Finance minister Mike de Jong’s budget posts a surplus nearly twice as big as earlier predicted.
It stands at $879 million for 2014-15.
In explaining why, de Jong turned to the world of sports comparing the budget to Team Canada’s gold medal performance at the World Juniors.
As expected, child support payments will be fully exempt from income assistance calculations – starting in September.
But beyond that, the official opposition says there’s little to look forward to for most BC families. The NDP’s Carole James summed up the budget like this:
Health care spending will increase almost $3 billion over three years, but Nanaimo-North Cowichan NDP MLA Doug Routley says that’s insufficient.
The government is also sticking with its plan to increase MSP premiums; they’ll go up 4 per cent. The BC Nurses Union says the province is ignoring a critical need to invest in seniors’ care, upgrade health facilities, and deal with hospital overcrowding.
Education will get $564 million more, including a 33 per cent increase to the Learning Improvement Fund that was part of the recent deal with teachers.
De Jong is also promising $1.6 billion in infrastructure money for schools.
