A Steady as She Goes Budget for Carole James and the NDP

The financial blue print for John Horgan's second year at the helm of British Columbia was delivered by Finance Minister Carole James on Tuesday afternoon, and with the government seemingly secure for a bit longer through its ongoing agreement with the Greens, the document delivered on many of the NDP"s main themes of the last two years, with housing, families and reconciliation among the elements outlined from the Legislature.

With the working theme of "Making Life Better" the financial plan was directed towards the NDP"s base audience, with money to be directed towards Child care initiatives, education, the elimination of all MSP premiums, additional support for caregivers, the elimination of interest on the BC portion of post secondary student loans and an increase in assistance for those who most need some support.

Among some of the highlights of Budget 2019 were:

Introducing the new B.C. Child Opportunity Benefit – starting in October 2020 – that will provide families with one child up to $1,600 per year, two children up to $2,600 and three children up to $3,400. Over the course of a child’s upbringing, families with one child will receive as much as $28,800. For families with two children, that number can exceed $40,000 in support.

Eliminating interest on British Columbia student loans. As of Feb. 19, 2019, all B.C. student loans will stop accumulating interest; saving someone with $28,000 in combined provincial and federal student loans $2,300 over the 10-year repayment period.

Fully eliminating MSP premiums on Jan. 1, 2020, saving families as much as $1,800 per year.

Investing $4.4 billion over three years to expand and upgrade hospitals, medical and diagnostic equipment and health information management systems to ensure patients have the quality care they deserve.

Providing $105 million over three years to support life-saving cancer care services delivered by the BC Cancer Agency, including increasing the number of cancer-related surgeries, diagnostic imaging, PET and CT scans.

Improving mental health care for British Columbians with a $74-million investment that funds new initiatives focused on prevention and early intervention for children, youth and young adults

Providing over $550 million in additional supports for B.C.’s public education system, including $58 million over three years for the Classroom Enhancement Fund to support better classrooms for kids. This is in addition to the over 4,000 new teachers, including 1,000 special education assistants, hired to support students in B.C. classrooms.

Making more than $20 billion in capital investments primarily in the health, transportation and education sectors — the largest infrastructure investment in B.C.’s history. This will create tens of thousands of jobs in communities around B.C. 

Providing over $902 million for CleanBC, putting B.C. on the path to a cleaner, brighter, low-carbon future. This will reduce air pollution and save families money through the Clean Energy Vehicle 

Program, incentives for energy-saving home improvements, a net-zero building code, and programs to help communities transition to cleaner energy sources.

The full roll out of the budget planning highlights can be found here.

Reconciliation has been another area where the NDP have made much more progress than their predecessors and the initiatives introduced on Tuesday should serve to cement their relationship with First Nations leaders.

The inclusion of First Nation communities in the revenues derived from gambling is a long overdue step and the NDP have been hitting the right notes when it comes to improving Indigenous housing, education and social and cultural issues.

The injection of 3 billion dollars in shared provincial revenue over the next 25 years, including 300 million in the next three years will give First Nations communities access to funding to build up infrastructure and address local needs.

"This agreement is the result of decades of tireless work by the First Nations Leadership Council to ensure that the resources of our province are shared in a way that advances self-government and self-determination. I’m enormously proud of what we have accomplished together to ensure that communities have the resources they need and deserve." -- Finance Minister Carole James

Ms. James even managed to throw in some reassurance that two major stories of the news cycle in recent months are under control. With plans to eliminate the colossal debt that ICBC has amassed and reform the car insurance agency in the province; as well as to address the ongoing issues facing BC Hydro.

Time will tell if those two particular pits of tar may give cause to the NDP to become stuck, but the Finance Minister is facing them head on and that's reassuring.

For the most part, the Budget tackled the many areas that middle and lower income British Columbians want to see addressed, making much more progress on the issues of concern than their predecessors.

Without benefit of a four year mandate, there have also been no wild social engineering plans announced as many might have feared. Instead, the steps that have been taken over the last two years have for the most part made for steady progress on long overlooked files and the provision of good governance.

Minority governments tend to do that, making for a guiding hand against any excesses, while for the most part providing for common sense solutions to long standing problems.

Delivering some responsible fiscal management, that will continue to see budget surpluses delivered in the years to come, takes away much in the way of talking points for the Opposition Liberals.

Andrew Wilkinson and his side of the Legislature will have a chance to offer their rebuttal to the document over the next week or so, highlighting those areas where they fear the province may be going to hell in a hand basket; but for the most part they can only look at the steady approach that the NDP have taken and wonder why they didn't adopt some of the same concepts prior to the 2017 election.

There are a few areas where they may be able to find some wedge issues to knock the NDP off its balance for a bit, and economic prospects can turn in a pretty quick fashion, but for now, the government is holding a strong hand with economic development that continues to keep the province among the leaders in Canada.

That could spell a bit of additional time as an opposition party for Mr. Wilkinson and his MLA's as they look to navigate their new status and find their own compass points for the road ahead.

The full text of her speech to the Legislature can be found here.

The video of her delivery of is available here.

The NDP's main talking points for the Budget can be reviewed here and here.

You can also review a wide range of documentation on the Budget from the BC Government website.

As well, our Victoria Viewpoint feature provides a look at a cross section of the accounts of the budget plan for 2019 and beyond, with  pundits and columnists delivering their verdict on the Horgan government's plan for the future.

For more notes related to the work of MLA's from the region see our archive pages below


North Coast

Skeena


Cross posted from the North Coast Review.