Welcome To Ongoing La, La Land —-The BC NDP/Green Cooperation and Responsible Government Accord.
by The Honourable A. Brian Peckford
December 14, 2024
We know what we endured the last years of the NDP Government in this Province.
Get Ready for more! This new Agreement that keeps the Socialist Government in Power confirms this.
This 4 year ( renewable annually) Socialist/ Green Deal just signed is remarkable in its absence of any commitment on budget discipline or economic matters.
Section 3 of the deal is titled ‘ Policy Initiatives.’
There are 11 of them .
Not one deals with Budget or Fiscal issues !
Not one of them deals with Deficit or Debt!
Not one of the them deals with Economic Issues ! Or Research and Innovation.
Here are the eleven: health care, mental health care, housing, renters protection, homelessness, transit, climate,, environment, social and economic justice, taxation, and democratic and electoral reform.
Taxation here means closing a loophole on the property land transfer tax regarding trusts. That’s it.
On environment there is a mention of the forestry resource but just to do a study. That’s it. No other natural resources mentioned.
All the eleven areas listed are spending areas .
The Province’s debt according to their own figures for last fiscal year 2023-2024 is $107 billion .
The Province’s deficit according to their figures for last fiscal year 2023-2024 is over $5 billion.
We have to borrow to ‘keep the lights ‘ on ( operating budget) every year !!!
This Province has the highest rate of increase on its debt of the nine provinces and federal government.
89% of all jobs in the Province have been Government jobs according to the Fraser Institute . Who finances these jobs ?
As the Institute says :
‘That’s an unsustainable trend because the private sector ultimately pays for the public sector including the wages and salaries of government employees. If the share of workers employed by government continues to grow, the government must extract more money from the private sector to pay for a growing government wage bill—either in the form of higher taxes today or more debt.’
And on taxes , The Province’s sales tax is regressive . The Institute states :
‘Reforming B.C.’s poorly designed provincial sales tax (PST), which gives B.C. the highest tax rate on investment in Canada by applying taxes to a range of business expenses that are untaxed in places like Ontario and Alberta would also be a helpful and long overdue reform.’
This Accord is blind to BC ‘s Reality—of increasing deficits and debt and no plan to address these crucial areas.
