{"id":19254,"date":"2014-07-17T05:53:54","date_gmt":"2014-07-16T21:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=19254"},"modified":"2014-07-16T21:00:49","modified_gmt":"2014-07-16T13:00:49","slug":"b-c-posts-surplus-200m-higher-than-forecast-while-debt-jumps-by-4-billion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/07\/17\/b-c-posts-surplus-200m-higher-than-forecast-while-debt-jumps-by-4-billion\/","title":{"rendered":"B.C. posts surplus $200M higher than forecast while debt jumps by $4 billion"},"content":{"rendered":"

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VICTORIA\u2014British Columbia\u2019s post-election budget surplus came in $200 million higher than forecast, but the province\u2019s finance minister said that doesn\u2019t mean he\u2019s prepared to release his grip on government spending.<\/p>\n

The province released audited statements Tuesday for the 2013-14 fiscal year, which indicated a surplus of $353 million\u2014$200 million higher than projected in the budget that was tabled after last year\u2019s provincial election.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Mike de Jong said he feels some satisfaction with those numbers, especially since the Opposition New Democrats claimed during the election campaign that the budget wasn\u2019t balanced.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany said we couldn\u2019t, wouldn\u2019t and didn\u2019t balance the budget,\u201d said de Jong.<\/p>\n

Still, de Jong cautioned that even though there are indications B.C.\u2019s economy is starting to warm up, the budget numbers were primarily the result of government belt-tightening amid dropping revenues.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt a minimum, it tells me we have to be very cautious,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Revenues from taxes and self-supporting Crown corporations were $511 million lower than forecast, de Jong said.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, he said measures that included a hiring freeze and reductions in discretionary spending resulted in government spending $561 million below the budget forecast. The June 2013 budget forecast a spending increase of 1.7 per cent, but it came in at a meagre 0.4 per cent.<\/p>\n

De Jong said health spending was $564 million below the budget forecast, a savings of 3.1 per cent of the health budget.<\/p>\n

Opposition New Democrat finance critic Mike Farnworth, who had previously insisted the government\u2019s budget wasn\u2019t balanced, said the Liberals balanced their books by gouging British Columbians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019ve achieved that by picking the pockets of hardworking British Columbians,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Farnworth said extra fees and licences have added up to $303 million.<\/p>\n

De Jong said B.C.\u2019s debt continues to increase, rising by $4 billion to $60.8 billion. But he said B.C. debt-to-economic growth ratio declined to 18.2 per cent from its forecast of 18.4 per cent. He said B.C. has one of the lowest debt-to-economic growth rates in Canada, with Ontario\u2019s being 40.4 per cent and Quebec\u2019s 48.3 per cent.<\/p>\n

He said the final economic statement measured B.C.\u2019s economic growth at two per cent in 2013.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, De Jong also used Tuesday\u2019s announcement to focus on salaries for senior public-sector executives, which he said where down by one per cent. The number of executives receiving bonuses or incentive pay decreased by six per cent.<\/p>\n

However, he said two unapproved public executive contracts at the Royal BC Museum and BC Cancer Agency will result in sanctions.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s provincial grant will be hit with a one-time reduction of $53,000, covering a $30,000 signing bonus for CEO Jack Lohman, his $18,000 relocation allowance and $5,000 in tax-advisory services for two years.<\/p>\n

The government also wants removed from his contract a provision that gives Lohman three round-trip, business-class flights to London annually.<\/p>\n

Suromitra Sanatani, chairwoman of the museum\u2019s board of directors, said she has no issue with the government trying to make the public sector more accountable.<\/p>\n

But she said the issue is unfolding in an unfortunate manner, and the board of directors operating two years ago was operating under different policy guidelines.<\/p>\n

She said Lohman has not done anything wrong, came to B.C. with good intentions and wants to do good things for the museum.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs board chair, I have to tell you I feel badly that someone who is doing good work is being publicly embarrassed like this, but we\u2019ll have to move on and this museum has a lot of great partnerships that are going to unfold, and that\u2019s what we\u2019re going to focus on.\u201d<\/p>\n

De Jong also said the Provincial Health Services Authority was directed to cut Cancer Agency president Max Coppes\u2019s annual salary of $500,000 by 10 per cent. The salary cut was ordered because the agency negotiated a contract for Coppes without approval.<\/p>\n

Last month, de Jong\u2019s ministry released a report that concluded Vancouver-area Kwantlen Polytechnic University\u2019s board of directors failed to meet government disclosure requirements when it topped up the salaries of senior executives. Advanced Education Minister Amrik Virk had been a member of the Kwantlen board of directors that approved at least one instance of the salary manoeuvres.<\/p>\n

Last week, de Jong\u2019s ministry released an audit examining Michael Graydon\u2019s departure from his job as the head of the British Columbia Lottery Corp. He received a $125,000 severance package after he quit.<\/p>\n

Graydon walked directly into an industry-connected position and maintained access to the Crown\u2019s information systems for 10 days. The audit concluded Graydon was in a conflict of interest.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

VICTORIA\u2014British Columbia\u2019s post-election budget surplus came in $200 million higher than forecast, but the province\u2019s finance minister said that doesn\u2019t …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":19255,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","mauthors-dirk-meissner","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19254"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19254\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19255"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}