MP for Westlock-St. Paul Brian Storseth was preaching fiscal restraint to local councillors during a visit to town last week.
“We need to cut back, we need to say no to spending,” said Storseth at a meeting with MD of Bonnyville council on Jan. 11.
Council discussed ways to cut back, ranging from cutting funds to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) to pension reform, during a stop in Storseth's pre-budget consultation tour through the MD.
Coun. Fred Bamber asked what priorities the government would place on reducing the deficit and paying down the national debt. He suggested the CBC's funding could be cut and asked why the government continues to fund it.
“If they can't stand on (their) own feet why don't we let them die? They can't live without federal funding,” Bamber said. “The CBC does serve a purpose to Canadians and we need to make sure that it is there,” commented Storseth after the meeting. “But it also needs to act in a responsible manner and give a benefit to Canadians.”
The CBC should distribute and promote Canadian content across the country, he said, adding the corporation's current budget of more than $1 billion isn't providing adequate value to Canadian taxpayers, in his opinion.
Councillors and Storseth discussed the need to make changes to the Canadian Pension Program. One councillor suggested reintroducing physically fit seniors into the workforce to counteract the growing need for temporary foreign workers.
“Why would I want to go home and sit and not do anything if I was physically able to replace a foreign worker and help the economy?” asked Coun. Don Sinclair.
“There certainly is something to be said about increasing productivity in our economy,” said Storseth. But seniors express mixed views on the idea, he added.
“Pension reform is going to be one of the big issues moving forward in our country,” he said after the meeting. He said pension reform would need to be negotiated between the provinces and the federal government.
“Canadians have been asked to tighten their own belts, so we have to do the same in government,” he said after the meeting. “We do recognize that there needs to be some fiscal restraint and we need to look at all of our departments.”
While every department needs to be looked at, Storseth doesn't want to see any cuts to the Department of National Defence, which he said had been run down for years.
He told council the F-35 fighter jet program would be a benefit to the local economy. He said he has “deducted” that Cold Lake will become home to the tactical and training squadron. If the training squadron were located at 4 Wing, two thirds of the 65 fighter jets and the economic benefits of infrastructure development would be located at Cold Lake.
The government announced a tactical squadron would be located at 4 Wing, but has not officially announced where the training squadron will be located. Another tactical squadron will go to Bagotville.
“I firmly believe that the F-35 is the right fighter aircraft for our air force,” he said after the meeting.
4 Wing Base Commander Colonel David Wheeler previously stated he supported obtaining the F-35 fighter jet fleet to replace the aging CF-18 Hornet fleet.
Storseth is meeting with councils in the riding before the 2011 budget is released in February.
