bc budgetSyndicate content

Dear B.C. Liberals: Your budget priorities need fixing.
By
Lizanne Foster
| February 12, 2017

Dear B.C Minister of Finance Michael De Jong,

Thank you for your voicemail message expressing your regret that I was not home to share with you my priorities for a balanced budget. Perhaps it was a good thing that I was not available for your call because I have a feeling you don’t really want to hear what I have to say about your government’s fiscal management record.

Firstly, I don't think we could even agree about the topic of our conversation since I see a balanced budget as an oxymoron, like fresh-frozen or pretty-ugly. A budget is a forecast, not a fixed entity. It's a projection that is at best an estimation of what spending will be.

Read more
Redeye
Redeye

People with disabilities in B.C. given a choice: buy food or take the bus

March 3, 2016
| In the recent B.C. budget, people with disabilities were given a rate increase of $77 a month. At the same time, the government increased the cost of a monthly bus pass from $3.75 to $52.
Length: 12:51 minutes (11.77 MB)
B.C. Budget 2015 fails to make real investments in British Columbians
February 23, 2015 |
Budget 2015 demonstrates a short-sighted focus on recording a surplus instead of a long-term vision that would address serious social and environmental deficits.
Tags:
BC Politics social services bc budget
Working families shoulder the burden to deliver 'balanced' budget
February 20, 2015 |
The new B.C. budget continues the Liberals' practice of "balancing" the budget on the backs of those who can least afford it, while cutting taxes for high-income earners.
Tags:
BC Liberals low income bc budget balanced budget
B.C.'s health-care needs sold short in provincial budget that lacks vision
February 18, 2015 |
Despite critical needs to invest in seniors' care, upgrade health infrastructure, and address hospital overcrowding, the provincial government has tabled another budget that shortchanges BCers.
Tags:
liberal government BC Politics bc budget access to health care
Liberals claim budget surplus as public services continue to dwindle
February 18, 2015 |
B.C. budget continues to underfund government services and rely on regressive fees to create revenue rather than progressive taxes.
Tags:
liberal government public services bc budget progressive taxes
Three worrisome facts about B.C.'s job market on the eve of Budget 2015
By
Iglika Ivanova
| February 17, 2015

2015 marks the sixth year of B.C.'s recovery from the recession. But it's been a slow and largely jobless recovery in B.C.

1. B.C. needs 93,000 more jobs to return to our pre-recession employment rate (the proportion of working-age British Columbians who have jobs).

Only 71.2 per cent of working-age British Columbians have jobs today. This is practically the same share of workers with jobs as when the BC Jobs Plan was launched, and has barely improved since the recession.

In other words, the new jobs created in B.C. since 2009 have just kept up with population growth without replacing (or recovering) the jobs lost during the recession.

Read more
Photo: Thompson Rivers University/flickr
How public services strengthen the economy
By
Janet Newbury
| September 23, 2014

With teachers and students now going back to school, much of the province seems to be breathing a sigh of relief. But I'm not convinced we've made any substantial ground when it comes to understanding the important role education and other public services play towards both social and economic well-being in this province. The premier's commitment to taxpayers that improvements to the education system will not cost us indicates she does not see public sector spending as meaningful investment.

Read more
Photo: BC Gov Photos/flickr
B.C. government using affordability excuses to underfund education and health
By
Iglika Ivanova
| August 14, 2014

Affordability is becoming the new buzzword of the B.C. government. In the dispute with teachers, for example, the Minister of Education has repeatedly argued demands for lower class sizes and improved class composition, as well as fair wages, are unaffordable and unrealistic (see here). When parents and businesses make the case for more public funding for child care, fed up with the high fees and long wait lists, the official government line is that B.C. can't afford a $10-a-day program (see here).

Read more
Photo: BC Gov Photos/flickr
B.C.'s controversial contract obligations dwarf its debt
By
Keith Reynolds
| July 23, 2014

Most of the discussion around the delivery of British Columbia's public accounts last week has centred on debt (Marvin Shaffer makes excellent points in the previous post on why debt is not always bad) and on how B.C. got the money to balance its books.

Something else worth looking at, however, is British Columbia's non-debt contractual obligations. This year those obligations broke the $100 billion mark -- nearly $50 billion higher than the much more noticed 2013 provincial debt of $55.8 billion.

Read more
Syndicate content