Auditor General Calls for Long Term Fiscal Planning
Prince George, B.C. – The Province needs to develop a long term fiscal plan in order to avoid financial crisis, that’s the bottom line of a report by Provincial Auditor General Carol Bellringer.
In her report, she says balanced budgets alone “are not sufficient to ensure policies and programs will be sustainable in the future.”
In her report, Bellringer says the challenges facing the Province over the long term include:
- aging population which puts more pressure on health care
- declining workforce, which impacts the economic growth
- infrastructure maintenance and upgrades.
Bellringer makes just one recommendation in her 36 page report and that is “that government report publicly on its assessment of the province’s long-term fiscal sustainability, including the reporting of relevant targets and results. This assessment should inform the annual budget process.”
The Province develops its budgets on a three year cycle, and Bellringer says that view is too short “The Government must look beyond the three year budget cycle and beyond the 4 year election cycle”.
In her second report, she examined the process for the development of the annual budget, specifically revenue and how the Government makes that prediction. The findings confirm the Government’s forecasting and forecasting process are sound “they reflect expected economic conditions, are consistent with Government plans, and they accurately reflect the key assumptions.”
She did make three recommendations to the Treasury Board Staff and all focus on making the process more transparent and understandable for the public.
Comments
I agree with the auditor general, however, the people making the budgets have one concern. How to keep their job in 4 years. So preparing a balanced budget with goodies to be given out the last two years of their term is all they will care to do.
Exactly why infrastructure in the north is horrible. Why develop up here? the votes are in the lower mainland.
Govt is long overdue for some serious belt tightening. IMO it is time to do the following:
-axe the senate
-get rid of welfare system
-any and all people in meed of financial assistance must put in hours doing whatever they are capable of, in order to get funds.
-abolish the “indian act”..sorry folks, free ride is over and you get taxed and live like the rest of us. (Bleeding hearts who oppose this can K.M.A)
-govt pensions..minimum 25yr service for full pensions (MP/MLA this is for you as well)
-absolute transparency/accountability for govt spending. Serious charges for those causing infractions.
-govt needs to have revenue other than taxation/user fees. People who need financial assistance and prison inmates can work in govt owned industry or agriculture which can subsidize govt income. Other countries do it, some have this as main govt revenue.
When it comes to govt spending, I will quote OZZY “WE’RE GOING OFF THE RAILS ON THE CRAZY TRAIN!”
Instead of govt telling US we’re in peril, maybe they should start at the top and get their sh$t in order. Look at ALL forms of govt..how many are making (certainly not EARNING) $100K or more per year and charging up huge expenses all out of our pocket.
PLEASE haters.. This is MY opinion, others will have theirs. So instead of hacking on people’s opinions.. Come up with a better solution.
Could’ve gone on and on with my post, but not worth the time. Sick and tired of govt waste. My wife and I both work full time jobs just to stay afloat. It has become almost impossible for average people to get ahead or save for retirement/education. I blame govt for this. My parents are elderly, back in their youth one mearly needed to work hard and be somewhat smart in order to keep a little $. Nowadays you need to work twice as hard, be in debt for 25 yrs+ not spend ANY extra and at the end you retire at 65 yrs old (if you live that long) and you might stay somewhat comfortable. I look at how much we pay in taxes (income, sales, utilities, property and user fees) and I fugure we support quite a few lazy welfare riders who sit at home drunk and stoned. While I realize this is not quite true.. that is how I feel.
Work longer hours to get ahead? You get taxed even harder. Will I have a comfortable retirement? Only if I can save enough. CPP, old age pension and my employers pension may allow me to eat and live in a cheap slum by the time I hit 65. Yet govt eats up all we give them and still says “Not enough” kinda makes one ill.
“She did make three recommendations to the Treasury Board Staff and all focus on making the process more transparent and understandable for the public.”
Welp I can see her recommendations going off the rails real quick… this government being; “transparent and understandable to the public”? Yeah… right…
Watch dog, deep inside a lot of us have to agree on many of your points. but you said it out first.
There is absolutely no doubt that the Provincial, and Municipal Governments are taxing the s..t out of us. Between taxes and user fee’s, house insurance, car insurance, gas, natural gas, hydro, medical payments, etc; etc; etc; People (especially those on lower incomes) don’t stand a chance in hell of ever getting ahead.
Most of these problems are caused by all levels of Governments, and all their entities, such as bc transit, hydro, icbc, bc liquor board, lottery, bc ferries, WCB, UIC, etc; etc;
No one has the time, nor the money to actually take on one of these out of control entities, let alone all of them. So what do we do.
An American President stated many years ago that Governments yield to pressure and its up to the people to apply the pressure. So there is part of the problem. Although we have millions of people complaining, we do not have any people actually doing anything.
Governments know that it is a rare thing for people to actually get off their asses and actually do something so they just carry on. The HST was one example where people raised hell, and it made a difference, but in that instance (like him or not) people had a leader in Bill Vanderzalm.
At the moment we have no leaders in the Province who care about the average joe/jane. And unless one stands up and gets some support we can expect more of the same.
Comments for this article are closed.