The Liberal government unveiled the 2009 budget on Tuesday in Victoria, and while some of the budget highlights are encouraging, Finance Minister Colin Hansen and Premier Gordon Campbell missed the mark on some key areas.
Winners in the budget included health, with $25 million extra in spending for this fiscal year, $73 million for aid to people with developmental disabilities and their families and $40 million for education for more nurses, medical technologists and pharmacists. Education is also a winner with $228 million for post-secondary, $16 million for special-needs children and $1.3 billion for kindergarten to Grade 12 school construction and seismic upgrades. Hopefully now plans can be finalized on what will be done with Gibsons Elementary School and the seismic upgrade, previously announced in December for Madeira Park Elementary School, will start soon.
This is clearly a cautious budget reflecting the tough economic times. We knew in January it would be a deficit budget, but most didn't think it would be so off base in some key areas.
Civil service is facing a $24 million cut, effective July 1 - the gas tax will increase 1.17 cents a litre, there's no more money for the environment, with a $5 million decrease for environmental protection, parks and protected areas and environmental stewardship. And the minimum wage remains the same, despite calls from B.C. Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair to up the ante.
Another curious miss is the lack of extra funding for police, corrections and court services.
Last Friday Campbell held a news conference addressing the gang warfare that has taken over the streets of communities in the Lower Mainland. Gang-style shootings have become an everyday occurrence for the past two weeks. Campbell talked a tough game last week, but when it came to Tuesday's budget, that talk was cheap.
This was a pre-election budget that at least wasn't filled with the normal pre-election spending spree, and it did address some key areas like health and education, but we're disappointed it didn't address crime and punishment.
The election is May 12. Did the Liberals do enough in this budget to secure their re-election, or were they off the mark?
