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Area MLA Prepares For Upcoming Legislative Session

By 250 News

It will be back to business in Victoria on Tuesday for Prince George-Omineca Liberal MLA John Rustad and his colleagues around the province.

Rustad says next week's budget will set the tone for the coming year, "It's really going to be about continuing the transformation that B.C. has seen, continuing to move our economy forward and to put the building blocks in place for future success."

The local MLA says he can't be specific on what, if anything, will be included in the financial document for the north, but says, "We understand the fact that we have significant infrastructure needs in this province."  Rustad says, "In particular, there was no investment by the previous governing NDP in our electrical power.  We are now net importers -- that's a situation that, quite frankly, I find unacceptable and we are going to need to be able to move forward with a plan to make sure we are self-sufficient."

Contract negotiations with the public sector have begun in advance of the resumption of the Legislature and Rustad says, "I think we're going to see some real challenges and, what my hope is, is that we're going to see some very creative solutions."

He points out there's $1-billion dollars on the table, amounting to $3300.00 for every public sector employee, that unions can take advantage of by signing a contract by the end of March.


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