Reporters this week received approximately 10 kilograms of binders and documents from the provincial government, looking at all aspects of Liberal policies and also background information about B.C.'s demographics and economy. Here's a sampling of the tidbits you can find buried in the rafts of paperwork.

1. The total population of the province is expected to increase by 45,200 in 2004. That number is predicted to increase to 49,300 in 2005, and even a little further, to 50,200 in 2006. The median age of the province's population is expected to increase from 35.4 years in 1995 to 40 by 2006.
2. Buried deep in the three-year plan for the Ministry of Provincial Revenue is the admission that the huge income tax cuts made in the Liberals' first 48 hours in office have not in fact "paid for themselves" as was the constant promise during the 2001 election campaign. "The implementation [of the tax cuts has] reduced revenues owed to government," says the revenue ministry's service plan.
3. The number of houses sold in B.C. last year was up 13 per cent over 2002. The average house price was $258,926, although the prices varied wildly depending on what part of the province you lived in.
4. The aboriginal population grew substantially faster than the non-aboriginal population in the last few years. The total number of aboriginals in B.C rose by 24 per cent between 1996 and 2001. But fewer and fewer aboriginals are remaining on the reserves. A full 70 per cent now live off-reserve, usually in the larger cities.
5. Despite Finance Minister Gary Collins' repeated statements in his budget speech about the importance of the balanced budget to investors, the minister doesn't expect the new figures to improve B.C.'s credit rating. The finance ministry expects the bond agencies will continue to rate B.C. at Aa2 at least through 2007.
6. Population growth in recent years has been very disproportionately directed to the Lower Mainland. In the years from 1996 to 2001, the population of the Greater Vancouver area grew by 8.5 per cent. For all the rest of the province, the increase was only 0.4 per cent.
7. Despite the government's optimistic predictions of greater progress in treaty talks with B.C. natives, the government isn't looking for much reduction in incidences of roadblocks, blockades and other "direct actions" by native groups. Nine such protests occurred in 2003. The budget documents predict that eight will occur this year, and seven in each of 2005 and 2006.
8. Of all the charges recommended by police to Crown counsel, more than four out of five of them are approved by Crown--a total of 83 per cent. In nine per cent of cases, Crown counsel chooses not to proceed, either because the lawyers don't see a "reasonable likelihood" of conviction or because for some other reason it's not deemed to be in the public interest to go ahead. In four per cent of cases, the person is sent to some type of diversion scheme; in three per cent, the files are sent back to police with a request for more information; and in one per cent a warning is issued instead of a formal charge.
9. As just about all of us who live in major cities could have guessed intuitively, our roads are becoming more congested. At the moment 13.6 per cent of all the kilometres driven on urban roads are driven in "congested" conditions - when more than 80 per cent of the road space is filled up with cars. But with the government's best efforts, that's still expected to go up to 15 per cent by 2006-07. If the government doesn't put significant effort into the problem, the figure could be as high as 17.6 per cent by then.
10. None of the solutions, however, look at greater use of mass-transit to reduce congestion. "Road-based transport will remain most people's preferred alternative for personal and work trips over short and medium distances," the documents say, while bemoaning the high costs of building new highways to try to take care of the congestion.
11. In 2003 B.C. provincial parks received about 15 million visitors in total. That figure is expected to increase by about 20 per cent by 2010 - the year the Winter Olympics are held here.
12. Money brought in from movie and TV production peaked in 2002, when more than $1 billion worth of production took place in B.C. That was up from just $176 million in 1991. But last year the numbers slipped by 20 per cent to $800 million, and the government warns that potential labour unrest and/or high labour costs could compromise growth in this sector.
13. Forestry is being conducted on a less sustainable basis in the province with only 85 hectares reseeded for every 100 hectares harvested or destroyed by fire or other problems. The ratio, admits the forests ministry, "reflects a rend towards an increase in not satisfactorily restored areas. From 1993 through 2001, more hectares were reseeded than were harvested or destroyed in what the ministry calls "backlog reforestation." However, it admits it will probably be as long as 10 years before the reforestation rate again catches up with the harvesting rate.
14. One-third of British Columbians rent, rather than own, their own homes. But of all new residential building in the province in 2003, only six per cent was for rental units.
15. Don't look for next summer to be any better than last in terms of forest fire damage. It could even be worse. "It is expected that the 2004 summer fire season will also be extreme," the budget documents say. The government spent more than $500 million in 2003 dealing with the huge wildfires that devastated many parts of the Interior. The sum could rise as high as $650 million this coming summer, the documents warn, compared to an average amount of only about $200 million.
16. The time frame for implementing the radical redesign of the Ministry for Children and Family Development is becoming longer and longer. In fact, it doesn't have a fixed end date at all any more. The plans, to turn over control of almost all ministry functions to new semi-independent regional authorities, will now be implemented "incrementally, based on readiness." It's not clear that even by 2007 all the new regional authorities will be in place, more than two years past original estimates.
17. Last year the government reversed its decision to close Forest Service campsites and trails, after a public outcry, and instead turned them over to third parties or let users pay for upkeep. All the same, the number of available Forest Services sites and trails will decrease substantially over the next three years. In 2003, there were 1,354 sites and 625 trails; by 2006, that's expected to have dwindled to 1.031 sites and 420 trails. The forest ministry explains that those to be closed will involve "high risks to public health and safety (that) cannot be effectively managed within the budget available."
18. Standards set on a "best practices" basis for ambulances in urban areas say an ambulance should reach a call within nine minutes of the call coming in, 90 per cent of the time. In B.C. the nine-minute standard is met only 60.5 per cent of the time, and the health ministry believes it will take at least five years to attain the 90 per cent standard.
19. One plan the government is adopting to try to make the criminal courts more efficient is for the Crown counsel to determine its ISP (Initial Sentencing Position) at the same time it's decided whether a charge should proceed. The Crown will then tell the accused what they're looking for in the way of a sentence. The hope is that will encourage more accused to plead guilty at an earlier stage, thus saving valuable court time.
20. In 2003, only three per cent of B.C. households were served by advanced water treatment systems involving such methods as ozonation or ultraviolet light. But that will rise to 28 per cent in 2004 and to a whopping 70 per cent in 2005. That's because first the Greater Victoria and then the Greater Vancouver treatment plants will come on line. The Vancouver plant alone covers almost 60 per cent of B.C. households.

So now you know.