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Fifteen Budget Nuggets

Stuff you'd never know without reading the B.C. government's budget documents.

By Barbara McLintock, 22 Feb 2006, TheTyee.ca

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Nearly everyone in B.C. now knows about the increase to the homeowner grant, the lack of any major tax cuts and the spending increases that were part of Finance Minister Carole Taylor's first full budget this week. But hidden in the hundred pages of budget documents are dozens of tidbits of information about our province - and the government's plans for it. Here's a small sampling …

1. An 80-year-old today is twice as likely to have a knee replacement, coronary bypass or cataract surgery as was the case 15 years ago. He or she is eight times as likely to have an angioplasty - a procedure to declog the coronary arteries of heart attack-causing plaque.

2. For the first time, the Liberal government is, in places, providing details of how well it did at meeting the targets it had set itself in previous years. The Ministry of Advanced Education, for example, met its targets in 2004-05 for medical school spaces and came within a whisker of meeting its target for spaces in nursing and related programs. But it did less well in programs in computer sciences, electrical and computer engineering, falling more than 700 spaces short of its target.

3. Mental illnesses now form the most significant group of health problems for B.C.'s children and youth. About 15 percent of individuals under the age of 19 are affected to some degree by a mental illness.

4. Thirty-five percent of all senior executives in the B.C. Public Service and 32 percent of all middle managers will be eligible to retire by 2010.

5. Students who enter B.C.'s school system as English-as-a-Second-Language students actually have a higher rate of graduation than other students. In 2004-05 (the last year for which data are available), 83 percent of ESL students graduated, compared with an over-all rate of 79 percent. French immersion students did the best of all, with a graduation rate of 90 percent.

6. Almost half of all B.C. adults don't have math skills considered necessary to function well in every day life. In the latest survey of literacy and numeracy, 48.7 percent of adults didn't meet the standards for numeracy testing. Reading (literacy) was a bit better, with 40 percent not reaching the standard.

7. The average sea level rose by between 4 and 12 centimeters along most of the B.C. coast between 1909 and 1999. Between 1895 and 1995, the average annual temperature increased by 0.6 degrees Celsius.

8. A new government program aims to let everyone who writes a letter to a cabinet minister at least receive a response letting them know their correspondence has been received. In 2004-05, only 22 percent of letter-writers received a response within two weeks. The government's goal is to increase that to 80 percent within the next year.

9. By the end of the 2006-07 fiscal year, a total of 216 people will be working in the government's Public Affairs Bureau - engaged in organizing advertising, dealing with the media and otherwise trying to get government's message out to the public. That's up from 202 people working there at present.

10. More than 85 percent of B.C.'s population now lives in urban centres. That's an increase of five percentage points from 1991 to 2001.

11. The government would like to reduce the number of ill people who die in hospital. At the moment, 54.4 percent of natural deaths occur in hospitals; the government would like to see more of those deaths occur in hospices or as planned home deaths in which persons are allowed to die at home and helped to be comfortable and safe while doing so.

12. Another health target set by the government looks at how long it takes patients who visit an emergency ward to actually get admitted to hospital when necessary. At the moment, about two-thirds of them are admitted within 10 hours of a doctor deciding to admit them (which is not necessarily immediately after they arrive at an ER; several hours may elapse in the meantime). The government would like to increase that in the upcoming year so that 80 percent are admitted within 10 hours. For 2007-08, the goal will be to have 80 percent admitted within eight hours.

13. Illegal gaming is increasing in B.C., to the point where the government is going to implement a new Illegal Gambling Enforcement Strategy. It will include a policy framework for Internet gaming as well as a public education campaign to let people know what sorts of gambling are legal and which are not.

14. Sales of B.C.-published books have an estimated value of $150 million annually. The TV and film production industry is even bigger business. Last year, the average value of each production here was $4.1 million, with a total of $801 million spent in B.C.

15. The average speed of commercial trucks using B.C. highways is 71 kilometers per hour. This is measured by satellite tracking technology that records the travel time of 1,500 long-haul trucks whenever they travel on one of 36 specified highway segments in the province. The government doesn't expect this speed to change much over the next few years. It notes that road improvements should increase the speed, but growing traffic volumes will slow the trucks down.

Victoria-based Barbara McLintock is a contributing editor to The Tyee. [Tyee]

Barbara McLintock, a regular contributor to The Tyee, is a freelance writer and consultant based in Victoria and author of Anorexia’s Fallen Angel.

18 Comments:

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  • DPL

    5 years ago

    Comments on "Fifteen Budget Nuggets"

    Gosh, all that good news. Maybe now I can get to see the guy who is going to do a hip replacment for me before I give up waiting , borrow the money and get it done in India. heck, what's a minir wait of only seven or eight months to get from GP , down the hall to a designated cutter.some folks wait up to five years. It's like getting a interview with God.

    And the idea that a Cabinet Minister might actually answer a letter sent them by a peasant, thrills me to the bone.The health Minister might be given a little nudge on my request for information of 4 months ago, about the same as the so called wait list. he appears to be a bit of a standup comic in the house so I look forward to his cute letter sometime soon. In my dreams.

  • Grumpy

    5 years ago

    15 useless facts, a great waste of space. Why not spend time doing some real investigative reporting on RAV. Gateway, et.?

    Not up to it?

    Seems the Tyee is turning into an online Asper Sun!

  • tommymoore

    5 years ago

    Quote:
    Almost half of all B.C. adults don't have math skills considered necessary to function well in every day life..

    Quote:
    The average sea level rose by between 4 and 12 centimeters along most of the B.C. coast..

    These are "nuggets" from the BC budget? As if. For one, who considers what math ability allows one to function well? The ever-increasing debt shouldered by many is NOT a result of a lack of arithmetic. More a function of hyper-inflated property values, temporarily low interest rate, and blind, wanton consumerism.
    Secondly - if the ocean level has increased almost 6 inches along the BC coast, it's not along most of the coast. Seems to me it's all one ocean, planetwide, for that matter.
    Carole Taylor has little to be proud of - standing in her $600 shoes trumpeting how great it all is while most of this province has gone down the tubes under Gordo's "Golden (shower) Decade". Mean-spirited, with only generosity for those already rich is this Socred regime's raison d'etre. Stay tuned for more of the same from Harpo's thugs as well.

  • Frank

    5 years ago

    Quote:
    a total of 216 people will be working in the government's Public Affairs Bureau

    And I'm sure one of them spends their time right here on the Tyee.

    Not sure what the other 215 are doing since the rest of the media already is part of the Liberal party

  • Frank

    5 years ago

    Quote:
    Illegal gaming is increasing in B.C.

    First, its gambling, not gaming.

    We were told during the big sales pitch that legal gambling being increased would actually hurt illegal gambling. Yet another lie.

  • murdock

    5 years ago

    Yes Frank thank you for the comment regarding gambling and not gaming.

    I do gaming, role-playing, tabletop historical miniatures, and board games like Risk and Monopoly. That is gaming. The only money involved in these games is when they are commercially purchased in the first place (unless you count the cash in Monopoly...).

  • minniemouse

    5 years ago

    I don't know why this list was generated. Seems irrelevant but perhaps I just don't get it.

    I did see a poignant political cartoon today, speaking of the budget. P.14, theNOW:

    symbolic footwear: one pair of Guccis, Budget 2006, beside a pair of baby booties, Budget Cut 2002. Embroidered on the booties? Sherry Charlie.

    This government has so much to answer for and is so incapable of appropriate response.

  • Frank

    5 years ago

    That's interesting murdock. I tried that back in university days but I can't paint to save my life. The last time I looked the prices on those were so high you'd have to win the jackpot at a Campbell casino to afford it.

    Anyway, you're right. That's gaming, not someone sitting in front of a VLT.

  • Avicenna

    5 years ago

    Well, I am likely unique in actually finding this list interesting - more for the fact that it was noted by the provincial gov't and also for the way some of the info was interpreted. The greater reliance of 80 yr olds today than 15 yrs ago, for example, is the fact that more people reach the age of 80 now thanks to medical intervention used to keep those who wouldn't have made it to the ripe old age 15 yrs ago - when the golden years was reached by the truly healthy folks. The stats on mental illness is actually a phenomenon resulting from the greater marketing of anti-psychotic drugs to those under the age of 18 by the pharmaceutical industries - which wasn't looked upon favorably a few years back; but now, everyone can be happily prescribed prozac. Both these issues strain the pockets of the gov't coffers - and if they were smart (which they have not shown any sign of being), they would look into the justification for both and the ethics guiding them.
    In regards to the constant commenting on Taylor's shoes, I wonder why such comments are not made toward male members of gov't. At least the populace is not reduced to commenting on her expensive haircut or perfect manicure - but give us time... we'll reduce her credibility by remarking on her appearance.

  • freebear

    5 years ago

    I suppose the average speed of commercial trucks would be even slower if they did not make up time going 20-25 km/h over the speed limit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    I recently travelled to Victoria from up island and had numerous 18 wheelers and buses (hiway coach style) tailgating me through 80 km/h speed zones, because they wanted to drive 100-105 km/h through that same 80 km/h zone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • Shane

    5 years ago

    [In regards to the constant commenting on Taylor's shoes, I wonder why such comments are not made toward male members of gov't.]
    Avicenna, it is a tradition for finance ministers to wear new shoes when presenting a budget, and it is traditional for news media to comment on them, regardless of the minister's sex. Last year it was duly (and dully) noted that Colin Hansen wore new running shoes.
    No one knows who started this tradition (it wasn't the Brits), and it's not that old, going back to the 1960s or 70s. Federally, Jean Chretien wore new shoes in 1977; John Crosbie wore a pair of mukluks in 1979, etc. Paul Martin followed the tradition in 1994, but not subsequently.

  • Avicenna

    5 years ago

    Shane, I appreciate your attempt to thwart the gender argument before it reinstated - but Talyor may have broken with new traditions in that she claims her shoes are 10 years old (she divulged this little tid bit when actually asked by a reporter in the midst of giving the details of the budget about her flamboyant footwear).

  • Working Man

    5 years ago

    I demand that any article saying anything flattering about anyone, anyplace or anything that is not directly associated with the NDP be censored for the good of all readers.

  • demotto

    5 years ago

    Freebar maybe you should have gotten out of the fast lane ???

  • anne cameron

    5 years ago

    The government would like to decrease the number of ill people who die in hospital.... well maybe if they fund the things properly people will be able to get into them before they're terminal...

    but the way those minds work in government they'll probably just shove'em out into the snow and let them die outside the hospital.

  • tricia58

    5 years ago

    Regarding number 12 I am a LPN who works in a very busy ER of our local hospital. I do it for 15% less with more education and responsibilty. It is one thing to say to have them admitted it is another to say they will be admitted to a bed in a ward. Now people get admitted and lay on stretchers and often in hallways. Does he mean admitted? Or does he mean admitted to a bed? To me there is a big difference. When admitted to stretcher in hallway that is extra workload we pick up. It is extra patient we are not staffed for. We are staffed according to the number of cubicles we have not the number of patients we have. That goal needs strong clarification.

  • carlos

    5 years ago

    Barbara,what's happenning with the B.C. Rail investigation? Have all those boxes of files removed from the B.C. legislature just disappeared down the memory hole?
    I'm still waiting for justice to be carried out on this old issue.
    If you've run out of ideas perhaps you might consider revisiting the B.C. Rail story.

  • smeebs

    5 years ago

    The reason comments are directed at Taylors shoes is because of articles like this useless piece of electric parchment. I don't read the budget but I do read the Tyee and hope any budget info is of some relevance to my depleating bank account ie hidden taxes. NO wonder there is the odd comment of Tyee Asper infuence

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