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!