“Families are already struggling – their costs are going up and their wages are flat. As if it isn’t enough that families are being nickeled and dimed by rates and fare hikes, they are going to pay to give a break to British Columbians who need it least,” said New Democrat spokesperson on finance Carole James.
VICTORIA – While BC Liberals were all smiles this week in tabling their third balanced budget with a surplus, all done by controlling health care costs and increasing taxes and user fees as well as emptying the BC Crown Corporations’ large stash, the NDP were lambasting the government, saying British Columbians already stretched to their limit will face more fee and rate hikes in 2015, continue to get less in services, and pay for Premier Christy Clark’s tax cut to the highest paid British Columbians as a result of the B.C. Liberals’ budget.
“Families are already struggling – their costs are going up and their wages are flat. As if it isn’t enough that families are being nickeled and dimed by rates and fare hikes, they are going to pay to give a break to British Columbians who need it least,” said New Democrat spokesperson on finance Carole James.
James said low and middle income earners need a break, but are instead facing another four-per-cent hike to MSP premiums, a six-per-cent hike to hydro rates, ferry fare hikes, higher tolls, park fees and ICBC rates.
“BC wages aren’t keeping up. In fact they’re falling in real terms,” said New Democrat Leader John Horgan. “Instead of giving a break to families who are struggling, the B.C. Liberals singled out the top two per cent of income earners for a $230 million tax cut.”
“While families are paying more, they’re also getting less in services like schools, hospitals and seniors’ care,” said Horgan. “At a time when parents and young people are worried about opportunities to gain skills and training, the Clark government is cutting $14 million from higher education.
Horgan also pointed to fewer home care hours, lowered standards in nursing homes, overcrowded hospitals, lack of family doctors and underfunded schools as examples of reduced services to families.
The BC government will roll out some relief for low-income British Columbians this year but for middle class families, the 2015 provincial budget provides no new benefits to offset an array of government fee increases.
Even against stable economic growth forecasts, Finance Minister Mike de Jong said Tuesday his $46.5-billion budget offers little room for new program spending, with a forecast surplus of $284-million.
“Let me emphasize that we remain absolutely committed to continuing the fiscal discipline that got us here,” he said in a budget speech that leaned heavily on hockey analogies and did not stint on bragging about the province’s economic health. “The once-mighty Alberta economy is in a kind of freefall,” Mr. de Jong noted. “Alone among the provinces, B.C. will likely be the only jurisdiction to table a balanced budget for 2015.”
Budget highlights:
Surpluses are forecast for the next three years: $284 million in 2015-2016; $376 million in 2016-2017; and $399 million in 2017-2018.
The projected surplus for 2014-2015 is now $879 million, significantly higher than the $184-million surplus projected a year ago.
B.C.’s economy is expected to grow by 2.3 per cent in 2015; 2.4 per cent in 2016; and 2.3 per cent in 2017.
The budget includes no revenues from the liquefied natural gas industry, which B.C. Premier Christy Clark has promised will one day bring in billions of dollars.
Declining natural gas prices are expected to cause royalties to fall by 36.5 per cent in 2015-2016, leaving the province with $344 million from the sector compared with $542 million in the current year.
The province expects to end 2015-2016 with $66 billion in debt, growing to more than $70 billion by 2018.
Child-support payments will no longer be factored into social-assistance calculations at a cost of $32 million for the next three years.
Parents can claim $250 under a new children’s fitness equipment tax credit, which translates to a maximum benefit of $12.65 per child.
Teachers who participate in extracurricular coaching can claim a tax credit that will be worth $25 per year.
Health-care premiums will increase by four per cent on Jan 1, 2016. Monthly rates for a single person will increase by $3 to $75 per month, while families will pay an extra $6 per month for a total of $150.
Along with the NDP, other critics voiced their dissatisfaction with the budget.
The new BC budget plays a shell game with education funding, forces cutbacks on school districts, and increases MSP premiums. It is a broken promise from the BC Liberal government, BCTF President Jim Iker said.
“Despite a personal promise from Premier Clark to make class composition her number one priority and fully fund collective agreement costs, this new budget increases costs to districts at the same time it forces cuts,” said Iker. “While there is some new money for the settlement teachers negotiated, a significant portion of it is not new funding. The government is playing a shell game. If teachers had not gone on strike, there would be no increase at all.”
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, says Iglika Ivanova, Senior Economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Ivanova points to Finance Minister Michael de Jong’s comment that “We will not be a government that leaves it to future generations to pay for the services we benefit from today.”
“To put this another way,” says Ivanova, “‘We will be a government that underfunds services today because our top priority is recording a surplus. We will leave it to future generations to pay for the problems that we refuse to spend money on: poverty, environmental degradation, and gaps in healthcare. ”
