Quotes

“Yes, absolutely, B.C. would benefit from a provincial version of the parliamentary and congressional budget offices.
“Nor is there any need to draft the proposal or translate it into legislation, because Opposition leader Carole James and the New Democratic Party have already done it. “

“The big problem with the HST is around who gains and who loses in the $2-billion tax shift from business to consumers. Consumers will be paying new taxes on goods and services previously exempt. And while the government has proposed a credit for low-income households with incomes under $20,000, it phases out very quickly after that, leaving a big hit for modest- to middle-income households with hundreds of dollars in additional taxes paid.”

“Perhaps the time has come for Premier Gordon Campbell to drop the words culture and arts" from the Ministry of Tourism.
“This will save [Kevin] Krueger the trouble of dodging interviews and trying to offer explanations about a sector of the economy over which he no longer appears to have much authority.”

“It's the same story everywhere -- Premier Gordon Campbell and his government breaking their word faster than a bull in a china shop turns tea cups into trash.”

“Or instead, let us once again blindly believe the perverse logic of the government: that all this is actually to "help" the poor -- ticketing the poor and preventing binning keeps them safe and forcing the homeless into shelters and jails protects them.
“Indeed, with such friends in government the homeless need no enemies.”

“It's becoming obvious that groups cannot trust the Gordon Campbell government when it comes to prior commitments…
“Agreements with this government are not worth the paper they are written on.”

“The Liberals' difficulties are compounded by their characteristic secrecy. Instead of announcing all the cuts at the budget update, they've chosen to let them come out through the media and the Opposition.
“Thus the daily spectacle in the legislature. Even some Liberals are calling it ‘the death of a thousand cuts,’ most of them self-inflicted."

"Why is the B.C. government cutting the throat of B.C.'s economy and its creative future in this short-sighted and frankly really dumb way?"

“The NDP asked Healthy Living and Sport Minister Ida Chong about a 43-per-cent cut to health promotion funding. Savings in travel, office expenses and administration, she said.
“Which is goofy. No one would believe that more than 40 per cent of the spending on the health programs went for office expenses.”

“The government's cuts continue to be disturbingly slapdash, raising basic questions of competence.”