VICTORIA 鈥� When the audited public accounts confirmed a $353 million surplus for the last fiscal year, B.C. Liberal political staff were quick to remind reporters of the NDP鈥檚 main theme from last year鈥檚 election campaign.
Pages of election quotes from almost every NDP MLA were waiting to be distributed. It was a 鈥渂ogus budget,鈥� one of the more polite tags applied to the government鈥檚 pre-election fiscal plan.
鈥淚t underestimates the costs in a whole bunch of ministries and we鈥檙e going to have to review that because all of the decisions that we propose in our platform will have to be implemented,鈥� said then-leader Adrian Dix, describing the NDP鈥檚 plans to tax and spend more.
Skeena MLA Robin Austin targeted health care in the budget debate: 鈥淏earing in mind that our population is actually increasing, bearing in mind that our population is aging, I think it鈥檚 very unrealistic to think we can actually limit health care expenditures to 2.7 per cent.鈥�
As it turned out, health care spending grew by just over two per cent. It still went up by $360 million from the previous year, but after annual increases of six or seven per cent had become the norm, this is quite an achievement. New agreements remain to be negotiated with doctors and nurses, so we鈥檙e unlikely to see the same cost control results for the current year.
Ottawa鈥檚 health care transfer payment formula has changed, and increases are to be capped at three per cent a year by 2016, so this is the kind of spending restraint all provinces are expected to produce.
Education was the only other ministry to receive significant extra funding last year, up $299 million despite continuing enrolment decline. Like health, the education budget goes up every year, and these increases, along with strong student performance results, expose the rhetoric of the B.C. Teachers鈥� Federation about a cash-starved system for what it is.
But the biggest fabrication of last year鈥檚 election was the 鈥渄ebt free B.C.鈥� slogan emblazoned on the side of Premier Christy Clark鈥檚 campaign bus.
The public accounts confirm that the province鈥檚 total debt rose to just over $60 billion, the latest of a series of increases since 2008. The much-touted balanced budget is on the operating side, while the province continues to pile up debt to pay for the Port Mann mega-project, hospitals, schools and other big infrastructure.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong between capital and operating expenditures.
鈥淲e鈥檙e borrowing to build as opposed to paying for the groceries,鈥� he said.
鈥淒ebt free B.C.鈥� was not an outright misrepresentation, merely one of the most far-fetched promises ever delivered in the history of B.C. politics. The legislature is to convene in October so the B.C. Liberals can pass a taxation framework for the nascent liquefied natural gas industry, which the government hopes will generate the revenues to ultimately pay off the province鈥檚 $60-billion mortgage.
Meanwhile there is more capital debt ahead. The cabinet is expected to green-light the Site C dam on the Peace River this fall, a decade-long project estimated to cost $8 billion.
Along with the public accounts, the finance ministry released a list of surplus land sales. The sale of 50-odd properties, some of them closed schools, netted the provincial treasury about $310 million, which accounts for most of the surplus.
Was this 鈥渟elling off the family silverware to try and balance the books,鈥� as now-NDP leader John Horgan termed it before the election? It鈥檚 certainly not a revenue source to be matched next year.
Tom Fletcher is legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press. Twitter:
