February 2008 marks Carol Taylor's last budget as BC's Finance Minister. She will, no doubt, be remembered for many things - expensive shoes, fashionable eyewear - but her performance on February 19 will go down in the record books as another blinding display of political distraction. In both the budget look-up and in her speech in the Legislature she made much of the government's "green" budget.

To be fair, the Campbell government did make a policy shift; it introduced a carbon tax. However, that shift accounts for less than two percent of the entire provincial budget. Despite that fact, the Minister of Finance has been able to persuade the provincial media to focus almost entirely on "green" initiatives and ignore the details in the other 98 per cent of the provincial budget.

 

It's the details in that other 98 per cent of the provincial budget that should worry British Columbians. Although the Minister of Finance wants voters to believe that her government is moving on critical priorities, the budget details tell a much different story. Whether it's in healthcare or education, the common thread is that the 2008 budget ignores growing demands to improve core services. Health authority budgets, for example, will fall well short of their current needs. The result? Growing wait lists and increased pressure to privatize health services.

Just as disturbing, the 2008 budget also continues to cater to the demands of the business community, a move that means critical issues like homelessness or child poverty will only get worse. For example, the provincial treasury will lose over $100 million in the next two years as a result of the government's concession to remove the corporation capital tax on large financial institutions. Had that money remained in the provincial treasury, it could have been used to double the current commitments to reducing homelessness in our province.

For BC's public post-secondary education system, the 2008 provincial budget means continued under-funding. Although the Ministry of Advanced Education's budget has increased minimally, per-student funding to public post-secondary institutions is projected to decrease over the next three years. Student aid money is also slated to decline.

The impact of this decline in per-student funding will vary across the post-secondary education system. For universities as a whole, their balance of revenues and expenses will show modest surpluses over the next three years. However, for colleges, university colleges and institutes the aggregate picture shows deficits emerging in 2008/09 and continuing to increase through to 2010/11. Early indications are that community colleges, especially rural colleges will face the biggest budget challenges.

It isn't as though the budget documents don't include sufficient rationale for improving the province's commitment to post-secondary education. In the section titled "Risks to the Economic Outlook" Finance Ministry staff state very clearly that BC's growing skills shortage threatens to undermine BC's medium term economic growth prospects. According to their analysis the shortage could lead to increased inflation and slower production.

The Finance Minister needs to come out from behind her green curtain and start addressing the complex issues that will affect our future. Climate change is a laudable priority, but so far it has been used to distract British Columbians from the failure of this budget to address critical and growing problems throughout our province. Health care, homelessness, a growing skills shortage, child poverty and the growing gap between rich and poor in our province are just some of the issues that her budget needs to address.

Instead of trying to wow the press gallery with her latest designer shoes, Carol Taylor needs to think about taking real action that would make a real difference in the lives of every BC family. Her February 19 budget has failed to do that.