Stikine MLA Doug Donaldson said he was disappointed by the lack of funding for skills training coming out of last week’s provincial budget.
This is especially troubling considering the Liberal government is touting LNG development to be the province’s economic saviour, he said.
“We’ve heard from experts in the trades and industry that if we don’t do something about training quickly, jobs are going to be filled by people outside the region, outside of B.C. and outside of Canada,” Donaldson said.
“If we can’t even get jobs out of [the industrial development happening in the region], and we don’t have proper skills training in place, it makes people think twice about supporting these projects.”
Finance Minister Mike de Jong unveiled B.C.’s second straight surplus budget Feb. 18, with few spending and tax changes as the province plans for economic growth driven by natural gas exports.
The biggest tax change is that provincial tobacco tax goes up 32 cents a pack April 1, on top of the latest federal increase of 40 cents a pack. B.C.’s share is expected to generate another $50 million, and de Jong said a “significant portion” of that will be used to develop smoking prevention efforts in partnership with the Canadian Cancer Society.
Provincial funding for K-12 education continues at 2013 levels, as the government pursues an appeal of a court decision that could add hundreds of millions to school district costs. The budget includes a $300 million contingency fund this year, rising to $400 million next year, to cover anticipated costs in labour and other areas such as forest fires.
The budget touts investments in trade skills training, with shop projects at Camosun College, Okanagan College and NorKam Secondary in Kamloops. But the largest capital project is a new campus for Emily Carr College of Art and Design in Vancouver, and operating spending on colleges and institutes is projected to fall by $5 million in the coming year.
De Jong said the “re-engineering” of B.C.’s skills training programs referred to in last week’s throne speech is getting underway, and a new $1,200 education savings grant for children born in 2007 or later is being delivered starting this year.
NDP finance critic Mike Farnworth said the government balanced its budget with cuts to skills training, increases to fees and appropriating $480 million added to BC Hydro’s growing debt.
The B.C. Liberals spent heavily before the 2013 election to promote a jobs plan that has seen people continue to leave the province for work, Farnworth said.
The government expects to end the current year with an operating surplus of $175 million, rising to $184 million next year, which de Jong said is mainly a result of spending discipline. B.C. and Saskatchewan are the only provinces to balance budgets this year, and the three western provinces remain the only ones with a triple-A credit rating.
B.C.’s personal income tax rates remain the lowest of any province, but the budget announced another four per cent increase in Medical Services Plan premiums for next year. That makes increases totalling more than 30 per cent over the past five years.
Taxpayer-supported debt rises to more than $43 billion in the coming fiscal year, climbing to $45.5 billion by 2016-17. About $11 billion of next year’s burden is operating debt left by a string of deficits in recent years.
Total provincial debt, including self-supported debt held by BC Hydro and other agencies, grows from $64.7 billion this year to $68.9 billion three years from now.
B.C. pays $2.5 billion a year to service debt, or four cents out of each revenue dollar.
To generate the resource wealth Premier Christy Clark has promised will pay off B.C.’s debt, the budget describes a two-tier income tax on liquefied natural gas exports 1.5 per cent and up to seven per cent.
LNG production companies would pay the lower rate to start, with most or all of it repaid by an investment tax credit until their capital costs have been recovered. Rates are to be confirmed with legislation in the fall.
No revenues from LNG are expected until 2017, and in the first three years, producers would recover income tax through a credit that continues until their capital investment is paid off.