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Liberals Set to Run from Their Own Budget

Finance minister’s vague answers suggest party will sell the document but won’t actually pass it.

Will McMartin 16 Feb 2005TheTyee.ca
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Gordon Campbell’s BC Liberal government delivered its 2005-’06 budget on Tuesday, with the expected pre-election references to “the Golden Decade” in the years ahead. What’s unexpected about this budget, however, is that the government appears to have no intention of passing it.

The Liberals are set to flee the legislature at the earliest opportunity, even if it means failing to obtain legislative approval for the 2005-’06 budget “estimates” unveiled by rookie Finance Minister Colin Hansen.

During the budget lock-up, where journalists and other interested parties get an advance look at the voluminous budget documents, The Tyee asked Hansen three times if the government would debate and pass in the House his $32.4 billion expenditure plan. Hansen bobbed and weaved like a feather-weight prize-fighter. The decision, he insisted, rested with the government house leader, Graham Bruce. Time is short — even though the fixed election date of May 17 is three months in the future, and the election writ will not be dropped for another two months. All he would concede is that the BC Liberals would “get the legislature’s approval for some spending.”

“Some” spending means that the BC Liberals likely will pass an “interim supply bill” to permit the expenditure of public monies from April 1 (the start of the fiscal year) until some date after the election, and perhaps as late as the scheduled fall session. Only then, should the Campbell government win the re-election it expects, will the BC Liberals try to obtain legislative approval for its spending estimates.

By that time, of course, fiscal and economic circumstances might change significantly. Or the BC Liberals could change their collective minds about the necessity of increasing spending on homelessness, or post-secondary education, or the environment. Either way, Hansen’s budget might well become either unaffordable or unnecessary five or six months from now. And that means this budget is pure pre-election propaganda.

Liberals squelch scrutiny

It also suggests that the newly enhanced, three-member NDP opposition, bolstered by new MLA Jagrup Brar following last fall’s Surrey-Panorama Ridge by-election, scares the living daylights out of the 73-member BC Liberal caucus.

Last week, speaker Claude Richmond attempted to muzzle the tiny opposition caucus by limiting question-period queries and supplementary follow-ups. This week, the finance minister looks to have conceded the government will refuse to debate its own spending proposals for fear that the New Democrats might be a tad critical.

Under the rules of the Legislative Assembly, the speech from the throne and the budget speech are debated by the House for six days each. But the estimates — the one-year appropriations for each ministry, officers of the legislature and special agencies — take a much longer, undetermined period of time.

The estimates for the coming fiscal year contain 47 different “Votes” for such items as the Ombudsman (Vote 6, $3.4 million), ministry operations in the ministry of health services (Vote 26, $11.2 billion), and “contingencies” (Vote 41, $270 million). In total, it outlines spending from the consolidated revenue fund that adds up to $26.836 billion — an increase of $1.7 billion over the current fiscal year.

(Total budget expenditures under GAAP — “generally accepted accounting principles” — are $32.4 billion. GAAP includes all government ministries, crown corporations and agencies, as well as the SUCH sector: schools, universities, colleges and health authorities. The Crowns and SUCH are not included in the estimates.)

Speech prompts empty debate

Budget speech debate starts at the next House sitting following the speech, with a response from the opposition. MLAs talk up their party’s and their own philosophical beliefs (or denigrate their political opponents), while ignoring the substance of the speech itself. And with a 73-3 advantage over the NDP, this session’s budget-speech discussion will be dominated by BC Liberals falling over themselves to praise Hansen and their “dear leader,” Gordon Campbell, while blasting Carole James and her New Democratic Party.

The estimates debate, on the other hand, is where the legislative opposition scrutinizes (and criticizes) the government’s spending plans, line by line, item by item. This process has become lengthy, sometimes taking several months. But several years ago the Legislative Assembly adopted rules allowing two “Votes” to be discussed simultaneously: while one is debated in the legislature itself (colloquially called the Big House), another is debated in a legislative committee room (the Little House). Moreover, the NDP since 2001 has had just two MLAs; it’s nearly impossible for them to sustain a lengthy critique of each vote. The addition of Brar is unlikely to lengthen the process by much.

In other words, if the BC Liberals wanted to they easily could debate and pass the estimates well before the writ is dropped for the scheduled May 17 general election. (If the NDP dragged out debate, the government could follow W.A.C. Bennett’s example of scheduling all-night sittings of the legislature.) The Campbell government’s reluctance to engage in debate, therefore, raises questions about the sincerity of today’s declared intentions.

While they apparently lack the time or gumption to pass next year’s estimates, they are certain to pass a bill (called supplementary estimates) to enact new spending in the current fiscal period (2004-’05), which ends in six weeks, on March 31.

‘Slush fund’ will be spent

Today, the government enjoys an enormous surplus, thanks largely to a billion-dollar equalization contribution from Ottawa. The BC Liberals intend to allocate $344 million of the federal windfall to the ministry of small business and economic development for unnamed projects prior to the general election. This unbudgeted, and as-yet unallocated, expenditure already has been described as a pre-election “slush fund” by the news media and NDP opposition.

In short, the Campbell government intends to conclude the current legislative session as quickly as possible, even if it requires ignoring the niceties of our parliamentary democracy. Does anyone remember Bill Bennett’s long-ago slogan “Not a dime without debate”? Debate is unnecessary and unwanted by the BC Liberals, who intend to skedaddle away from Victoria and start pitching their budget to voters now — three months before the election.

It’s probably smart politics, but it ain’t good government.

Will McMartin is a veteran political commentator and consultant who has worked for a wide range of political parties.  [Tyee]

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