I doubt any province fared better from the recent federal government budget than British Columbia, which may actually have received a record harvest of Ottawa largesse and attention.
Last week I suggested relations between the Trudeau government and the Christy Clark government may ultimately sour if the Pacific Northwest LNG project is nixed by Ottawa, but for now things seem to be going swimmingly well between the two.
And considering how much money Ottawa is prepared to pour into this province, why wouldn’t they?
After years of parsimonious budgets from the likes of Stephen Harper and Jean Chretien, B.C. is feeling the love of a prime minister who has thrown fiscal caution to the wind and gone on a spending spree the likes of which hasn’t been seen — in this province at least — in a very long time.
The budget contains a number of line items for B.C. that carry with them big time funding amounts: $460 million for transit improvements, $32 million for a UBC drug research facility, $24 million for the Kitsilano search and rescue centre, $60 million for a forensic lab at the Surrey RCMP headquarters, $106 million for a North Vancouver wastewater plant, $86 million for Highway One expansion…the list is long.
Perhaps the key offering from the federal government is its commitment to pick up 50 per cent of the funding of major infrastructure projects, such as the proposed Surrey light rail transit lines and the Broadway subway or Skytrain extension.
That change in the funding formula will cut municipal funding requirements in half, as cities will now have to pay just 17 per cent of the budget, instead of 33 per cent.
From B.C.’s perspective, what’s not to like?
The only major disappointment, for some, is the delay in funding those big transit projects. But the prime minister’s retort is a valid one: why spend money on them now when the plans for them haven’t even hit the drawing board?
The jury is also still out on the federal government’s pledge to fund a news national health accord. But that may be created within the next year, which will suit the provinces just fine.
There are likely a number of reasons for the Trudeau government’s apparent affection for B.C. One may be the prime minister’s own strong personal ties to the province, since his mother’s family is from here, and he went to university and taught here.
But another and probably bigger one is based on the Liberal Party unexpectedly winning 17 seats here in the election, and presumably Trudeau wants to use that breakthrough as a Western anchor that has long been elusive to his party.
He doesn’t want to repeat a big mistake made by his father after he won a large number of seats in the 1968 federal election. Pierre Trudeau quickly frittered away that goodwill, as Western Canada turned its back on his leadership.
What doesn’t get a lot of public attention is the fact that direct communications between the Prime Minister’s Office and the B.C. Premier’s Office have never been better, as key senior political aides to both leaders have worked together in the past.
While it’s true the B.C. Liberal government has hired a number of ex-political staffers from the Harper government, almost all of them are junior ministerial staff. What’s more telling is the strong relationship that exists between the two corner offices, which are all-powerful within their respective governments.
Finally, there’s the fact that B.C. is far and away leading the country in economic growth and is expected be the leader for some time yet. The technology sector is booming, tourism should have a strong year with our low dollars, and B.C. is tops in job creation (although, as I pointed out a couple of weeks back, many of them are of the part-time variety).
The Trudeau government, no doubt nervous about the poor economic performance across the nation, may want to do everything it can to keep B.C.’s economy firing on all cylinders. And spending gobs of money here will help ensure that will happen.
Keith Baldrey is chief political reporter for Global BC. This is reprinted from his weekly column with Glacier Media.
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