The BC Government’s Standing Committee on Finance and Government Services has set out on their annual pre-budget consultation tour of B.C., hearing from stakeholder groups about what they want to see in the 2016-17 BC Budget. Spoiler alert: most groups want to see a lot more of your money spent.

Many of these causes and ideas are wonderful, but governing is about priorities. Fiscal restraint is absolutely vital. Over the next few weeks, we will post a running tab of the amount of requests this committee receives. Some cost estimates will come from the groups themselves; others will be guestimates.

Your CTF, by the way, is scheduled to present to this committee at 11:50 a.m., Tuesday, October 13, at the Sheraton Guildford Hotel in Surrey. Rest assured we WON’T be asking government to spend more money.

In the second half of their meetings on Day 2, they received $937,500,000 in requests.

In the first half of their meetings on Day 2, they received $1,234,800,000 in requests.

On Day 1, the committee had already received $305,000,000 in funding requests.

After 2 days, the grand total: $2,477,300,000

Here’s the Day 2B breakdown: 

Day 2B - Wednesday, Sept. 15, Kelowna

• The BC School Trustees Association asked for “ongoing, sustainable, stable, predictable funding of our public education system” and a bunch of other items, including relief from the push to get $54m in savings, raises for exempt staff, a professional development program for trustees and executives, and more. It’s a lot. A 5% increase in the Ministry of Education budget would be $225 million.
• Advocis (the financial advisors association of Canada) wants government to set up an industry regulator, like insurance. No dollar figure floated, so let’s ballpark it at $2 million per year.
• Okanagan College wants government to incent industry to work with them and to increase post secondary funding (in Day 2A’s list, we include a massive ask on this from another group, so we’ll let that one be and only put it in the incentive, say $1 million a year).
• The Interior Savings Credit Union and Valley First made it three meetings in a row where credit unions lobbied for save their tax break. They say it will cost them $1.6m a year. Already counted.
• The Okanagan College Student Union echoed comments from another student group in Castlegar. Already counted.
• The John Howard Society of the Central and South Okanagan wants $1 million for provincial domestic abuse programs. Cost: $1 million.
• The BC Association for Child Development and Intervention wants more money for youth with special needs. Last year, the got a 1% ($3 million) lift, but that wasn’t enough. Let’s put their request at a 5% lift, and cost it at $15 million.
• School District No. 23 wants student operating grants boosted by $1,000 per kid. By our math, that would be another $675 million a year.
• The Association of Administrative and Professional Staff at UBC want $25 million more in funding for the school. Cost: $25 million.
• The Living Positive Resource Centre wants a comprehensive HPV vaccination strategy. Let’s tab it at $1 million.
• The Kelowna Chamber of Commerce wants to change the property transfer tax (who can blame them?) nudging up the first-time home buyer exemption level. They want to fund it by introducing a tax on foreign buyers, so I guess it would be revenue neutral in their view.
• The Childhood Obesity Foundation wants a sugar tax (we don’t – and we’ll make that case in our presentation Oct. 13).
• The City of Kelowna wants money for its drinking water system and more money for BC Transit. Let’s put the water ask at $2m and the transit ask at $5.5 million (a 5% increase). $7.5m total.