Change is good. So too is truth. Too bad this year's provincial budget didn't have much of either in it.

That sentiment pretty much summarizes the reaction of many at the Victoria Conference Centre where community groups and labour organizations spent most of February 17th in a budget "lock-up". The annual exercise precedes the Minister's tabling of the provincial budgets and gives attendees a chance to review in detail the government's fiscal strategy for the next twelve months.

Many were expecting change from the Campbell government and for good reason. BC, like the rest of North America, is on the cusp of nasty economic downturn. The financial crisis that has unraveled in the United States and spread across the globe has convinced governments and central bankers to take immediate and significant action. Most have committed to running deficits and launching massive new spending programs to counterbalance the economic slide. In our province, the emerging view was that this budget would signal BC's commitment to step up and do the same. That didn't happen.

Instead, the Minister of Finance has served up a long, tired list of already announced infrastructure projects, many of which are so far from "shovel ready" that they will provide little or no relief to the thousands who are losing their jobs today or have lost their jobs in the last couple of months. Just as troubling, the government remains adamant that financing these projects must include public-private partnerships even though these financing schemes have been so thoroughly discredited during the current financial crisis.

Equally frustrating is the fact that this budget refuses to give an honest assessment of our current economic woes. Denial on this front is almost palpable. The Finance Minister is projecting a short and shallow recession for BC. This despite the fact that the world's two major economies, Japan and the United States, (regions that also happen to be BC's largest trading partners) are both projecting significant contraction in their national economies over the next eleven months. The only thing missing from Mr. Hanson's blithe response to plummeting jobs numbers and a virtual free-fall in consumer confidence is the Monty Python line, "merely a flesh wound".

When it comes to the budget's specific proposals for post-secondary education, change and truth are also in short supply. The government wants to trumpet increases in the overall budget for Advanced Education and Labour Market Services. What they don't talk about as much, however, is that most of the increases in the Ministry's budget come not from the provincial treasury, but from federal transfers to the province.

Post-secondary institutions, still reeling from the 2.6% cut they took in March 2008, will find no comfort in the latest numbers from Minister Hanson. Operating grants are virtually flat-lined from 2009 onward, an indication that no new investments in post-secondary programs are forthcoming.

As for opening the doors of post-secondary institutions for more students, the budget includes some shocking reminders of just how whacky Premier Campbell's priorities really are. For the first time ever, this budget projects that tuition fee revenues will surpass corporate tax revenues to the provincial treasury. That one fact is a stark reminder of just who is bearing the full impact of tougher times in the BC economy.

It's also disturbing to see that the provincial government is making no adjustments for what we know has happened in other jurisdictions; as the economy slows and unemployment increases, people head back to post-secondary institutions to upgrade their skills. In Ontario, for example, where the recession started sometime in 2007, college enrolments have increased by 9%. In the BC budget, student enrolments are expected to increase by less than 2% even though monthly employment data shows job loss figures climbing at an alarming rate.

The Premier and his Finance Minister have frustrated the hopes of thousands of British Columbians with this budget. Mr. Campbell is gambling that frustration will dissipate before voters mark their ballots on May 12th. Time will tell if he's made the wrong bet.