Stephen Kimber is the Rogers Communications Chair in Journalism at the University of King's College in Halifax. He is an award-winning writer, editor and broadcaster. You are the finance minister at Backtobalance.ca.
by Stephen Kimber for Metro
While not nearly as addictive as Angry Birds, spending a few hours with the province's You-Be-The-Finance-Minister teeter-totter app — more prosaically known as backtobalance.ca — is entertaining. And depressingly, face-slappingly educational.
The government created the interactive online budget-making tool as part of its pre-budget consultations. It allows taxpayers to virtually raise and/or reduce revenues and expenses — and immediately see the bottom-line consequences.
Wanna play?
Let's begin with the government's starting point — a projected budget deficit of $390 million — and our own biases. Can we bring the numbers back to balance?
font-weight: bold; “>The point is that it's all a zero sum game. And actions have consequences.