British Columbia’s finance minister begins selling a budget Wednesday that has drawn critics from all sides with its soaring debt and deficit, public sector cuts, and construction delays for care homes, student housing and a cancer centre.
Brenda Bailey calls the budget “serious work for serious times.”
It raises the base income tax rate by 0.54 per cent — the first increase in 26 years — while the deficit is predicted to soar to a record $13.3 billion next fiscal year.
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The province says it will also cut 15,000 full-time public sector jobs over the next three years.
BC Federation of Labour secretary-treasurer Hermender Singh Kailley is calling for transparency to ensure the cuts won’t affect front-line service delivery.
BC General Employees’ Union president Paul Finch says they wanted to see “strategic investment” in services that keep costs down but instead saw more cuts to the public workforce.
Finch says the province has broken a promise that keeping costs down could be achieved by “rightsizing” the ratio of management to front-line service workers, and it will be challenging to build an economy on a “weakened public foundation.”
This is exhausting. Time for an election !
Did the government white collars agree to take a wage cut … maybe about 50 %
Failing every middle class British Columbian taxpayer.
Hoping this is the budget that causes this government to fail, finally! It is time to get rid of Eby and these NDP anti-BC anti Canadian fascists. BC cannot withstand this government any longer. ELECTIONS NOW!!