Charles Dickens' novel "A Tale of Two Cities" starts with the line: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."
If the speech writer behind the throne speech is to be believed, it would have started: "It was the best of times, it got even better."
The first third of the speech was dedicated to celebrating the Winter Olympics. A worthy cause and something that we should celebrate - although how many of the gold medal winners can you name? Not counting the players on the men's hockey team.
But the Olympics were just a moment in B.C. history. Two weeks in the past decade of B.C. Liberals. What else did the throne speech say?
"A new decade of international opportunity and economic and social development lies before us all. Its success was possible because of a foundation built on economic competitiveness, sound fiscal management, a commitment to quality health and education programs, and services to support those in need."
"Economic competitiveness..." Presumably, that means that we are attracting jobs and investment to British Columbia that would have gone elsewhere. Is this true? Not by objective measures. Indeed, if anything, we've lost economic competitiveness over the past decade.
Just look at the forest industry. We are not competing with other regions. Our industry has structurally downsized every year for the past ten. A mill here, a mill there... it seems to be an industry consigned to the dust bin of history. Which is wrong!
It would be convenient to blame it all on the collapse of the American economy but this is a decade long problem and no one has stepped up to the plate to fix it.
Certainly not the present government - although credit to Minister Pat Bell for trying. But his efforts in China might be a case of too little, too late for too much of the industry.
It is not just the forest industry that's in trouble. A look at the economic growth in this province would suggest that while "B.C.'s businesses, large and small, have helped create hundreds of thousands of new jobs, so today in B.C. well over two million people have jobs", that is not the entire picture.
Analysis of the type of jobs that are being created shows they tend to be "low level" or "entry level" jobs. These are not the high paying or long term positions that we need in the province. Minimum wage workers should be a starting point to a career, not an end.
Our average weekly wage has fallen. We once led the country. Now, we aren't even close. It is great to talk about "economic competitiveness" but with whom are we being competitive? The last person to cross a finish line is also competitive but not a winner.
"Sound fiscal management..." says the throne speech.
The B.C. Liberals inherited a provincial debt of $33.835 billion in 2001. At the time, the B.C. Chamber of Commerce was screaming about the out of control spending. The Vancouver Board of Trade ran a debt clock ticking away each dollar spent. B.C. is in trouble, we were continually being told.
A decade later, the provincial debt now totals $41.885 billion and is projected to reach $60 billion before the next scheduled election.
That is almost doubling the debt in just over 10 years. Good thing the BC Liberals are such great money managers!
The irony is that we are now being told - by the same people that a decade ago screamed about the debt - that it isn't the debt that matters. It is the debt-to-GDP ratio.
Ah, I see. It is whether the debt is affordable. Strangely enough, we are not where we were in the late 1990s on that one.
"A commitment to quality health care and education..." says the throne speech.
Are you feeling the commitment to quality health care? We have incredibly talented and hardworking doctors, nurses, technicians, and other health care professionals in this province but at the same time that the government is saying it is "committed to quality health care", it is proud to point out that it has kept our per capita spending on health care at the second lowest level in the country!
If we were spending at anywhere close to the level that they spend in Alberta, we would have the funds to eliminate waitlists and clear up backlogs. What commitment are we talking about?
As to education, our per-pupil funding is now at $8357 according to budget documents and that is an increase of 30 per cent over 2001. But our GDP has grown by 43.1 per cent. And the provincial budget blossomed to $40.6 billion, a whopping increase of almost 80 per cent over the same time period. How is that a commitment?
This past decade: "It wasn't the best of times.
