Prince George, B.C. – The Prince George Chamber of Commerce is applauding B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong for bringing in a balanced budget.

Chamber Vice-president Ranjit Gill says “I think British Columbians can take pride that we are one of only two jurisdictions in Canada to balance our budget, and this was done with only minimal tax increases.  It was a boring budget for the chamber network but actually a cause for celebration.  It’s a foundation budget so that in future years we hope that there will be room for future investment.  In particular the Prince George Chamber has consistently told the province to balance the budget first, service the debt second and then increases to programs should only occur after these first two things have been dealt with.”

Regarding the fact the budget mentioned nothing about debt reduction Gill says “the platform (in the last election) that the Liberals ran on was that they were going to focus on debt reduction.  It was not identified in this budget speech but we’re hoping that, as they promised, 50% would go down to reducing the debt.  They didn’t identify it but we’re hoping that they live up to their election promises.”

Asked her opinion on the fact the budget contained no positive measures for small business Gill says “I think that they were thinking of it globally, across British Columbia, that the LNG would be good for the economy of the entire province, not just small business.”   She agrees there was nothing in the budget for small business “nor was there any mention of actual skills and training.  They are investing in capital projects in Kelowna, Kamloops, Victoria and Vancouver but not up in the north, and it’s just for capital expenditures, nothing to do with actually putting seats out there.”

Gill is happy the budget is balanced, would like to have seen more financial contributions to skills training and says “but I’m happy they’ve increased funding to Community Living.”