June 11, 2002

Move Forward

A government whose favorite phrase is "moving forward" seems to spend a lot of time looking backward. The Campbell government seems fixated on re-fighting the last election as a means of diverting attention from their failings. During the last staged cabinet meeting "moving forward" was repeated no less than 51 times. Many would like the Campbell government to actually move off its old song sheet and show some real progress. Just move forward.

A letter from Finance Minister Gary Collins was published in the Vancouver Sun, Monday, June 10th. His letter was an attack on an Op Ed piece that Seth Klein of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives published a few days earlier. Klein had the audacity to argue that government really does have choices. He was responding to the oft repeated argument that "the structural deficit made us do it". The so called structural deficit is nothing but the combination of several bad assumptions and the reckless tax cuts. The assumptions are 6% expenditure growth, 3% revenue loss and a $1 billion fudge factor for estimation errors. That is about as structural as a house of cards - all made of jokers.

Collins should apologize for his mean spirited government that does not appear to understand or care about the consequences of its policies. Better yet, he should contribute to changing that approach. Instead, his letter bemoaned a carefully selected list of indicators that he frequently uses to negatively label the NDP decade of the 90s. Of course, Collins ignored the fact that the BC economy created 374,200 jobs during those years while so far in the first full year of the New Era the BC economy has lost almost 25,000 jobs.

Thanks to the last 12 months of destructive policy and legislation, some folks are starting to think "you don't know what you have until it's gone". The thrust of the Campbell government seems to be to undo and rollback as much as possible. From child labour to minimum wage, from tuition to class size, from fish farm moratoriums to drinking water legislation, it is hard to pick any Campbell initiative over the last twelve months that has been anything other than undoing an NDP accomplishment. The list is painfully long and getting longer.

Collins repeated his mantra about increasing health spending by $1.1 billion and protecting education. His colleague, Christy Clark, sometimes spins that as increasing the K-12 education budget by $20 million. When that "increase" is compared to the increased cost of paying the 50% increase in MSP premiums, paying the imposed increase in servicing capital costs and paying for the imposed contract that was not funded, it is no wonder that over 50 schools are being closed before September and class sizes may stretch the limit of available chairs and desks. According to the Ministry of Finance, Collin's ministry, the cost of the MSP increase alone for the K-12 system is $18.3 million per year (pdf). Collins also neglected to mention that his claim for increased health funding was necessitated by the contracts his government broke and then replaced followed by MSP and sales tax increases to balance the funding side of his books. We will have to wait until well into 2003 before audited financial statements are available to see how Collin's health claims compare to reality.

While economic growth during the 90s (and 80s) did not match the unspecified expectations of the Campbell gang, it is a fact that BC's population grew from 3.4 million in October 1991 to 4.1 million in May 2002. Employment grew throughout the decade. The Island Highway, the Skytrain Extenstion and a new school every 17 days were among the former government's accomplishments. Much more importantly, the record on health outcomes shows that BC achieved the lowest infant mortality rate in its history in 2000.

The only good news the Campbell government seems to be able to offer is a future promise for the 2010 Olympics. Even on that front the Canadian Taxpayer's Federation has called on the government to come clean and say how much a successful Olympic bid would really cost.

Rather than bad mouthing the former government, it is time for the Campbell cabinet (the largest in BC history) to "move forward".

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May 17, 2002

The NDP Record

The latest Ipsos-Reid poll shows the combined NDP and Green support now exceeds the BC Liberal support. Of course, that split may be precisely what will keep Gordon Campbell in power for a long time to come.

Campbell apologists frequently refer to the NDP record as "ten disastrous years". In fact those years are looking very good by comparison with the Campbell record. The Ipsos-Reid poll revealed that 53% of British Columbians feel that BC is in worse shape after one year with the Campbell government.

When the Harcourt government was elected on October 17, 1991, BC had 1,593,700 people employed. By the time the Clark government was elected on May 28, 1996, employment had grown to 1,830,300. When the Dosanjh government was defeated on May 16, 2001, employment had reached 1,967,900. On the first anniversary of the Campbell government's landslide victory, the most recent employment numbers show job loss with the seasonally adjusted number for April, 2002, being 1,952,700.

The BC economy generated 374,200 new jobs during the NDP years. So far BC has lost 15,200 jobs since Gordon Campbell swept to power. (Source: Labour Force Survey, seasonally adjusted)

In October 1991 BC's population was 3,404,523. In May 2001 BC's population had grown to 4,087,524. Listening to the Campbell apologists, some people probably think that BC lost population during the last decade. In fact, BC's population grew by 20.1% during the NDP years.

BC's gross domestic product rose from $82.1 in 1991 to $125.5 billion in 2001. In constant 1997 dollars, it rose from $96.2 in 1991 to $113.8 billion in 2001. In constant dollar terms, BC's GDP increased by 18.3% during the NDP decade.

The last full fiscal year for the NDP ended March 31, 2001. That fiscal year finished with a $1.498 billion surplus - the biggest surplus in BC history. That record surplus followed a $40 million surplus for fiscal year 1999-2000. Those are not numbers made up by a political spin master. Those are numbers certified by the Auditor General. Even the Fiscal Review Panel appointed by Premier Campbell acknowledged that "British Columbia is a Canadian leader in public sector financial reporting. We found that the province's accounting policies and practices provide a high overall level of financial disclosure and accountability."

All too often in BC, political debates don't let the facts get in the way. The numbers provided here are readily available from reliable sources (Statistics Canada, BC Stats and the Ministry of Finance). BC became a leader in financial reporting under the NDP. Political debate should occasionally be informed through the use of that reporting.

There are many other indicators of the NDP record. One of the most important is infant mortality. Infant mortality is one of the most commonly used indicators of the health of a population. In British Columbia infant mortality dropped to a record low in the last year of the NDP era. Let us all pray that it continues to decline in the New Era.