Gary Collins is not just the Minister of Finance and government House Leader; he is also co-chair of the Campbell government's re-election committee. That makes his pronouncements on a variety of topics particularly interesting as they reflect the spin that can be expected throughout the very long pre-election period.

On Wednesday, October 6th, Collins appeared on Voice of BC with Vaughn Palmer. Collins' response to criticism over his government's handling of the Ministry of Children and Family Development, welfare, Pharmacare and the tax shift was less than forthright. His answers were similar to the misleading spin in the government ads, but then again, Collins is now responsible for those ads as the Public Affairs Bureau reports to him.

When describing the "Give It Back" campaign, Palmer said "They want you to put back the money you took out of the social programs in order to balance your budget." Collins responded by saying "… we've been able to reduce the number of children in care of government by keeping them in their communities. That number has come down dramatically. That's what's driving the biggest cost reductions in the Ministry of Children and Families. We went out to do that. We're following the best practices, and I think you're seeing, in the last three years, that those children are receiving better care, and you're certainly not seeing the kinds of horror stories you did under the previous government."

There are three major errors in Collins' response. He set a budget that called for 23% cuts to the Ministry of Children and Family Development on Black Thursday, January 17, 2002, long before anyone knew how many children would be in care. Only after many deadlines were missed and the Ministry was in chaos were the cuts reduced to 11%. Fewer children were taken into care in response to the budget targets. It is good practice to keep children in need of protection in their families if possible, and in their extended families as a next best alternative, but that costs more by way of monitoring by child protection workers and the provision of support services. Social workers throughout the province confidentially talk about the Campbell government's failure to provide necessary preventative services. You don't hear about horror stories because they fired the Children's Commission; they fired the Advocate for Children and Youth; they made it illegal for foster parents or social workers to talk to the media. They replaced the entire whistle blowing system with a part time "Child and Youth Officer" who reports to the Attorney General. In her pathetic annual report, she had nothing to say about outcomes for children in need of protection; she did comment that there are never enough resources, as if to excuse the Campbell cuts.

The Give It Back campaign was initiated by the Community Living Association in response to $50 million in cuts for the developmentally disabled. Even though legislation on community living was debated in the legislature last week, Collins had nothing to say about those cuts.

Collins commented on welfare cuts and the reduction of the rolls by 50,000 cases, 99,000 people, when he said "We do exit interviews. The vast majority of those people have found employment. On average, they're earning three times what they were before." He neglected to say that the exit surveys were so seriously flawed that the Ministry of Human Resources quietly discontinued them with no media advisory or comment.

Despite all of the claims in the government ads, Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey shows that, as of September 2004, employment in BC has grown by 107,500 since May 2001. Almost all of the new jobs would have had to go to people leaving welfare for government's claim to be true. The truth is that the government doesn't know, and apparently doesn't care, what happened to the people denied assistance.

In response to a caller whose diabetic mother has been hurt by cuts to Pharmacare, Collins demonstrated further lack of caring or lack of knowledge about who has paid the price for his balanced budget. He claimed that "Seniors in British Columbia saw no change to their Pharmacare plan." He went on to say that "If you were 63 or older at the time those changes were made a couple of years ago, you were - no pun intended - grandfathered into the old Pharmacare system that was there for seniors, so they would have seen no change in that regard." Collins' claim is simply not true. The changes to Pharmacare took effect May 1, 2003. Before that seniors paid the dispensing fee to a maximum of $275 per year. On May 1st the annual maximum was changed to depend on family income regardless of a person's age. The only difference that depends on age is that people born before 1939 receive 75% coverage rather than 70% coverage once the income determined deductible is satisfied. A senior with a $40,000 family income now has a deductible of $400 and must pay $800 before full coverage kicks in. The difference between $275 and $800 may not be a big thing for Collins, but it is enough to keep some seniors from filling their prescriptions.

The cost shift in the Pharmacare program is typical of many cost shifts imposed by the Campbell government. The budgets introduced by Collins gave the average person making over $250,000 per year a tax cut of more than $23,000; it gave the average person making a tenth of that, $25,000 per year, a tax cut of $316 dollars. Palmer played a clip from Carole James in which she said "They've shifted who pays in this province." Collins responded saying "She's wrong." He went on to say that when Pharmacare was cut, some low income people got higher benefits. The same applies to the 50% increase in MSP premiums and the hike in the sales tax. He claimed that what was a 25% tax cut for most people was a whopping 28% for those making less than $30,000. His misleading response deflected attention from the tax shift, which was the focus of the criticism.

After making $1.5 billion in income tax cuts and $790 million in corporate tax cuts, Collins increased various taxes and fees that don't depend on income by $1.094 billion (gas tax $211 million, tobacco and booze $275 million, MSP $358 million, sales tax $250 million, plus driver's license fees, parking in parks, and dozens of other fee increases). It is true that on some items special provisions were made for the poorest British Columbians, but a working family making $40,000 per year has been hurt by the Campbell government. Those with incomes in the six figures are money ahead; others have paid the bill.

A steady theme throughout Collins' interview was his claim, repeated six times, that BC has a "broad -based economic recovery". That is not true. BC has a construction boom due to low interest rates combined with some modest growth in tourism. When August 2004 is compared to August 2003, employment is down by 9,800 in education, down by 17,500 in trade, down by 6,000 in the resource industries and down by 5,400 in manufacturing. Construction accounts for 75% of the job growth. Any recovery from the 2001 recession may be over as BC's job growth to September 2004 is only 0.4%, less than half the average for Canada. Collins supplemented his erroneous claims about BC's current economy with nonsense about the 90s. Collins should know that BC enjoyed employment growth from 1991 to 1997 that averaged 4.0% per year, far above anything in the New Era. Collins gets excited over forecasts for 3.5% economic growth, which may or may not prove accurate. He should know that in 2000, the last full year of the NDP government, BC had 4.8% real economic growth (8.4% when inflation is added). Real economic growth in BC exceeded 3.0% in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2000.

Collins should not be allowed to get away with falsehoods about the economy any more than he should be allowed to get away with phony claims about his cuts to social programs, but some interviewers let him coast by without being challenged. What people have personally experienced is far more important than any amount of nonsense Collins or any of his colleagues can spew during a friendly media appearance.