Balance the BC budget

“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

U.S. senator Everett Dirksen gets credit for the saying, but the B.C. Liberal government could just as easily lay claim to it – running the province’s public debt from $34 billion to nearly $48 billion in ten years in office.

Interest costs will top $2.3 billion this year, more than $500 for every man, woman, and child in the province. That’s more than we spend on our entire university and college system. It’s more than double the cost of the entire provincial Pharmacare programme. With interest costs running at $6.3 million at day, we need to send the politicians in Victoria a wake-up call.

In 2009, Premier Gordon Campbell said, "I hate budget deficits; I think they take away from future generations."

While running for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party in early 2011, both now-Premier Christy Clark and now-Finance Minister Kevin Falcon committed to balancing the budget by 2013/14 "or sooner," as Clark said.

Still, the provincial debt has grown $5 billion dollars. By the end of March 2012, the government’s own forecast shows total debt hitting $52.4 billion, then $55.9 billion in 2013.

When you run your credit card to the limit, you soon get a bill in the mail, and B.C. is beginning to experience the hangover from this borrowing binge of Olympic proportions. It’s time to tell B.C. politicians that we’re cutting up their credit card – the sooner we balance the budget, the sooner we can start paying down debt.

Use the buttons below to sign our petition and contact politicians to say that you want a balanced budget in British Columbia.

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