It’s staggering to consider what the B.C. government could do with $64 million.
Of course, that money would be an effective anti-inflammatory to the province’s swelling deficit. According to B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong, British Columbians can expect the deficit to reach $1.47 billion. Although, De Jong and Premier Christy Clark say they can have things back in the black by 2013 – perhaps even by the May election? (Nudge nudge, wink wink.)
The money could also have been used on projects that might have a tangible, positive impact on the lives of British Columbians. Instead, the $64 million represents the BC Liberal government’s advertising budget over the two years Clark has served as premier. Included in this is the province’s $5 million attempt to sell the HST, and millions more promoting the so-called BC Jobs Plan. This includes a $15 million campaign focused on skill training and job creation, and $11 million in contingency, with no specifics on how it will be spent.
As critics rightly point out, these are your tax dollars that the government is spending on what essentially amounts to self-aggrandizing propaganda leading up to the May 2013 provincial election. And it is being spent at a time when Clark and company are repeatedly insisting there is no money to be had, while enforcing a “net-zero” policy on public-sector workers seeking any semblance of a wage increase.
-Salmon Arm Observer