Yes sixty billion and a great portion of it happened during Gordon Campbell's term in office.
Yes the New Democrats added to the debt don't deny that, but since WAC Bennett so has
every other government Vander Zalm, Bill Bennett and then the NDP. Gordon Campbell
came along and things went to hell in a hand basket.
He gave his richest friends two billion in tax breaks. We never recovered as we had to borrow
money to pay the bills and the interest on debt alone drove the deficit up. Then the convention
center, a project worth around three hundred plus million went to over a billion. The Olympic
Games saw millions of dollars in debt carefully plugged into all kinds of expense closets but its
still there.
The stadium roof built to improve the stadium across the street from a proposed casino didn't
help the price ballooned to over six hundred million. These are mere examples of a much bigger
problem. That in a moment. The. current situation is they banked on having the HST which had
both good and bad points. The HST was negotiated with the Federal Government in a cloak of
secrecy. Gordon Campbell took the blame but Snidely Whiplash aka Harper, was equally
involved as a leader. They were deceptive and people became angry, and now of course we have
lost the revenue source and we get to pay the money back.
The real problem for the government is the contracts they have in private public partnerships.
It is a cost plus formula that first made a showing after WWII. It didn't work then and it won't work
now, and here is why. Instead of a firm contract price the company can recover their cost plus
receive a five percent profit. The more cost the more profit in real terms I know there are safeguards
but those safeguards mean nothing. Remember the administration fees I mentioned above in this
thread? That is where it all get deposited. We have all kinds of projects that are cost plus.
The Kelowna bridge was one hundred eighty seven million dollars. The real cost with a maintenance
agreement for thirty years is something like five hundred million dollars and so on.
The finances were also not helped during the recession when the commodity prices collapsed.
Governments revenues have been down for some time. unemployment has bee up and the
economy has not rebounded either. This government has made a bigger mess than the NDP ever
did and these are only a few of the reasons we are in trouble and why the present Liberal/Conservative
coalition will not win the next election either.