News and event information for Williams Lake, BC - as it happens.

Next week’s Budget Speech ought to be an interesting one.

I don’t envy the provincial government, they’ll have to come up with some creative spin to: rationalize a bigger deficit; convince us that the financial burden of the Olympics was worth it in the end; continue the pretence that the HST is good medicine for the average consumer and our growing service economy; and, hide the depth of the cuts they’ll be making to all public services.

Not an easy task, even for a Premier known for his use of catch phrases and sloganeering as a substitute for grounded reality and concerted action.

This year’s Throne Speech gave only a few suggestions as to what to expect in the Budget. Partly because the Liberals didn’t want to spoil the Olympic party and partly because, I think, they were still scrambling to figure out how to gut public services without taking the blame.

This is a government that likes to hide behind School Boards, Health Authorities, Crown Agencies and Public-Private Partnerships. According to the BC Liberals, Health Authorities are to blame for cancelled surgeries, backed up emergency rooms and reductions in health care services in rural communities. Likewise, School Boards are to blame for oversized classes, school closures, and deficit budgets.

Just two weeks ago, when confronted with the possible closure of all rural schools in the Prince George District and a possible deficit budget or significant school closures in the Cariboo-Chilcotin School District, the Minister of Education stated she believed there was still “more fat to be trimmed” from School District budgets. I guess rural schools are now simply “fat” in the system.

Or, must we simply expect less from our government. Is it simply that good public health care, rural schools, well maintained roads, robust environmental enforcement are luxuries we can no longer afford? I suspect that’s what the BC Liberal’s have come to believe.

On the second last page of a Throne Speech which promised more deregulation, more subsidies for large corporations and more direct consumer taxes for the general public comes this statement: “We must curtail expectations of government and look for new ways of meeting our needs within the substantial spending increases already provided.”

I guess it’s okay for the corporate sector to expect (demand, actually) more from government; but, according to the current provincial government, taxpayers must “curtail” their expectations.

That’s a debatable premise. For your own sake, I hope you pay attention to next week's budget and actively engage in the debate.

Bob Simpson
MLA Cariboo North
Quesnel, BC

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