In 64 AD, as Rome burned, historians tell us that Nero played the fiddle. It was a measure of his indifference to the plight of his people and probably an unfair characterization because he did build them a brand new sports arena among other public monuments.
As B.C. burns, metaphorically speaking, we were treated to a full symphony from Premier Campbell last week.
Rising debt.
Uncontrolled government spending.
An education system in crisis.
Business leaders threatening to leave the province.
Billions wasted in public monuments. These are the accomplishments that our premier chose to highlight in his speech.
Of course, in his address to the province that cost you and I almost one quarter of a million dollars, that is not the way he wanted to frame it. Rather his speech writers included graphs showing the progress that his government has made and how happy we should be.
His government has increased health care spending to a projected $16.6 billion dollars in coming years - some 46 per cent of the provincial budget he tells us. That's good, he seems to be saying.
And, he points out, that when they took office, the provincial budget was some $30 billion dollars, while under his watch it has increased to $41 billion. That has to be good news, right?
It is ironic that a man who spent much of the 1990s lambasting the government of the day for its over-spending and spending on government projects which should be handled, in his opinion, by the private sector, would use his prolific spending patterns to demonstrate that his government is doing a good job.
(The cost over-runs on the Vancouver Convention Centre, alone, dwarf the entire costs of the fast ferries. If it was only the Vancouver Convention Centre, the premier might be forgiven. Instead, pretty much every major project that his government has been involved with has had significant cost over-runs. Billions and billions of dollars in public debt accrued one piece at a time.)
Getting back to the graphs that he presented on health care and the provincial budget, yes, as a percentage of the provincial budget, the cost of health care is growing but this is not good news. Instead, what it is saying is that the growth in the provincial budget is not keeping pace with the growth in the costs of the government.
What it means is that for the people of this province other services are being neglected - such as education, social services, forestry, and the environment - due to the B.C. Liberals' austerity measures.
Health care is the only ministry that is actually keeping pace.
Put another way, the cost of government has increased by 33 per cent over the past 10 years, while the "GDP at market prices" has increased by some 50 per cent. The total amount that government takes out of the system has decreased - and since health-care costs are one of the most important, it is now taking a larger share of the budget.
Or, if the provincial budget had maintained pace with the growth in the GDP, the provincial budget would now be $46 billion. The extra money could have gone to support early childhood education, schools, social services, and the other ministries that are cashed starved.
Instead, we get an "income tax cut." Worked last time, the premier tells us. Helped keep the economy ticking so let's pull the old trick one more time. Maybe they won't notice the fiddle playing because we will have "more money in our pockets to spend."
More money? The picture isn't anywhere near as rosy as the premier would like us to believe. The average weekly wage in British Columbia is now $837. We are fourth in the country. That figure is on a government web site as a "positive economic indicator." What it fails to mention is that we used to be number one or two in the country. We used to do much better.
Since 2001, the average weekly wage has increased by 29 per cent - at the same time as the economy grew by 50 per cent.
If nothing else, that alone should tell you that there is something wrong with the BC Liberals' economic model. The people that make the products and do the work are not sharing in the rewards. Success is for the few that like fiddle music.
Furthermore, that weekly average wage works out to an annual salary of $43,524 per year. According to the government's figures, that will result in an income tax saving of $276 per year. That is compared to the almost $700 per year that same worker will have to pay in HST. We are being given an income tax break with our own money, and told that things are just fine. Makes my blood boil.
Yes, last week, Gordon Campbell played the fiddle while the people of the province are left to burn.
