Chamber of Commerce President Gives Provincial Budget Thumbs Up
Prince George, B.C. – “It’s dry but it’s fiscally responsible, so we’re happy.”
The reaction of Prince George Chamber of Commerce president Ranjit Gill to today’s provincial budget (see original story here).
“This budget is balanced and it’s the only jurisdiction that can lay claim to that,” says Gill. “It’s the third year in a row so we’re very excited about it.”
She’s also pleased the debt-to-GDP ratio is forecasted to improve from 17.4% in 2015-16 to 16.6% in 2017-18 noting “they’re living up to their commitment to pay down the debt and foster growth.”
Gill is also gratified the province has pledged to improve internet connectivity in B.C.’s rural areas
“They plan to spend $10 million over two years to facilitate completion by 2021 so all rural areas in the north will be able to connect to the internet and that’s huge, we’ve been fighting for that for a while.”
She says she’s not concerned there was nothing to address the skills gap noting “they’re working towards that” or money to address the region’s transportation needs.
“Those are issues that we’re going to bring up at the next B.C. Chamber of Commerce AGM.”
Comments
I take it this means the rich are going to pay less tax again, the middle class is going to pay more tax and the underprivledged are buggered yet again
ie; the basic personal exemption for provincial income tax has been reduced by several hundred bucks from 2014 to 2015. But dang the tax rate never increased. I think not.
or that might be 2013 to 2014. Sorry folks i am not an accountant.
That’s OK mactac, neither is anyone running this province.
The budget is balanced , well isn’t that wonderful , on tax dollars , just keep in mind that our medical system is not good , there has been cutbacks everywhere that shouldn’t have been ,Nurses , doctors, teachers , home care and the list goes on . But oh yes the budget is balanced, that means once again the rich will get richer and the poor will end up living in tents .
Nurses,doctors, and teachers are the rich! What a quagmire!
@mactac yes the basic personal exemptions went down in 2014 from 2013 due to the elimination of the HST, but if you look they are again up from 2014 to 2015 as they are indexed to inflation.
Voters shouldn’t have listened to Vanderzalm as the GST/HST rebate check also went down when it was changed back. And yet the public still pays pretty much the the same in PST/GST tax as HST (actually more since the HST was set to drop a few percentage points) – I doubt if anyone noticed the difference except for the GST check getting cut in half. Now you also pay 12 percent PST when buying used vehicles, go figure.
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