Back To Business In Victoria
Tuesday, February 14, 2012 @ 3:50 AM
The Spring Session of the Legislature begins in Victoria later today. Bob Simpson is the Independent MLA for Cariboo-North and offers his thoughts:
Since we did not prorogue the last fall session, Premier Clark’s Throne Speech from the fall carries over and so does some of the outstanding legislation from that session, particularly the Local Government Auditor General Act that has been called into question by the Union of BC Municipalities.
The most interesting aspect of this session will be the budget, which we’ll see on February 21st. The government continues to send out mixed messages about whether they will or won’t be able to balance the budget in 2013 as currently required by law. The budget tabled this spring will put an end to that speculation, as the government is also not allowed to project a deficit for 2013 and beyond. So, if the budget does show a deficit beyond 2012 then we’ll have to see a Bill this spring giving the government yet another reprieve from balancing the books (it’ll be their third time).
I’ve made my thoughts plain on this: balanced budget legislation is simply political smoke-and-mirrors as it hasn’t been adhered to in any jurisdiction that has it. Rather than amending the existing legislation yet again, I’ll be calling on the government to repeal the legislation in its entirety.
There seems to be pressure to try and get the Resource Roads Act tabled this spring or fall session; however, the government failed to successfully table this act once before and I’m hearing there’s still considerable push back against the current attempt. Likewise, we may see legislative or regulatory changes affecting log exports and land use plans (particularly for the interior to allow access to the mid-term timber supply that’s locked up in the Cariboo-Chilcotin Land Use Plan).
Comments
Bob Simpson:-“Iâve made my thoughts plain on this: balanced budget legislation is simply political smoke-and-mirrors as it hasnât been adhered to in any jurisdiction that has it. Rather than amending the existing legislation yet again, Iâll be calling on the government to repeal the legislation in its entirety.”
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Good for you, Bob. Yours is one voice of sanity when it comes to this extremely poorly understood issue. You may, or may not, fully realise why this type of supposedly ‘fiscally responsible’ Legislation only preserves a a financial fallacy, but regardless, abolishing it is an important first step towards redressing what’s REALLY wrong with the ways governments keep their books.
It is long past time that other elected politicians begin to realise what is REALLY entailed in a balanced Budget where the monetary figures it is expressed in bear a continuing and increasingly distorted reflection of the physical realities of actual production and consumption.
Should the headline not read “Back to Monkey Business in Victoria?”
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