29 January 2007

A sign of the economic decline

In the midst of Danny Williams' rhapsodizing to The Telegram today (not available online) about how good everything supposedly is in the province, comes this comment:
"We could be contributors to (federal) equalization within a decade. And, we have also been using our wealth to make strategic investments in education, health care, infrastructure and poverty reduction."
Only a year or so ago, economists like Wade Locke were talking about Newfoundland and Labrador getting off Equalization - that is, become a "have" province - around 2007 or 2008.

Now the Premier is talking about achieving that target in 2017 or 2018.

Maybe.

So what changed in the past 18 months?