John Les: BC NDP going back to 'Tax 'n Spend 90's'

From John Les (Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier):

Today on CKNW's Bill Good Show, Adrian Dix acknowledged that he is considering jacking up personal income taxes on "high income levels".

"Before Adrian Dix and the NDP left office, a "high income" earner was classified as anyone making over $60,009 a year," said John Les, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier. "While Dix is eager to use rhetoric and vague statements to get his point across, he can't hide from the fact that average British Columbians suffered from a punitive tax regime the last time Dix had his way."

Let's take a look at tax rates in British Columbia.

• In British Columbia, a family earning $90,000 a year paid $5,988 in provincial income tax in 2001. Today the same family pays just $3,166 in provincial income tax – a cut of 47%.
• Similarly, a family of four earning $60,000 a year paid $3,272 in provincial income tax in 2001. Today, the same family pays $1,302 in provincial income tax – a 60% tax cut.

The tax cuts brought in by the BC Liberal government have put more money back in the pockets of hard working taxpayers. In fact, British Columbia's personal income taxes are the lowest in the country for individuals earning up to $119,000.

"Once again, Adrian Dix is hiding his true intentions under the guise of taxing 'high income' earners," said Les. "We saw his plan in action the last time the NDP were in power, creating the highest personal income tax regime in Canada and driving entrepreneurs and families out of British Columbia. The BC NDP treated taxpayers like their very own ATMs."

All levels of earners are far better off today than before the BC Liberal government took power in 2001. In fact, the lowest income earners no longer pay any provincial income tax.

Adrian Dix: More of the same...

From the BC Government Caucus:

In the 165 days since becoming Leader of the Opposition, Adrian Dix has haphazardly promised expensive new programs and projects that would bankrupt the province.

“Adrian Dix is scrambling around, promising the moon without acknowledging the consequences of ratcheting up government spending at a time of global economic uncertainty,” said John Les, Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier.

“The BC Liberal government re-established British Columbia’s reputation with the international financial community after a decade of economic mismanagement with Dix at the controls.

“We simply cannot afford Adrian Dix.”

The following are just some of Adrian Dix’s spending promises:

Hazy promises without a plan:

An array of capital spending promises in the health care sector, amounting to $2.2 billion.
Dix’s plans to rip up clean energy contracts could cost British Columbians upwards of $5.8 billion to compensate IPP owners from the provincial treasury.
A vague plan to “retrofit” all public and private buildings in B.C. based on the $35 million program at UBC. Simply retrofitting each university in B.C. would cost approximately $840 million. The cost to retrofit every building in the province would be too much to even calculate.

Reckless spending:

Although there’s no link between health care spending and health outcomes, Dix stated he wants B.C. to be the highest per-capita health care spender in Canada. The cost: $4.15 billion added to the provincial health care budget annually.
A back-of-the-napkin plan to implement a provincial childcare system, which would cost over $2 billion per year.
An annual student grant program, costing $148 million.

“Adrian Dix, chief architect of one of the most fiscally irresponsible governments in Canadian history,” said Les, “obviously hasn’t learned a thing. If given the chance, he would once again spend taxpayers’ money without regard.”

The total cost to the treasury to implement the programs outlined above is just under $15.14 billion. Dix has identified “just” $490 million in tax hikes to offset the costs.

“On average, Adrian Dix has promised over $1,061 in new spending every second he has been leader of the BC NDP, but has offered no plan to offset these costs,” says Les.

“Consider – in the two minutes or so it has taken you to read this, that’s another $127,424 – more than the average family makes in a year.”

“British Columbians deserve to know how Mr. Dix is going to afford these promises, and they deserve answers now.”

Hon. Terry Lake vs MLA John Les

After the decision to approve Metro Vancouver's Solid Waste Management Plan (SWMP) which included incineration in the Fraser Valley Air Shed, which includes the City of Chillwack - the MLA for Chillwack and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Premier, John Les, express his public outrage at the approval for this plan - see here

But a couple of issues come up:

1) Why this plan with incineration was approved, given historical opposition to incineration by Fraser Valley BC Liberal MLA's going back to the late 90's and the apparent lack of knowledge on this by Terry Lake?

2) With Cache Creek Mayor John Ranta express his deep disappointment in this decision - see here but it remains to be seen (and I would support it) if Mayor Ranta attempts to meet with Terry Lake and get him to revisit the decision on incineration and the Metro Vancouver SWMP

Finally - with policy decision reversals between Blair Lekstrom and Christy Clark over the Evergreen Line and now this apparent reversal to approve the Metro Vancouver SWMP, given past history of BC Liberal MLA's in the Fraser Valley

As a BC Liberal Party member - we, as BC Liberals', are plain not ready for a fall election and we should look towards a new time table of either the Spring or Fall of 2012 and use the time between now - Spring/Fall of 2012 to get our $#$##$ together to start governing like a team, lest the voters say - enough is enough! - send the NDP in, they can't be any worse

SBF