BC Geological Survey

December 15, 2001

Killing the Economic Stimulus with Cuts

Before the election New Democrats frequently criticized the BC Liberal claim that it could make dramatic tax cuts while protecting health and education without seriously harming other essential services throughout government. Now we see that protecting health and education is really a damaging freeze and a broken promise. The impending disaster in child welfare and services for developmentally disadvantaged adults is frightening. The damage that is pending in other ministries is less obvious. At least it was less obvious until the BC & Yukon Chamber of Mines posted some of its criticisms to its website.

On a page boldly captioned "BC Geological Survey Facing the Ax" the BC & Yukon Chamber of Mines reproduced its letter to Minister Richard Neufeld. The letter pleads:

"We are very concerned about rumours circulating throughout your ministry and comments made in last week's open cabinet meeting regarding BC's geological mapping. The GSB should not be regarded as a frill or an optional activity to be undertaken only during good times. Quite the reverse; it should be a core service like education or health care, because it's as fundamental to BC mining as tree planting is to forestry."

The Chamber has also posted a December 4, 2001, letter from Minister Neufeld to "mining industry stakeholders" in which he basically says wait for the budget to come out to learn details about cutbacks.

Apparently unknown to the Chamber of Mines, the data behind the BC Geological survey has already been moved to be a responsibility of the Ministry of Sustainable Resource Management. At the October 24th staged cabinet meeting, Minister of Sustainable Resource Management Stan Hagen said "We have over 138 separate information systems with different data standards and resulting high maintenance costs." The new ministry got all of those computer applications as the result of government reorganizing ministries and creating Hagen's strange mix. Hagen went on to say ""As I said before, after the transfer of activities from several ministries, we currently support 138 computer systems applications. We will reduce and consolidate that number to 20 basic applications." It would appear that the Chamber needs to write to Minister Hagen and impress him with the importance of the Geological Survey. It is surprising that Minister Neufeld's form letter did not bother to mention the shift in responsibility. The survey is at risk from cuts in more than one ministry.

Most British Columbians probably don't think much about the BC Geological Survey but the Chamber of Mines warned "The early tax cuts and flow through mining shares tax credits were excellent initiatives along this line, but we fear that positive message will be negated by the decision to cut the GSB." The loss of the Geological Survey is just one example of cuts that will more than offset the economic stimulus of the reckless tax cuts.