New budget is just more of the same

Forgive my inconsiderate yawn over all the provincial budget coverage that has been running my colleagues ragged for the last couple of days.

Look, I know how it is. There’s a media script that has to be followed. But I’ve been to this dinner theatre before. And to this weary old dog it looks like the same play and the same buffet.

For almost half a century now I’ve been watching finance ministers solemnly present these things. When I covered my first, Premier Christy Clark was still learning to toddle, let alone tap dance, and Social Credit megalosaurs like W. A. C. Bennett and Ernest C. Manning still roamed the earth.

But back to the future. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon, with suitable fanfare, assures us that his budget is wise, sensible, and frames the big picture.

On my script, this being the last year of the government’s mandate, the budget is the predicted doom- and- gloomer, although we’ll be issued rose- tinted opera glasses.

Despite brilliant efforts by the government, finances are bleak, although sunshine can be glimpsed on the horizon. The world economy is in a tailspin. No one is immune to the Greek Sickness. The contagion might come here! We’re in crisis- management mode.

Strict self- discipline is the order of the day. Long- suffering taxpayers must tighten their belts and endure a bit more. Much as government hates the prospect, taxes simply must go up, spending simply must come down, public sector wages must obviously be capped and the debt, OMG!!! – The debt is running away with us! It must be brought under control! ( Sotto voce: The previous government is to blame.)

So this is the time for modest short- term pain as we struggle down Perseverance Road toward the land of milk and honey, into which we will surely be delivered if we’ll only vote the government back in. Well, of course, we are expected to re- elect the government because some budget provisions won’t take effect until 2014.

To be sure, there are crumbs for key voter constituencies. There’s a small tax credit for seniors who want to renovate a bathroom. Homeowners’ grant ceilings rise a tittle. First- time home buyers get help if their first purchase is a new unit. There’s a $ 50 fitness and arts tax credit for each child. There’ll be help relocating jobseekers to job- hungry regions.

On the other hand, British Columbians, whom the government notes are among the most health- conscious in the country and do a better job than anyone else of staying healthy and therefore delay burdening the health care system, well, as a reward they’ll pay more for the health insurance they need less than in other jurisdictions.

So the overall tone is cautionary, one of austerity, self- denial, stiff upper lip, B. C. pluck and so on.

Adrian Dix, leader of the Opposition, playing his own role in the melodrama, opposes. He denounces the budget in relatively muted tones, an English horn to Falcon’s trumpet. He must sound magisterial, not hysterical. If things go right, he wants to be presenting a budget in 2013 and to be able to announce, on opening the books, that provincial finances are a train- wreck he’s inherited from the departed government.

And so, the present budget hurts working families and the middle class. It doesn’t chart a true path out of the fiscal doldrums, which is to educate and train more workers to a higher level of skill. However, don’t fret. I know how the final act in the melodrama goes.

Our abstemious gurus of austerity will all be promising to shovel your money off the back of a truck in another 12 months as they prime the election pump with promised goodies, having miraculously found plenty of room for spending — thanks to your belt- tightening.

And so it goes.