Budgets are all about choices

MLA Report

By Carole James

I toured the province last fall as deputy chair of the Select Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services, and we heard from hundreds of British Columbians as part of the 2016 Budget Consultations. Citizens, organizations, and businesses from across BC shared their concerns and priorities for the provincial budget which was tabled on February 16.

The message was clear: citizens need affordable services and a government that will make life easier – not harder – to meet their daily needs as the cost of living continues to increase. British Columbians are coping with the highest household debt in the country, and instead of supporting hard-working families who are borrowing more just to make ends meet, Premier Clark has hiked up fees, including MSP and ICBC premiums, ferry fares, and hydro rates.

Families are struggling to find affordable housing, especially in the Capital Region and the Lower Mainland. In Victoria, we've seen the municipalities step up to take action, and a new federal government has committed to invest in social infrastructure. Now is the time for the province to partner with federal and local governments to begin to meet our affordable housing needs.

But Premier Christy Clark’s 2016 budget is no different from the ones that have come before. It is completely disconnected from the lives of hard-working British Columbians, and proves that the Premier isn’t there for BC families. Clark promised to put families first, but her government has gone back to families time and time again for more fees and more taxes while it cuts the supports they depend on.

This budget included what the government said was a $77 dollar- a-month increase for people receiving provincial disability benefits. We would have welcomed this long overdue support, but while providing with one hand, government is taking away with the other. This same budget eliminated the $45 dollar- a- year bus pass for people with disabilities, and the cost now increases to $52 dollars-a-month. The government is clawing that cost back from the monthly increase.

So what was a $77 dollar-a-month increase – the first in nine years – has effectively been reduced to a $25 dollar-a-month increase. Disability advocacy groups have started petitions and letter- writing campaigns to convince the Premier that this is wrong – and I agree with them.

My Opposition caucus colleagues and I will continue to speak out on this issue in the legislature. This spring, we will introduce a poverty reduction plan again – for the fifth time.

So if Budget 2016 isn’t there for British Columbians, and it doesn’t support the services they depend on, then who is it there for? Well, the government did find money for two initiatives: The top two per cent of income earners in the province will enjoy a tax break that will cost British Columbians $1 billion over four years.

And the Premier took $100 million of your money to put into a fantasy fund that she claimed would be filled with resources from a new liquid natural gas industry that has not materialized.

Citizens are saying it loud and clear: government should be making living more affordable for individuals and families, it should strengthen social services, and must build a green economy that addresses the imperative of climate change and builds for the future. Budget 2016 could have focused on the priorities that matter to the people in our community and province.

BC has all the assets needed for a world-class economy that benefits everyone, and I commit to continue to work toward that future!