Mock budget yanks NDP’S chain

Four and a half years ago Adrian Dix said during a radio interview that if the New Democratic Party became government, it “would be looking to be amongst the highest in Canada in terms of per capita support for health care ... that would be a high priority for us.”

Carole James was leader, Dix the critic on health policy, the election was still 18 months away, and the New Democrats had yet to release an election platform.

Dix’s comment, far from being a take- it- to- the- bank promise, was the kind of loose talk often indulged in by Oppositions.

Not unlike the B. C. Liberals vow in their 2001 election platform to deliver “high- quality public health services that meet all patients’ needs where they live and when they need it.”

All patient needs? Wherever they live? Whenever they need it? Try extrapolating those words into a fully costed health budget and you’ll give new meaning to “sky’s the limit.”

Nevertheless, on Monday, the B. C. Liberals wrested Dix’s comment about per capita funding out of its Oct. 15, 2007 context and translated it into a promise to boost the health budget by $ 3.427 billion annually.

Not $ 3.5 billion mind you, but that amount precisely and straightaway, upon taking office.

All part of a claim by the B. C. Liberals that Dix is already on record for $ 6.8 billion in spending increases, $ 1.6 billion in tax increases, and, thus a revenue gap of $ 5.2 billion.

A bit of a stretch, no? I asked cabinet minister Mary Polak who along with Liberal backbencher Ralph Sultan presided over the Liberals’ mock presentation of an NDP budget.

Not in the least, she replied. Dix had said those things. Let him deny them. “The onus is on him to clarify.”

Sultan went further. “Politicians don’t slow down on the promising front when elections arrive.” The dollar costing on Dix’s agenda would probably double before voting day rolls around in May 2013, he predicted.

It was a rare turn for Sultan. The three- term MLA has seldom played a major part in government announcements. “A backbencher and a lowly one at that,” as he put it Monday.

His presence was explained by multiple references to his credentials as former chief economist for the Royal Bank and former professor at Harvard. He’s also a professional engineer with extensive experience in the corporate world.

But those highlights from an impressive career only served to underscore what was missing from the political side of his resume: neither the former premier nor the current one has invited Sultan to share his insights from the vantage point of a seat at the cabinet table.

The 78- year- old MLA is just too outspoken for his own good, one assumes.

Hearing his passing comments on some of the options available for tax increases — he pretty much conceded that “fat- cat bankers” present an inviting target — one was left thinking that there probably is some room to move on the taxation front.

The Liberals might be politically wise to use up some of that room themselves, partly to eliminate the option for the New Democrats, partly to rustle up revenue to address the most pressing priorities on the spending front.

Sultan, for his part, professed not to have any guesses about what will be in today’s provincial budget. And when reporters put the question to Finance Minister Kevin Falcon later in the day, he said only that we would probably find a surprise or two in today’s presentation.

Of course for Sultan, Polak and the B. C. Liberals, the main purpose of Monday’s stunt press conference was to get people thinking about what the Opposition might do in the alternative. “Dixonomics,” they called it.

But when reporters descended on the New Democrats seeking a response, they didn’t rise to the more- than- obvious bait.

MLA Shane Simpson had a nice line about the B. C. Liberals “becoming an Opposition in waiting.” As for the namesake of Dixonomics, he rejected the government’s fiscal mathematics as a fabrication and said, on the contrary, he’ll be “prudent” and not “over- promise.”

Specifics will be forthcoming in the election platform, “fully costed,” “modest” but also “significant” in scope and with all tax changes spelled out in detail without exception.

It will be released next year, between budget day ( Feb. 19) and the mid- April threshold of the official election campaign.

As evidence of his good intentions, Dix mentioned in passing that in anticipation of an early election call in 2011, the New Democrats had already produced one fully costed election platform for the campaign that never was.

They did? Would he release it, so people could at least see what a fully costed Adrian Dix election platform looks like? He would not. Okay, then how about an answer to one specific question. Did last year’s NDP election platform include any money to provide a raise for public school teachers, who even then were looking for a substantial raise?

Again Dix balked, telling me that to say one way or the other would be “a mug’s game.” Agreed. But no more or less of a one than the game being played by the B. C. Liberals Monday.