As usual, what anybody has to say about the B.C. budget released this week will depend on what pulpit they’re preaching from.
The “right” is mostly expressing joy over the black ink on the bottom line, while the “left” points to social shortfalls created by special favours for the business community.
Business people are pleased by the surplus. They see government debt as dollars that should be in people’s pockets, to be drawn from to spend on goods and services and generally boost the economy.
People in the mining sector, eager to put the Mount Polley debacle behind them, are understandably happy that the Christy Clark government has found money to aid exploration and development, as well as extending their tax credits despite the surplus.
Finance Minister Mike de Jong claims the surplus gives B.C. “bragging rights” over the rest of Canada.
But conspicuously absent from this year’s bragging was the LNG windfall that was all over last year’s budget and its expectations of future surpluses.
Instead, workers at ICBC and BC Hydro point out a direct link between surpluses projected for the next three years and the money that the government is planning to extract from those Crown corporations in each of those three years.
While low-income families get a boost from an increase in the tax threshold for the Early Childhood Tax Benefit, the hidden MSP tax rises again — the right hand giveth, and the left hand taketh away.
