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Dear Editor;

I have written this letter to the BC Legislature in answer to their request for public input.

Finance Committee

BC Legislature

Re Budget 2010

You have requested public input in preparation of the 2010-11 budget.  

There are, I believe, four overriding factors that must be reflected in the next budget. 1. climate change; 2. ever increasing energy costs; 3. needed emerging new economy and 4. debt reduction. Health and education dominate our legislative discussion but if these over arching factors are not in your thinking I fail to see how our societal objectives can be met.

In previous budgets you have taken token mitigating climate change action. But the carbon tax should not be the only action taken in our efforts to reduce and slow our individual carbon inputs. All of us make incremental contributions to carbon inputs daily that could be reduced simply by going back to the maximum speed limits of 90 k/h. This will reduce carbon input, conserve fuel and even save drivers a good deal of money.  

Inextricably linked to the concerns with climate change is that we appear to be entering  an oil and resource constrained world. The latest information I have been able to find include published reports from the International Energy Agency; a parliamentary commission in the United Kingdom; a report from Uppsala University in Sweden and a discussion paper that included remarks from the CEO of  France’s Total Petroleum as well as an interview with a retired petroleum geologist with Saudi Aramco. All indicate problems emerging as early as 2013 and deteriorating after that. Failure to recognize we are facing energy constraints in our work place is to ensure we have no plans in place when the problems become ever more serious.

This means your real task in developing a budget is to develop a budget that sets the trend for working out how to create a new economy for our province that is independent of high cost energy and accounts for the effect of climate change on agriculture, forestry and fisheries. At the moment both fisheries and forestry are on life support. I doubt that government subsidies are any answer but government has a responsibility to put in place drivers that can lead to a new and much greener economy.

In a fossil fuel constrained world and attendant high prices I question the need to provide new major highways and bridges. This money would be better spent developing mass transport including passenger rail service to rural BC; research into how forestry, agriculture and fisheries can remain viable as energy costs rise and climate change puts their very existence in question. In addition it is time to reexamine the accepted truth that centralizing schools and medical services is the most cost effective way to stretch our education and health care dollars.

Debt reduction is no different for government than for the individual. The faster you quit paying interest to others the more you will have for spending on provincial needs without imposing new taxes. One of the absolutes, in my opinion, is to be very clear with our citizens in, not just what our money is spent on, but where it comes from. If the spending is supported by the legislature and the people MLA’s represent then we are bound to put our money where our mouth is. To my mind this excludes the use of gambling profits for general revenue. A guiding principle should be that government does no harm to its citizens. That principal should eliminate the use of gambling proceeds for general revenue. In this instance government has lost its moral compass.

These are some of the major constraints I believe must be addressed before you can develop a budget that will address our provincial needs, especially health and education. All of us tend to be somewhat like politicians in that we find it hard to think beyond the immediate. But, if we don’t think beyond the immediate we will face major constraints to our prosperity and well being in the not that distant future. We will not have the kind of province we want our children and grandchildren to grow and prosper in. Indeed we may not even have the kind of province we all want to live in.

Jack Witty

108 Mile Ranch, BC