Mike Bernier, MLA Peace River South
Those of us who call Northern BC home know there are fundamentals when it comes to our finances. We live in resource communities and we know resource prices can turn on a dime. And because of this we know we have to invest today to make sure we remain prosperous tomorrow.
This tends to make us a conservative bunch. I’m not talking about the ballot box, but about our finances. We know that we can’t commit to spending tomorrow based on today’s windfall. That would put everything we worked so hard for at risk. When we commit to spend, whether it’s taking on a mortgage or getting a loan to grow a small business, we know we have to stick to what we can afford, and only commit to bills we can keep paying in a worst-case scenario.
Sitting through the budget speech last Tuesday in Victoria, it became clear the NDP government needs to learn a lesson in a balanced approach, and they need to learn it fast. If they don’t, all the job-creation and economic strength build up over the past 16 years could be lost.
The budget aimed grabbing headlines and votes by making big spending promises. But there was no plan along with that spending to make sure those promises can be paid for.
The budget actually mapped out taking on $400 million in new public debt per month over the coming years. And the resource sector they are counting on to pay the bills? Taxpayer pockets. They are hiking taxes by $1,100 per person and $2,500 per family.
Buried in the budget are a lot of numbers that don’t grab as many headlines. It’s the stuff so many people think is boring – like economic outlooks and financial assumptions. And the story buried in those numbers is clear – there are economic challenges ahead. We already know that problems in Europe, and U.S. trade conflicts with China, threaten our economic stability. A multitude of forces are fighting to keep Canada from selling its oil and gas to the world and getting a fair price.
One of those worrying numbers? The BC government is already expecting resource revenues to fall by 30 per cent. This means there could less activity in the sectors that drive our economy, and our communities, here in the Peace.
That is where Budget 2019 is a staggering failure. There isn’t a single idea or initiative put forward to try to reverse declining resource revenues, or to try and strengthen the jobs and the economic activity of the resource sector on which so much of our province, and so many of our families, depend.
The government has already failed to deliver its child care and poverty reduction plans. If they continue to ignore the resource economy, there’s little chance they will be able to afford their headline-grabbing new promises.
A budget needs to take a balanced approach – weighing what’s sustainable, and investing in things that will strengthen that stability. On that count, last week’s budget was anything but balanced.
