Mike de Jong and the BC Liberal government missed an important opportunity February 18 with a budget that the finance minister proudly described as boring.
While the budget may have earned its boring designation by containing few new initiatives and by holding health care, education and social services funding below the amounts needed to sustain current operations, boring wasn’t what our province needs.
Industrial employers including LNG proponents, labour and families were looking for a budget with an inspiring vision for training British Columbians.
They were looking for a plan that would meet the B.C. government’s promise of one million job openings by 2020. They were looking for assurances that British Columbians would have the skills and knowledge to build and operate LNG facilities and to take on employment in all aspects of B.C.’s economy.
But, not a single new post-secondary training space was promised in the budget, nor was a single new dollar allocated to operate trades facilities at our colleges. As one student representative put it: “There’s not much point building new facilities when we can’t keep the lights on in existing classrooms.”
The most telling number in this budget, one ostensibly about jobs, is that B.C.’s unemployment rate is predicted to increase over the next three years. Surely, with all the economic activity predicted, we should expect better.
Despite the jaunty nautical theme of the budget speech, the budget offers little promise of smooth sailing for B.C. families and leaves too many still taking on water.
For average households, the budget projects hefty increases in the costs of living without any offsetting increase in their household incomes. BC Hydro rates are slated to jump by 25% over the next three years. Medical Services Plan (MSP) premiums are also heading higher under this budget. MSP costs will rise by more than 17% between now and the end of 2016.
These hits on household budgets are significant and will negatively affect consumer spending at a time when our economy needs a boost. Small businesses in communities throughout B.C. will feel the pinch as disposable income falls.
The hydro rate hikes will also hit energy-dependent businesses hard. Many companies in the forest industry, in particular, are already operating at the margins. These rate hikes will put good family-supporting jobs at risk.
A further concern for families is that the core services that citizens look to government to provide continue to shrink. Despite a growing population and even modest growth in the economy, the amount this government is spending on education, for example, will drop from 5.2% of the overall economy in 2013-14 to 4.7% by the end of 2016.
Similar patterns are evident in our colleges and universities where flat-line budgets over the next three years will put even more pressure on already stressed affordability and access provisions across B.C.’s public post-secondary education system.
For B.C.’s health-care system similar funding pressures will persist under the budget tabled by de Jong. Hallway medicine will become an increasing reality in hospitals as B.C.’s health authorities scramble to deploy fewer dollars to contend with a growing demand from new patients and an aging population.
The constant fiscal squeeze of our services doesn’t even begin to address the underlying inequality that has become so entrenched in our province over the last 10 years.
Steady and persistent tax cuts for B.C.’s wealthiest families and the corporate sector have enriched a select few while depriving the majority of B.C.’s citizens of the services they need to get ahead. Prosperity has become a scarce commodity enjoyed by those who disproportionatelly enjoy far too much of it.
With a boom in LNG development around the corner, de Jong’s budget had the opportunity to lay the groundwork for shared prosperity for all British Columbians in the coming years.
While this budget seems to have missed the boat, the labour movement is up to the challenge of building a strong and prosperous future for B.C. We remain ready to work with government to make it happen. •
