BC's Burgeoning Budget Deficit: Mr. Hansen's Ridiculous 5K Solution

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Yesterday Sean Holman reported that Gordon Campbell's Finance Minister has decided that one way to deal with the deficit is to put the screws to social service agencies, line by line:

The provincial government could be putting discretionary grants to social service agencies on the chopping block. Speaking with reporters today, Finance Minister Colin Hansen acknowledged discretionary grants could be "impacted" by the government's effort to find $1.9 billion in administrative efficiencies over three years......

{snippety-doodle-dandy}

"There are cases where we've identified that there might be dollars going out the door to an organization when, in fact, those services should be provided by front-line government workers. So we're not looking at it from the perspective of whoever has been funded in the past should get funded in the future. We're saying how best can we deliver those services in the most cost-effective way. And I can tell you, just in the last month and a half, there has been many, many, many hours sitting in committee literally going through line by line and you wind up with something that's $5,000. And somebody says, 'Well, it's only $5,000.' And I say, 'No, no. It is $5,000.' It's been a pretty intense process as we've gone through this."

To which I responded:

Hmmmmm......

How many times, exactly, does $5K go into this?

Or this?

Or this?

Or even this?

So.

How many times, indeed?

(Answer later)

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