Hello all - :)
As everyone knows, the Public Accounts of the Province for the fiscal year ending March 31st, 2007 were just released by the Hon. Carole Taylor - BC Minister of Finance and show a $4.1 Billion surplus. No surprise though of the response by the NDP - they condemned the BC Liberals for not responding to issues like housing, child care, child poverty while sitting on a $4.1 Billion Surplus. I say - what a bunch of horse garbage coming from the NDP.
The NDP is the same party who said in '96 that their budget prior to the '96 Election was balanced and ran partly on this during the '96 Election and after the election, it was "discovered" that the budget was not balanced, but actually had a deficit. Hence part of the reason why in 2001, the BC Liberals were elected. Yes, child poverty and other social issues are important to the people of this province. But you shouldn't spend every dollar that you make. You should, and the Finance Minister has rightly done, have a "rainy" day account for "what-ifs". The Finance Minister has not only balanced this year's Budget and made investments in social issues, like Child Care, Child Poverty, Social Housing, etc. We, as a province, have even started to pay down the provincial debt in the last couple of budgets released/passed by the BC Liberals. All of these investments along with paying down the provincial debt will improve the quality of life for all British Columbians.
I also look forward in 2009 to both a three time re-elected BC Liberal majority government along with a BC Liberal MLA in Cariboo-North/South
