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Dear Editor:

By the time you read this the government will have already released its budget.  The rhetoric and spin will be out in the media and the political commentators will be having a hay day.  This government has become infamous for being less than candid with the taxpayers of BC when it comes to being open and transparent with the numbers.  The most striking recent example was during the last provincial election when the Liberals touted ad nauseum that the deficit would be no higher that 500 million dollars when in fact it was 2.5 billion and climbing.  It’s the climbing part we will learn about after budget day.  Keep in mind while trying to sift through the fact and fiction that BC already holds long-term debt of approximately 38 billion.  Even more frightening is the provinces “contractual” debt of 50 billion.  Contractual debt is our obligations under the various P-3 projects the government has entered into over the past few years.  Scarier still is the fact that many of these “contracts” have escalator clauses that will push the taxpayer debt even higher. 

This type of debt is crippling to future generations for obvious reasons.  The government has decided to go down a road that has no end.  While increasing our long-term debt they are decreasing the revenues required to pay that debt.  BC now has the lowest Corporate tax rate out of the G-8 Countries.  Some may think this a positive thing but what it really means is that these low rates must be subsidized by individual taxpayers.  Hence the HST (harmonized sales tax) and quite likely more tax shifts in the future.

Finally we have the unknown financial deficit as a result of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  I like to be optimistic about such things but the historical data suggests we might face a substantial debt to add to the pile.  The problem is that it’s not just the immediate deficit but the structural long-term costs of operating and maintaining all the various venues that have been constructed.

Richard Vollo
Williams Lake

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