"Danny and his Ministers tell everyone they meet that they only have $3 billion to fund healthcare, education, road work, etc, because the other $1 billion has to be paid back to the banks. The truth is less than $600 million is paid to the banks."

"The Premier and several Cabinet Ministers have been out in the public saying that 25% of every dollar we spend in this province is used to pay interest on our debt. The Premier made the comments on his televised address to the Province on January 5 and I have heard several Ministers make the same statement. The problem is this statement is factually incorrect. The province spends less than 14 cents of every dollar to pay for interest on our debt," says Grimes, "and this is confirmed by all current budgetary documents."

The Liberal Leader was referring to a statement by the Premiers in his address that:

"The numbers are staggering to the point where it is difficult for many of us to fully appreciate just how serious the situation really is. Out of our annual $4.2 billion dollar budget, we now spend more than a billion dollars a year - that’s 25 cents of every dollar to pay for the interest our debt."

The Opposition Leader says either the Premier and his cabinet are being misinformed or they are deliberately misleading the people of this province for their own political purposes.

The Leader of the Opposition says the whole process around the external audit and the way it has been presented to the people of this province is clearly being seen as a political exercise to suit the government’s own agenda and provide an excuse for breaking it’s election promises.

"Why did Danny pretend that $1 billion must be paid to the banks as interest on the debt when the real number is less than $600 million," asked Grimes.