A B.C. government committee cited tough economic times in a report released today that recommended minimal increases to the budgets for the legislature's independent officers.

“Striving for consistency, the Finance Committee is recommending that increases in the offices’ budgets for office operations next year be limited to non-discretionary increases in salaries and benefits for statutory officers and their staff,” the report said. The only exception was the merit commissioner, who did not ask for a budget increase to cover salary and benefit increases.

The eight offices, sometimes described as government watchdogs, made their budget requests a few weeks ago. They include the Auditor General, representative for children and youth, Ombudsman, information and privacy commissioner, police complaints commissioner, merit commissioner, conflict of interest commissioner and Elections B.C..

“They assist in bringing the light of day onto a lot of things the government would prefer to keep hidden,” said Bruce Ralston, one of four NDP MLAs on the nine member Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services. He and other NDP members voted against the report when it came to the committee last week. “Everyone understands these are economically challenging times, [but] there's lots of areas where they could cut where there's far less value for money.”

He cited the the government's communications shop, the Public Affairs Bureau, which has grown to 126 people and government advertising as areas that would be better to cut.

The failure to in most cases meet the officers' budget requests will mean different things in each office, he said. The Ombudsman and the information and privacy commissioner won't be able to hire staff they were planning to add, he said, and the representative for children and youth will have a tough time dealing with the likely increased demand for her services during the economic downturn.

The committee recommended Elections B.C. get what it asked for to cover capital costs and election expenses, but suggested the agency make do with $7.8 million—almost $1 million less than it wanted—for ongoing operating costs.

“I think they will be impacted in a negative way,” said Ralston. “It's not really good for democracy.”

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.