, and debt means debt servicing costs, and every dollar that goes to servicing a debt is a dollar that doesn’t go to essential public services.

Honestly, it is to weep.

Once again the dreary headlines roll out lamenting the fact that once again, sadly, nothing can be done.

‘Health care in Alberta bleeds red ink’, screams one, and more follow with the predictable theme that health care spending is unstoppable, and the operating health deficits roll up, and waiting lists grow, and pressure is building because of new drugs and technologies, and seniors must pay more, but of course, nothing can be done.