Brooks Blasts Liberal Debt Record
Prince George, B.C. – BC Conservative Party leadership candidate Dan Brooks is blasting the Liberals for their budget which projects debt accumulation will reach $68.9 billion in 2016/17.
Brooks says “the BC Liberals will soon be responsible for creating more debt for British Columbians than the NDP. This is more evidence why British Columbia needs a fiscally responsible BC Conservative Party now more than ever. Under my leadership, the BC Conservatives will make debt reduction the number one priority in our vision for the future of B.C.. The comprehensive tax reform policy I previously announced will form a major component in our strategy to pay down the debt."
In 2001 when the BC Liberals took office the provincial debt stood at $33.8 billion. The 2014 budget projects that they will have increased the debt by an additional $35.1 billion by 2016, more than doubling the provincial debt in just 15 years. Brooks says "Christy Clark promised a debt free BC, but since 2011 she has added more than $14 billion and by 2015 that number will increase to over $21 billion in new debt under her watch." He adds “that's more debt than any other premier in the history of British Columbia."
Provincial debt by premier since 1991
|
Premier |
Year they took office |
Provincial debt |
Debt increase |
|
Michael Harcourt |
1991 |
$17 billion |
$11.4 billion |
|
Glen Clark |
1996 |
$28.4 billion |
$6.1 billion |
|
Uijal Dosanjh |
2000 |
$34.5 billion |
-$0.7 billion |
|
Gordon Campbell |
2001 |
$33.8 billion |
$13.5 billion |
|
Christy Clark |
2011 |
$47.3 billion |
$14.5 billion |
|
2014 |
$61.8 billion |
||
|
2016 (projected) |
$68.9 billion |
$21.6 billion |
Comments
The debt of the province of Ontario stands at 271 billion dollars and growing. The interest payment alone amount to over 40 billion dollars annually.
It is apparently the greatest debt of any entity in the world which is not a country.
Frugal governments are usually vilified and tossed out by angry voters at the earliest opportunity.
Dan Brooks can ‘blast’ all he wants since he is of course entitled to his opinions. Whether this is ‘news’ is of course subject to debate.
However, it might behoove Opinion 250 to verify what they paste in as a story, especially when numbers are being thrown out.
A quick look at the financial statements for the province show completely different numbers than above for example. We all hate big debt of course, but we still want our ‘free’ health and education services and paved highways.
Health, Education, and Highways are all paid for by tax dollars, so no one expects to get anything for **free**.
Fact of the matter is, we have more than sufficient tax dollars to look after our needs. The problem lies in the spending of this money and the Government priorities.
How long do we continue to pay huge dollars for roads, Are we any closer to getting the job done than we were 10 years ago?? Seems if we make any progress in any area the Government comes up with additional programs to spend the money,.
In other words, do not reduce the budgets, or hold the line, but increase the budgets of real of perceived needs, and continue to spend,.
There are many examples of Government waste, in fact there are enough to make every citizen of BC sick to the stomach if they were ever truthfully published.
How does debt increase with a balanced budget?
21 hours ago – B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong tabled what he described as a “boring, balanced budget” Tuesday, with few surprises or goodies for British …
Posted by: Jim13135 on February 19 2014 12:43 PM
How does debt increase with a balanced budget?
————–
A balanced budget simply means that you don’t spend more then you take in. Debt is the amount of money we already owe (mostly to China) and that increases due to interest and carrying charges.
The debt numbers are meaningless without a comparison to economic growth and how the economy is performing.
If debt doubled but GDP tripled, that would almost certainly be seen as a good return on debt. If debt doubled but GDP dropped 50%, that is a very bad situation if it is an ongoing trend and not a short-term blip.
You have to look at these things in context. What is the debt being used for? Is it to cover day to day costs or is it being used to invest in infrastructure that will provide a future return? Is the economy growing? Can we service our debt in a responsible manner? How do we stack up to other nations? What is our forecasted growth?
Growing economies and growing populations need cash to service their growing needs. Governments can raise that cash largely through taxes or debt. You want services? You are going to have to fund it one way or another.
The point Palopu raises is a good one though and that is that governments do have to ensure that their spending is responsible. Of course, what is “responsible” and “necessary” is not cut and dry. One man’s “luxury” is another man’s “necessity”. Such is the reality of governments and their need to balance and manage things for an entire country of people who all think differently.
“Luxury” verse “necessity” as in spending over half a BILLION dollars on a stadium roof?
It would be much clearer if the government, which claims it has to be run “…just like any other business”, actually did its books “…just like any other business.” It does not. And so, in place of what would be a ‘Capital Account’ (Shareholder’s Equity plus Retained Earnings) in a private business, we have a National Debt, or its Provincial equivalent. We account much of this as a Liability, but without a contra entry for Assets on the other side of the ledger (Balance Sheet), and a Capital Account, we really have no way of knowing how much of it is actually a ‘liability’ we owe to others (probably the Banks, primarily), and how much of it we ‘owe’ ourselves.
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