January 6, 2003

Government MLAs treated as Disposable

Before the RCMP raided the legislative offices of the Minister of Finance and the Minister of Transportation, it was reasonable to presume that the Campbell Liberals would not repeat the election results of 2001 by taking 77 of 79 seats in 2005. MLAs who thought they were in trouble when the December Ipsos-Reid poll showed a mere 4 point difference between the BC Liberals and the NDP must be asking what the Premier is doing to improve their chance for re-election. Hugging a palm tree in Maui while chaos erupts over an investigation that will likely drag out until the end of 2004, the eve of the election, probably doesn't cut it for MLAs who recognize that they are dispensable cannon fodder.

Finance Minister Gary Collins rushed home from Maui while the Premier remained on the beach; Collins made a few appearances with the media that further confused the situation, and then caught a jet back to Hawaii. How's that for optics and support for his colleagues? The Finance Minister, whose Ministerial Assistant was fired while his colleague in Transportation was suspended with pay, will deliver another body blow to his caucus colleagues when he tables his budget on February 17th. During one of his interviews, Collins said that the public and the media may be distracted by the raid on the legislature and the questions it raises but government will not be distracted as it carries out its plan. This includes frozen budgets in many crucial areas and over $500 million in cuts focused primarily on BC's most needy. Attention will be focused on the February 17th budget to see if it modifies the cuts identified in ministry "service plans" for fiscal 2004-05.

The service plans show cuts of a further $168 million for temporary income assistance and a further $70 million for Children and Family Development. Relative to cuts like that it may seem like small change when some other programs lose a half million here or there, but many vital programs are so small that a half million dollar cut hurts vital services.

On December 30th government announced that the sea lice strategy adopted in 2003 for the Broughton Archipelago would be extended to the entire coast; however, the service plan for the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Fisheries shows that this year's budget of $5.146 million for fisheries and aquaculture management is planned to be cut to $4.532 million in 2004-05 (the $614,000 cut is 12% of that budget).

Double digit percentage cuts can be found throughout government's service plans for 2004-05. In the Ministry of the Attorney General, the plan shows a cut from $91.232 million this year for justice services to $82.131 million next year (the $9.1 million cut is 10% of that budget). "Justice services" include "a range of civil and family law programs and services, including dispute resolution, legal aid and enforcement of court orders."

This year's budget of $454.815 million for highway operations is planned to be cut to $417.827 million next year (the $36.988 million cut is 8% of that budget). In the old days of Social Credit one expected to see highways being paved in election years; in the New Era expect a lot more pot holes.

The service plan for the Ministry of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services reveals a plan to cut the budget for women's services and child care by $32.2 million (13.7%). That ministry is also responsible for the 2010 Winter Olympic Bid Secretariat which has a $40.5 million budget this year slated to be cut to $21.6 million next year only to bounce back to $45.6 million in 2005-06 after the election - or to be precise, in the budget that will be tabled in February 2005 for the fiscal year that begins a month before the next election. A few last minute crumbs for the "heartlands" will not make for good heart health for government MLAs who have to account both for possible political scandal and for real service cuts.