Response to good credit
I read Carolyn Madge’s letter (Penticton Western News, March 29, The importance of good credit) and thought she might like the real story which anyone can look at by accessing the provincial budget.
On March 31, 2011, this is two weeks after Christy Clark was sworn in as premier, the accumulated B.C. provincial debt was $45.154 billion. The ‘accumulated debt’ is the debt of the province and crown corporations such as B.C. Hydro (which the public is responsible for).
The latest budget 2016/2017 which ends March 31, 2017 forecasts an accumulated deficit of $66.666 billion. $42.027 billion of which is provincial, the balance $24.639 billion is Crown corporations.
So while you’d think the provinces financial picture is rosy (those gov’t ads), and they may have good credit, the provincial debt has risen $21.512 billion since the current liberal government took office.
The increase of $21.512 billion dollars is a matter of public record. Fact. Almost one-third of our current provincial debt has been Christy Clark’s government.
I really don’t think the Liberals have been any more fiscally responsible than “record debt” NDP governments of the past. They, the Liberals, have been much better at a good spin.
The debt as a percentage of the provincial GDP is 16 per cent. It hasn’t really been reduced at all. What all governments continue to do is erode the public equity by borrowing and overspending.
That doesn’t seem to change no matter who is governing.
Fred Danenhower
Summerland