NDP say budget falls short
Prince George, B.C. – NDP MLA for Victoria-Beacon Hill, Carole James, says the budget delivered by Finance Minister Mike de Jong is “disconnected with the lives of hard working British Columbians”. She says the budget will do nothing to improve the situation in B.C. classrooms.
She pointed out that families have to wait until January of 2017 to see any MSP break, and in the meantime, the MSP rates will increase.
“A budget should work for everyone” says James, “not just the people at the top of the Premier’s priority list.”
While the budget allows for an end to the transfer tax on new homes valued under $750 thousand dollars, a move to increase the supply of housing, James says most British Columbians can’t afford to buy a home, let alone a new one.
“In budget 2016, this government could have chosen to take meaningful action to actually address affordability in this province, ” but says instead says the Government presented a budget “that simply tinkers around the edges without taking long term meaningful action.”
She says despite the promise the budget will help address the cost of living, James says it does just the opposite.
Comments
Limp response when the harshest criticism is that the MSP changes don’t take place for a few months and house prices in Vancouver are too high which is not the role of a non-commy govt anyway. The lower mainland is a desirable place to live and has a robust and diverse economy that affects house prices. That is not a bad thing
“can’t afford to buy a home, let alone a new one”. I take it she hasn’t been to PG in a while. Must be talking about Vancouver………..
Plenty here can’t afford to buy either, that’s life, get a helmet because it’s tough.
Average increase for the North Central BC area from 2011 to 2036, according to BC Stats is 0.4% So have fun with that number and try to determine how you can grow the economy. We are looking at an increase of approx. 1,549 people per annum.
Population for North Central BC for 2011 336,419. 2036 375,135. Total increase of 38,716 over 25 years.
The area roughly takes in 100 Mile House to Prince Rupert, Kitimat, Ft St John,
Main areas of higher growth over this time frame is the Greater Vancouver area, and the East side of Vancouver Island. Ie; Nanaimo, Courtney, Parksville, etc;
“try to determine how you can grow the economy”
You are making a wrong assumption common to Canadians an even the USA and some other countries. Population growth and economic growth of a region are not linked in a world which allows markets to be larger than the regions in which the economy is measured.
Here are some country population stats to show that point. You can find the health of the standard of living in those countries to see which ones are doing well in low growth and which ones are doing well in high growth.
The countries are sorted in order of largest to lowest growth to lowest growth from 1985 to 2015. The population is in thousands of people.
israel : 4,050 : 8,050 : 98.77%
venezuela : 16,998 : 29,276 : 72.23%
australia : 15,696 : 22,752 : 44.95%
canada : 25,942 : 35,100 : 35.30%
usa : 237,924 : 321,369 : 35.07%
china : 1,061,876 : 1,367,486 : 28.78%
sweden : 8,357 : 9,802 : 17.29%
UK : 56,585 : 64,089 : 13.26%
germany : 77,685 : 80,855 : 4.08%
russia : 143,938 : 142,424 : -1.05%
We have to learn how to access the world marketplace with products and services for which we can get a better return for our efforts. In other words, those countries that work smarter, more efficiently and effectively are the ones that are improving their quality of life. Canada is doing well all around, but simply growing the population will not guarantee an improvement in the quality of life. The same goes for regions and cities within each national boundary.
The last time the NDP was in power, they drove people to Alberta in droves. Don’t really care what they think anymore. They are not in power.
Last time the NDP were in power, the Asian Meltdown occurred, decimating our export economy, which is why people went elsewhere looking for work. Shoes on the other foot now and people are returning because of the oil meltdown. Neither scenario can be blamed on NDP provincial government.
What were we exporting to Asia at that time of any significance? Most of the provincial trade was with the USA. Now it is 50% to USA and 50% rest of the world.
The key is not to hang most of the trade on one country as well as most of the goods/services on one or two types of products/services.
I will agree that the oil meltdown cannot be blamed on the NDP in Alberta.
As far as BC goes, the NDP must share the blame with previous governments in BC for not diversifying the trading partners and the products/services.
I would even go so far as to say that the failure of the USA economy had a part to play in starting to recognize that we cannot rely on the USA. NAFTA is a joke. When push comes to shove, the USA will shove every time, as would other countries, I am sure.
What did you expect her to say? Good grief! Ms James is not qualified to provide any kind of intelligent analysis of the budget, she is a school teacher turned socialist politician. Where is the balance? At least try get an unbiased opinion. This site is tuning into an NDP soapbox.
“Ms James is not qualified to provide any kind of intelligent analysis of the budget, she is a school teacher turned socialist politician.”
I’m no pinko but I need to point out that Ms. Clark has never graduated from a post-secondary institution.
Yet she’s running our province…
I agree with Ram Tough. Not only was she kicked out of one University, and dropped out of two others, she was taking Religious Studies. Explain to me how that qualifies this bimbo to run the province? Yet people still pump her tires.
I don’t care if the Liberals win next time or not, I just want this jackass not running the show any longer. There’s more qualified peeps in the basement.
Nice hair though.
Well, what do you expect from the NDP, Carole James, and or an opposition party. “you did a great job addressing the issue, let’s see if we can work together on some other minor issues”
That will be a laugh.
I feel like my ears are bleeding every time I hear James speak. Has she ever held a job that wasn’t publicly funded?
Please go away Carole James!!!!
I cant afford to buy a new car either so how about nixing the tax for first time car owners and just charge the tax on older cars that have probably been taxed several times or how about killing the tax on new clothes and just charge the tax to the value villages and the sally anne’s (Sarcasm purely intended}
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