On New Year’s Eve, billions of people made billions of Champagne-fueled promises to themselves for self-improvement in 2014. Some promise-makers might not remember what they told themselves when they woke up on January 1^st, and many more will let it slip from their minds by February.

But governments and politicians are also in the business of promise making. While they might not always (or often) keep their promises to you, perhaps they will be more likely to keep promises to themselves. Here is some unsolicited advice for what Premier Alison Redford should consider for her belated New Years resolution.

A balanced budget by 2015 

The Premier made a solemn promise during the 2012 election to balance the budget by the end of fiscal year 2013-14. Unless a multi-billion dollar mattress descends from the heavens before March 31^st, she will have failed to keep this promise to Albertans. Not even close actually.

About half of us resolve to lose weight in the New Year, and so Premier Redford should resolve to cut the fat from Alberta’s budget to balance it by the end of the next fiscal year, 2014-15.

Repay the debt

Balancing the budget is really just not gaining any more weight. Actually losing weight is paying down the debt. The last budget laid out a blueprint for Alberta to take on $17 billion in debt by the end of fiscal year 2015-16. 

The province had long given up on Ralph Klein’s diet, but Premier Redford should put the government on a long-term diet and pay back the money borrowed over the past few years.

Stand by Bill 46

The Premier found religion mid-term on the need to get government employee costs under control. Last year, the average core-government employee cost taxpayers $102,000 and had received an average 17 per cent raise over the last five years. The case was pretty clear for the need to put on the brakes until the private sector could catch up and the budget was balanced.

Predictably, union bosses denied this was a problem and refused to strike a reasonable deal. Premier Redford responded with Bill 46, which legislates a deal if the Alberta Union of Public Employees (AUPE) refuses to sign one.

If she has any hope at all of meeting her first (CTF recommended) New Year’s resolution, she needs to stick to her guns on this. In negotiations, the premier of Alberta is supposed to represent its taxpayers to its employees. Not caving-in and taking the easy route should be her next resolution.

Pensions

By the government’s own estimates, the province will be on the hook for nearly $11 billion in unfunded pension liabilities by the end of this fiscal year. To the Premier’s credit, her government has woken up to the fact that many of the province’s pension plans are broke and will require massive taxpayer bailouts in coming years if they are not put on a more sound footing.

The government wrapped up its consultations on government employee pension plan reform on December 31^st, and there will be tremendous pressure on the Premier and her caucus to cave-in to government employee unions and either bail them out, or punt the problem further down the road. 

She should resolve to see this issue through to an end and to close the unfunded liabilities in a way that is both sustainable and fair to taxpayers.

Lockup

For the first time in 20 years, Alberta’s Finance Minister (Doug Horner) refused to allow the CTF into the stakeholder budget lockup. It was a petty attempt to silence criticism, but resulted in a massive backlash against the government. Fortunately, Premier Redford personally overturned Horner’s decision and invited the CTF to resume its normal role of scrutinizing the budget.

The Premier should avoid the whole nasty business in advance this year, and issue an open invitation to all groups – left, right, friendly and unfriendly – to participate in the entire budget process.

Good luck to all those who made resolutions. May 2014 be the year where Alberta’s fiscal house gets turned around.