Lieutenant Governor Steven Point today delivered a British Columbia government throne speech that promised to provide stability as the province deals with hard financial times.
The speech pitched the unpopular Harmonized Sales Tax as a way to strengthen the provincial economy.
“The government committed to work to make B.C. more competitive, reduce barriers to the economy and protect core public services,” it said. “A harmonized sales tax fits all three of those broad economic objectives.”
The government is moving to introduce the HST at a time when public finances are in serious trouble, it said. “The fiscal cupboard is bare and currently hangs on a wall of deficit spending.”
The $495-million deficit for fiscal 2009-2010 pledged in February, and repeated by both Premier Gordon Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen during the campaign before the May 12 election, is widely expected to grow in the Sept. 1 budget even as ministries continue to make cuts.
“While we will protect critical health and education services, we will not throw up our hands, throw in the towel and borrow our way into oblivion,” the speech said. “We must minimize spending on non-essential services and target discretionary spending where it is needed most.”
Regardless, the speech warned, this year's deficit will be “far higher than originally forecast.”
It also made clear that the reviews of B.C. Ferries and Translink now underway are aimed at containing costs: “Public funding devoted to public transit and ferry services should not be used to subsidize unreasonably high compensation levels or administrative costs.”
Also of note:
* the province will review the spending by all health authorities, boards of education and Crown corporations;
* Crown agencies will be rolled into line ministries in cases where the ministries can do the job more cost-effectively;
* the government will introduce legislation to restrict drivers from using cell phones;
* the long-promised Lobbyists Registration Act will be have new investigative and enforcement powers added;
* the Police Amendment Act, which will strengthen the powers of B.C.'s police complaint commissioner, will be reintroduced;
* the province will begin denying welfare to anyone in B.C. who has an outstanding warrant from another province;
* the government reintroduced the idea of full-day kindergarten, saying it will be in place for Sept. 2010;
* “A new wood first policy will . . . require all public buildings to use wood first as their default building material, inside and out”;
* the speech talked about the commitment to reconciliation with First Nations, but failed to mention the recognition and reconciliation legislation floated before the May election;
* it also appeared to acknowledge that “Green” energy projects are largely for electricity export: “This government will capitalize on the world's desire and need for clean energy, for the benefit of all British Columbians.” A new task force will be appointed to “recommend a blueprint for maximizing British Columbia's clean power potential, including a principled, economically-viable and environmentally-sustainable export development policy.”
The full text is available on the government's website.
Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee’s Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Reach him here.
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freebear
2 years ago
Some truths unveiled!
Electricity from green power mostly for export!
munroe
2 years ago
Absolutely nothing!
Nothing here for seniors, students, the homeless, the working poor or anyone except their corporate friends (private power and the HST "winners"). What it appears is that the Libs have decided to "stay the course" with the same failed policies that got us into this free fall in the first place.
Skywalker
2 years ago
How do you know the great Gordo is lying?
You know the first answer but there is a second. It is when someone is reading his speech. I won't sell BC Rail, I won't introduces a harmonized tax, I will provide open and honest government...yes, never was a promise I wouldn't break after you elect me.
sunshine coast girl
2 years ago
Uh, huh....
I don't believe a word that comes out of their mouths.
Wilfred Laurier
2 years ago
Hmmmm
"Electricity from green power mostly for export!"
Well, that is what pays for those nice social programs. But in leftieland, everything is either free or a conspiracy.
Skywalker
2 years ago
In Wilfredland
Everything Gordon says or does is wonderful. Some of us have been lied to a little too often.
munroe
2 years ago
Hmmmm? Seems to me, WL, you
Hmmmm? Seems to me, WL, you need to atually read some of the information. The guaranteed price to the private producers is significantly higher then existing costs. Hydro then assumes the risk of selling (remember California doesn't want the run of the river generation). Also the main time the RORs will generate is in the spring when demand is normally low.
Now tell me again how good it is that the public have guaranteed the profits and assumed the risk in a chancy endevour.
Dessident
2 years ago
Please read the headline as follows
New sales tax will help troubled economy: We are way over budget on the Olympic fiasco, and now you have to bail the province out.
Skywalker
2 years ago
And you know...
...it didn't sound any more plausible when Kevin Milligan or Caylin Shaw wrote it. But in Wifredland it all works.
Ronald Pagan
2 years ago
Skywalker: What about
Skywalker: What about Milligan's or Shaw's explanation was implausible?
Grania
2 years ago
Throne Speech
I am so very disappointed that Point cooperated in giving this transparent, ridiculous speech. I thought he had more class. I hoped he would stop this government in it's tracks. I am waiting for Campbell and the MP's to live within legal means and roll back the huge salary increases they gave themselves. They should set an example and volunteer to live on minimum wage until their books are balanced...and minimum wage is more than they are worth.
Skywalker
2 years ago
Easy.
Imbedded costs removed will be transferred to savings for consumers because of competition. That really is fantasy that might work in Paganland,
Ronald Pagan
2 years ago
Well Skywalker there is a
Well Skywalker there is a litany of real evidence that proves the point that you berate. And no, insults, conjecture, and other ad hominem attacks are not sufficient.
Please provide some type of counter evidence that lower costs are not passed down to consumers in a competitive market. I would suggest starting with Google Scholar.
And no one is saying that 100% of the savings will be passed down to consumers. The amount of savings passed down is a product of the price elasticity of demand to consumers and supply to producers. Without getting too technical, and therefore losing you, savings will not be born were we do not reduce commensurately our consumption on goods where the price rises. This has nothing to do with the tax and everything to do with our society's preferences and demand for goods where we literally need to distribute it based on who is willing to pay more. Sure there are ethical and philosophical issues with this approach but that is the hegemonic societal framework in which we live and yes in which party you support (NDP) also fully endorses.
As an aside, the amount of paranoia and bald-faced distrust of anything that doesn't satisy a narrow left of center world view on this website is just downright depressing.
G West
2 years ago
Ronal Pagan
What you're looking for is more than covered in the main HST article where Kevin Milligan fought, and lost, the good fight for the latest version of the Campbell Tax.
Re-posting any of that material here is a waste of time.
The arguments are bogus - the HST is nothing more than a $2 billion dollar tax shift from business to consumers.
From the rich to the poor-
Nothing 'new' and nothing empirical about what's going on.
Cheers
Ronald Pagan
2 years ago
Ok well, brush me up on why
Ok well, brush me up on why the arguments are bogus. Show me numbers demonstrating that lower costs do not translate to savings to consumers in a competitive market.
Put your money where your mouth is.