Tuesday, April 26, 1967 How far out the Honourable Member from the of Queens was when he presented his Budget on March 24, 1966 is shown in the Interim Statement of Revenue and Expenditure for the fiscal year ending 81st March, 1967, which I have tabled tonight for study by Honourable Members. On page 1 of this report, we find that there was & deficit of $4,217,897 in¬ stead of a surplus of $68,574 on current account; and at the bottom of the same page the estimated decrease in liabilities of $481,898 as budgeted by the former Treasurer turned out to be an enormous increase in debt in the Consolidated Fund of $4,936,470., after crediting capital receipts with $6.8 million from the sale of the new provincial office building. This is not all, Mr. Speaker . Until the Public Ac¬ counts appear for the fiscal year 1966-67 we will have to rely upon the External Auditor's Report for July 28, 1966, Appendix 10, for the estimated deficit of approx¬ imately $600,000. incurred by the other government agencies and crown corporations plus $1,000,000. being the estimated expenditures on Senior Citizens Housing Cor¬ poration projects. These latter items do not form part of the Consolidated Fund of the Province. However, and I am using the words of the former Provincial Treasurer, "in order to show a more complete view of all facets of government operations, the balance sheet now included in the Public Accounts contains the assets and liabilities of all but four of the government agencies as well as those of the Consolidated Fund". I heartily agree with the remarks of the Provincial Treasurer of 1960 when he said that it can be readily seen that a succession of such increases in debt would eventually lead (a) to a complete starvation of the public services, or (b) further and more complete dependence on federal subsidies and grants to supplment our re¬ venue. He went on to say "that trend should not and cannot be allowed to continue unless we are prepared to sacrifice completely our provincial autonomy". Despite this warning, the Public Accounts and the External Auditor's reports Elainly show that control of budgetary accounts was lost from April 1, 1961, the eginning of a continued series of heavy deficits, to July 28, 1966, amounting in the aggregate to $22,989,267 for an average of approximately $4-8 million per annum: April 1, 1961 — March 81, 1962 ................................................................$ 914492. April 1, 1962 — March 81, 1968 ................................................................ 8488,926. April 1, 1968 — March 81, 1964 ................................................................ 8416,807. April 1, 1964 — March 81, 1966 ................................................................ 4^42,163. April 1, 1966 — March 81, 1966 ................................................................ 6318,146. April 1, 1966 — July 28, 1966 .................................................................... 6,616,088. $22,989,267. It is interesting to note that the Provincial Debt in 1861 was $166,824 at March 81, 1961 it was about $82,000,000 and at March 81, 1967 it was about 861,000,000. This means that the Provincial Debt has increased almost as much in the last six years as in the previous one hundred years. Mr. Speaker , from now on in the course of my Budget Speech , I propose, with your permission, to omit from my oral presentation the detail of the statistical tabulations. These tabulations will be found in the printed copies of this Speech which will later be made available to Honourable Members of the House. REVENUE A summary of the Ordinary Revenues for the fiscal year 1966-67 is as follows:— (A) From the Government of Canada (1) Statutory Subsidies ...........................................................$ 666,932. (2) Tax Collection Agreement .............................................. 2,689,000. (8) Equalisation ...................................................................... 7,071,000. (4) Adjustment 196646 Payment ........................................ 170,000. (6) ' Additional Grant .......................... 8,600,000. (6) Income Tax on Electricity ............................................ 71,000. (7) Shared-Cost Programs and Conditional Grants ........ 6,780,081 $14407,932.