December 27, 2001

BC Politics - A Sketch of the Year 2001

The BC political year really started on May 16th when Premier Campbell was elected with the largest majority in the history of British Columbia. On election night he showed his character by declaring that the two New Democrats would not be recognized as the Official Opposition. The public, furious with the NDP, applauded - an applause that is now fading as the true Campbell agenda unfolds.

During the first five months of 2001 everyone knew that a virtual wipeout was about to happen. The Premier in waiting used that time to let people believe that they could have their cake and eat it too. He spoke of dramatic tax cuts while protecting health and education. Months later he turned to criticizing voters for not reading the fine print and for not understanding the implications in his election platform.

On the first full day in power, June 6, 2001, Premier Campbell announced a tax cut that gave the top 8,000 income earners in BC the same amount of benefits (just over $200 million) as it gave to the bottom 1,673,000. It is hard to believe but the 8,000 folks with taxable incomes over $250,000 got the same total benefits as everyone with incomes under $30,000. That was dramatic! That also was not at all what was promised when the Campbell Liberals spoke of cutting just the bottom two tax brackets.

Not content to stop with a massive tax break for high income earners, on July 30th in a mini-budget the Minister of Finance announced $790 million in corporate tax cuts that together with the income tax cuts meant a loss of $2.3 billion in government revenue. That is a reduction in government revenue of 10%! Rather than showing confidence in their ridiculous notion that tax cuts could pay for themselves, the Campbell government then embarked on the most extreme antigovernment program ever seen in BC. Cuts of 30-50% over three years were announced for all ministries except for health and education whose budgets were frozen for three years. Even the Minister of Health Services admitted that a budget freeze equaled a cut in real services of $700 million just for fiscal 2002-03. While the elimination of much of government began, other disturbing announcements were made. The following is but a sample:

What happens with the reports, with countless reviews (WCB, core and justice) and with a three year fiscal plan and budget will make for some very busy and disturbing times in early 2002.