[LabComm] BC Liberal budget ignores real challenges

[BC NDP Newswire]

BC Liberal budget ignores real challenges

Forest Health, Skills Shortage, Homelessness and Long-Term Care Ignored

VICTORIA -- The BC Liberal government failed to respond to key challenges facing ordinary British Columbians with its disappointing and lacklustre budget that does not make life more affordable or plan for the future, NDP Finance Critic Jenny Kwan said today. 

Kwan said that critical issues like forest sector restructuring, BC's skills shortage, homelessness and long-term care for seniors were ignored. On issues facing children, this budget finally acknowledges the negligence of this government over the last five years. 

"Ordinary British Columbians expected this government to present a budget that helped make life more affordable," said Kwan. "Instead, this budget fails to make a real difference for families and communities in need. There is no relief from ongoing hikes in user fees and consumption taxes."

"There is also no long-term planning or vision," said Kwan. "Despite record resource revenue windfalls, this budget has no strategic economic plan for communities in transition. Rural interior communities will despair to find no economic strategy to deal with the pine beetle aftermath."

The new budget also missed the mark on BC's significant skills shortage and the impact on our economy. In August 2005, the independent Economic Advisory Council warned the government that the shortage of skilled workers is a major threat to BC's economic position. Today's announcement and commitments fail to make up for five years of poor management in BC's training and apprenticeship programs. 

"Over the last five years, the Liberals cut funding for apprenticeships, closed recruitment offices and bungled restructuring plans," said Kwan. "When the rest of Canada was bracing for a skills shortage, the BC Liberals dismantled industry training in British Columbia. Our completion rates are falling, and we now lag far behind provinces like Alberta." 

The province of Alberta has more than 41,000 students enrolled in training programs while BC has just 25,000. In Alberta, more than 5,000 apprentices graduate with Red Seal qualifications every year, while in BC only 2,300 apprentices complete the Red Seal qualification per year.

Kwan said that while the budget contained some minor commitments on social spending, it appeared to have more to do with positioning the BC Liberals politically than positioning the province for the future.  

"This government still has no coherent plan to address childcare demands or rising poverty and homelessness rates," said Kwan. "BC's child poverty rate is the highest among all of the provinces and the number of homeless people in our communities is growing. Despite that, there is no commitment in this budget for social housing. The government is instead moving to a landlord subsidy program that will not help families living in poverty find adequate housing."

Kwan said this budget marks the seventh Liberal budget that fails to fulfill Gordon Campbell's promise to build long-term care beds for seniors. 

"It's a broken promise with an enormous ripple effect in health care," said Kwan. "Cuts to home care, acute care bed shortages, overcrowded emergency rooms and ballooning waitlists are all a result of the broken promise to seniors. Today's budget simply highlights how disappointing and destructive their failure has been."

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