I can only read this as being part of a desperate ploy, by a faltering and failing Liberal government

CALL ME CYNICAL … but …

The long-awaited Kamloops Trades and Technology School, proposed for Nor-Kam Secondary, has finally received news it has received the $6.3 million needed to get the project underway.

Just days ago however, a Kamloops Daily News story detailing monies being handed out in the province, stated:
“ … Kamloops was not mentioned, which outraged trustees, who say they've done everything in their power to get money from the province.  "It's insane. There's been no capital money for Kamloops ever," said school board chair Denise Harper. "What message is she (Clark) sending to the constituents of this riding?"

This announcement, made today by Liberal MLA Terry Lake, is the first capital funding coming in to the Kamloops area in over a decade.

So here’s my question --- is this announcement about money to a project that will now get off the drawing board.  Will we actually see shovels in the ground, preparing and building a facility for students to attend next September?

OR … is it a promise of money forthcoming, at some point down the road.  There’s the cynical part.

I can only read this as being part of a desperate ploy, by a faltering and failing Liberal government, trying to buy the votes of people in Kamloops.  

BUT ... there is no money to shovel off the back of a truck because the cupboard is bare!

Christy Clark knows that … Terry Lake knows that … and so does the current BC Finance Minister Mike de Jong.  A Globe and Mail story from September 13 said:

With collapsing resource revenues threatening his target to close a billion-dollar budget gap by next spring, B.C. Finance Minister Mike de Jong is looking at a limited number of options – none of them especially appealing for a government that must go to the polls in May.

At a fiscal update on Thursday, Mr. de Jong pledged to “fight tooth and nail” to balance the budget for the coming year. But he also announced that natural-gas prices have dropped dramatically, sinking the province deeper into deficit in the current budget cycle. To move from a $1.14-billion deficit this year to surplus next year, the province needs to boost revenues while keeping a tight lid on spending.

In another news story, this time in the Victoria Times Colonist:
 … government projected a $925-million deficit for its 2011-12 budget … but British Columbia's auditor-general, John Doyle, took a different view of the province's books, saying the deficit number should be much larger….

Again I say … there is no money to shovel off the back of a truck because the cupboard is bare!

Why is that?

British Columbia is a province exporting to the world ... we are rich with natural resources ... rich with trades people ... rich in skilled in hi-tech people ... and we have a strong tradition in agriculture / beef industry.

Despite all of that, we continue to have the worst unemployment rate in Western Canada.

We should be the envy of Canada in job-creation, low unemployment, balanced budgets, and in building a reserve of financial resources to weather the bad times.

We should be seeing our debt paid down -- not increasing -- so that the REAL projects we need built in BC can be more than empty promises.

We should have a sound plan to create balanced budgets and to have fiscal accountability to the people of BC.

That’s where the platform of the BC Conservative Party comes in to place:

Every tax dollar collected from British Columbians is received in trust. This trust must be

managed and accounted for according to the highest standards of integrity and

transparency. The people’s scrutiny of all spending decisions should be encouraged and

welcomed.

The cupboard is bare folks … and it will remain that way unless we elect a party next May that IS committed to the wise management of all this provinces resources. 

Both the NDP and the BC Liberals have shown themselves to be unable, and incompetent to the task. 

Meantime John Cummins and the BC Conservatives are building a platform of fiscal responsibility, and accountability, which will filter through-out all areas of government, and all crown corporations and agencies.  It will be the ONLY acceptable practice.

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops, with the thoughts of one conservative.  Now it’s your turn – what do you say?