Broken Promise # 4 - Open and Accountable

Gordon Campbell and the Liberals set to pass Blank Cheque for $12 billion

The Campbell Liberals have put forward their election platform via the budget. The Budget calls for an increase in spending in some areas that the government has decimated in the previous 3 budgets.

The biggest concern people should have is the BC Liberal refusal to pass the budget prior to the election. The Liberals promised in 2002 that they were changing the way things were done in budgeting, making the process more open and accountable.

The Budget process today is supposed to allow the budget to be passed and approved by the Legislature. That won't happen this year as the Liberals prepare for the election. After six days of debate over the budget it will be ended. The line by line review of Government spending normally done will not occur.

If the legisalture does not do the line by line review of Government spending, the Campbell Liberals will be able to avoid the (Devil in the) details of the spending. So much for living up to there promise to be open and accountable.

We will have to take Gordon Campbell's word on the budget, that what they have presented the Legislature is in fact the BC Budget. The Government is currently working on passing an interim spending bill that will allow the Campbell Government to spend up to $12 billion before they need to ask British Columbians through the Legislature for more.

Golden Decade

The "Golden Decade" looks alot like the 1990's as far as the economy goes. Statscan tables indicate economic growth in the 1990's in BC averaged 3% and ironically the Campbell Liberals project that the growth in BC during the first 3 years of the "Golden Decade" will be 3%.

Apparently it doesn't have to glitter to be golden.

"True to liberal opportunism the world over, this budget contained the usual end of term tax cuts for the poor and stop-gap funding for education and health. All done with a golden twinkle in their eyes, B.C.’s Liberals expect British Columbians to simply forget the last four years.

We have, said Iona Campognola at the Liberals recent Throne Speech, entered B.C’s “Golden Age,” the boom years of our time; it’s going to be a roaring decade, they feel, leading up to the 2010 Olympics. Only thing is, the last time there was a “roaring” decade, the next one came down with a crash – and that was no bullion."