Macdonald doesn’t like budget any better on closer look

By CAROLYN GRANT

Kimberley Daily Bulletin

September 3, 2009

Having had a day to absorb the details of the provincial budget delivered Tuesday, Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald remains unimpressed, especially with what he feels is the complete lack of clarity on the numbers in the run up to the May election.

“The biggest part of it is, it’s our money and we have the right to know the full fiscal situation.  The Premier was unequivocal that the deficit would be 495 million.  Now we find that it’s 2.9 million.”

Macdonald says that in actual fact the budget is 3.5 billion because the government subtracted the $700 million coming from the federal government for the Harmonized Sales Tax.

“He (Gordon Campbell) says in May that the deficit is $495 million and no oh whoops, it’s eight times that.  You have to believe that if those numbers had been put in front of the voters, the election results might have been different.”

Macdonald is also skeptical of projections that say things will start to turn around next year and the budget will be balanced in four.

“They are projecting out four years, yet say they are shocked that everything changed in the last few months.  Yet we are supposed to believe they can project accurately over four years.”

Macdonald says the NDP has put out two ideas that would aid in budget clarity.  The first is an independent budget officer, who would make sure any numbers presented to the public are accurate.  The second is moving the fixed election date to the fall.

“Right now, it’s in the spring, right in the middle of the budget process,” he said.

As for all the talk that the HST will correct the economy, Macdonald is not convinced.

“The HST benefits their biggest donors.  It’s a tax shift.  In the Kootenays it’s a job killer.  It’s shifting tax from industry to consumers.  It will devastate the tourist economy, the ski economy.  That’s seven per cent more for lift tickets at the Kimberley Alpine Resort, seven per cent more for ski or snowboard lessons.  And all these Alberta visitors drive by Sunshine, Nakiska, Lake Lousie, where they won’t have these costs.

“It’s incredibly duplicitous to campaign saying you weren’t going to do it and then turn around and do it.”

Macdonald is also irked by the rise in medical premiums.

“It’s up six per cent at first and then will rise every year after.  So a senior or middle class person in Kimberley will pay the same medical service premium as Jimmy Pattison.  It’s why in this province, the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.”

Macdonald says cuts have been occurring all summer, so fast and furious that it’s hard to keep track of them.

“Every Ministry will take a hit.  Forestry, environment.  And so many groups that rely on provincial grants, groups that counted on these grants, and in some cases have already spent the money, will not get them.

“It’s all out the window.  All the promises about being the most literate province, yet there are cuts to library funding.”

He also says that announcing an increase in public assistance funding is hardly a laudable action.

“It’s not an increase in any way.  It’s just that there are more people in need, people whose EI is running out, and the government has to pay.  It’s not more money, there are just more claims,” Macdonald said.  “It’s such Orwellian language that they use.  People can work through problems but they need a government that will give them accurate numbers.”

He also argues that health and education will take cuts despite what the Minister said when presenting the budget.

“The idea that health and education are protected; that’s not the case.  There will be cuts coming in education; the school district didn’t get their facilities grants.

“And in health, there have already been $300 million in cuts ordered to health authorities.  The only place the cuts can come is from services.

“All this was known pre-eleciton.”