SOUND OFF: Kamloopsians look for hope, but NDP’s budget says ‘nope’
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NORMALLY, A GOVERNMENT PRESENTS ITS BUDGET in February each year, but B.C.’s NDP government decided to push it until nearly the end of April. Rather than admit that the premier’s unnecessary pandemic power-grab of an election was the cause of this delay, the NDP has refused to accept responsibility and has instead put the blame on the COVID-19 pandemic.
Whatever the excuse, with two extra months of planning I expected more from the NDP’s 2021 budget. We all acknowledge that the pandemic has put extreme pressure on the spending plans and priorities of every government grappling with its negative impacts. But while John Horgan and the NDP could have used this budget to fix their botched recovery programs, refocus and straighten the course for B.C. to emerge successfully out of this pandemic, they failed to take this opportunity.
What they did instead was cut the budget for the very ministry that is supposed to lead our economic recovery efforts. The Ministry of Jobs, Economic Recovery and Innovation is the one responsible for the disastrous Small and Medium-Sized Business Recovery Grant program which has failed to get more than a small fraction of funds out to small businesses over the past year. Rather than boost this ministry’s budget and come up with new or better ideas to get help to struggling businesses and workers, the NDP saw fit to slash it and do nothing instead. Meanwhile, the premier’s office received a nice budget lift of 36 per cent.
Additionally, as B.C. is in the midst of the third wave of the pandemic, the NDP has cut $1.1. billion in funding to health authorities across the province. And school districts who are having to contend with a whole host of pandemic-related challenges, will see a cut of $53 million.
