February 15, 2006

New Throne Speech

Seldom have British Columbians seen a more deceptive Throne Speech than what the Honourable Lieutenant Governor, Iona Campagnolo, was required to read on Valentine's Day. After the usual attention given to prominent citizens who died since the last Speech from the Throne, almost 15 minutes were devoted to health care. Since the government writes what the Lieutenant Governor reads, the government's news release about the Speech is as important as the contents of the Speech. It stated:

That assertion is pure balderdash. Section 7 of the Canada Health Act states:

Sections 8 through 12 go on to define the five criteria. The problem is not that the criteria are undefined; the problem is that provinces ignore the criteria and routinely get away without suffering significant consequences. A historical note is important since today's politicians invoke the Canada Health Act with no apparent understanding of why it was enacted. In the early 80s British Columbia had hospital user-fees; extra-billing by physicians was increasing in Alberta and Ontario and starting to creep into BC. The federal government reacted with the Canada Health Act which threatened to withhold $1 of federal transfers for health care for each $1 of user-fees or extra-billing allowed by the provinces. A three year deadline was given to comply with the Act. At the last possible minute, BC eliminated hospital user-fees. Somewhat earlier Alberta and Ontario moved to end extra-billing by their physicians. Since then little or nothing has been done to enforce the provisions of the Canada Health Act as it applies to "modern" violations of its five principles.

The Campbell government claims that the principles are "undefined" and that a sixth principle of "sustainability" needs to be added. How can it be that BC afforded massive corporate tax cuts but cannot afford to sustain health care? How can it be that Canada can afford to cut the GST but cannot afford to sustain health care? Linking the admitting room to the morgue is one of the least expensive alternatives in health care, and one that appears to be favoured for others by some of those who can afford to take the longer route while they benefit from the tax cuts. The Campbell government needs to say who it wants to divert to the short cut - your family or mine!

Apart from its attack on the principles of Medicare, the Throne Speech went on to list dozens of challenges facing British Columbians. As an inventory of problems it was interesting, but as a blueprint for government action it was lacking. It spoke of 25,000 new post-secondary spaces, but it didn't mention how UBC and area colleges are competing for students that have become scarce since tuition fees nearly doubled. With respect to oversized K-12 classes, the Speech said that:

Not one word of apology was offered for offloading budget challenges onto school boards while giving them the out of increasing class size and ignoring class composition. Now the Campbell government is going to punish school boards which have done its dirty work.

Recent Throne Speeches have been built on themes such as "2010", the "Golden Decade" or the "five great principles". Those themes were mentioned just once in the 2006 Speech while the word "new" was used 118 times, not counting "renewal". Overuse makes the word meaningless, as anyone can see that the Speech failed to chart a legislative agenda for the spring session. It essentially admitted that the agenda for the government's first term was to slash and burn, and with that done it has run out of steam.

In contrast to the word "new" the word "salmon" cannot be found in the Speech. All parts of the community, environmentalists, foresters, first nations and others, worked for over a decade to bring about the Central Coast and North Coast Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) which was finally announced on February 7th. The Campbell government exploited that consensus by announcing in the Throne Speech that the Spirit Bear would be named the official provincial animal. Just wait for the unique "white" brown bear to be made the mascot for the 2010 games. Environmentalists deserve praise for brilliant public relations in naming LRMP the Great Bear Rainforest and for focusing on the Kermode bear. It would be more appropriate to name the Spirit Bear the provincial mammal. The bear uses, as does much of the coastal ecosystem, the wild salmon. The Campbell government's policies on expanding open net fish farms throughout the coast are endangering the wild salmon which feed the Spirit Bear, the eagles and the forest. A public relations stunt to use the name will not excuse the Campbell government for allowing salmon runs to become extinct as a result of sea lice infestations caused by "farmed" salmon.

Tuesday's Throne Speech failed to provide a blueprint for the spring legislative agenda. It was little more than political spin and an inventory of some of the challenges facing the province.