Ka-ching! B.C. Liberals started spending Tuesday’s budget ahead of time on Friday, with a late-winter blizzard of spending and funding deals.
The big one was the signing of a 10-year deal with the federal government on health funding, a move that required Health Minister Terry Lake abruptly to lose interest in his sworn commitment to hang together with all the other provinces for a better national deal.
Lake was Mr. Team Spirit for months, as the provinces badgered Ottawa.
He spent a long time urging solidarity amongst all provinces, scorning Ottawa’s “divide and conquer, bait and switch” approach and railing against other provinces (the Maritimes, Saskatchewan) that abandoned the united front and cut side deals.
On Friday, he abandoned the united front, took the bait, divided, joined the conquered and cut a side deal.
It’s like having your mascot rally the fans all season, then change teams for the playoffs. When Ontario, Quebec and Alberta ministers look to where their “we’re all in this together” cheerleader used to sit, all they see is a set of pom-poms sitting on an empty chair.
“We need to move and get busy,” he explained, with the divide-and-conquer federal mastermind Jane Philpott standing beside him. “Every province has to make those types of decisions.”
Lake also alluded to being “part of a team,” meaning it was a cabinet decision, not just his.
His stricken conscience will be eased slightly by some sweeteners in the deal — $786 million more for home care and $655 million more for mental health in B.C. Ottawa has also come up with $65 million more nationally to deal with the opioid crisis, $10 million of which is headed for B.C.
The basic deal is a bit short of the guaranteed five per cent hikes every year the formerly united provinces were originally prepared to go to the wall over.
But signing it gives the B.C. Liberals more spending room to use in the upcoming election campaign. Lake started using it immediately, saying there is $5 million more in next week’s budget to help prevent overdose fatalities.
Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Transportation Minister Todd Stone was in Kamloops, wallowing in federal money. He announced $469 million worth of roadwork on the Trans-Canada Highway through Kicking Horse Canyon and at Golden, roughly evenly split between the two governments.
The Kicking Horse job is notable for clocking in about $110 million per kilometre, making it the most expensive highway, dollar-per-metre, in Canadian history. The expense is justified by the crash rate on the road, he said. The job is so complex it won’t even start until 2019. But there’s no time like the present when it comes to announcing highway jobs.
Also spending money Friday was Premier Christy Clark. She was in Prince George, announcing $150 million from the current-year budget will go to the Forest Enhancement Society to plant millions of seedlings. It was pitched as a triple-win — the government claims it will create 3,000 jobs, it will contribute to reforestation and it counts as a climate-change initiative. The one-time funding is a boost from the $85 million the society was granted when it was created a year ago.
Yet another funding announcement Friday afternoon was a lot more interesting for the timing than the amount. In what was billed as an information bulletin with no ministerial news conference, $199 million was announced over the next three years to increase disability-assistance rates. It’s the second year in a row they’ve been increased and it will apply to 107,000 people. Disabled people on welfare will get a $50 increase on April 1, to $1,033 from $983.
Increasing social-assistance benefits is normally something that would be featured in the budget. But this one was announced rather quietly. Because it’s the rock-bottom number they could use.
Rounding out the day was $10 million doled out to the Island Coast Economic Trust, which does small-scale projects to encourage growth.
A multibillion-dollar health deal and $800 million for forests, roads and social services, plus more odds and ends. It was a sample of the feast the government is planning to serve next week.
