Pouring water into a leaky bucket won’t keep it full..And throwing tax dollars at every problem won’t solve them..But that’s how Premier David Eby is running British Columbia. Every problem that his government encounters gets a fat, taxpayer-funded bailout even though big infusions of taxpayer cash don’t always fix things..While Eby is spending huge sums of taxpayer cash, he’s also dramatically growing the bureaucracy..When B.C. Ferries asked for a hand-out, Eby gave them $500 million from taxpayers. Despite this massive injection of cash, B.C. ferries is “worse than ever”, with crew shortages, interference from the premiers office and staff leaving in droves..TransLink has gotten more than $1 billion since the start of the lockdowns in 2019. The most recent round of bailouts saw the transit company take around $500 million..That huge handout to TransLink from taxpayers didn’t go far in making TransLink safer, given the shocking number of violent assaults and killings that have occurred on the company’s buses and trains in the past few months..When Eby wanted to make an announcement on education, any guesses what that announcement was?.If you said “a half-billion dollar bailout” then you win this Bingo round..Despite almost $500 million more being announced for post-secondary education, the only change most students have seen is higher tuition fees. Almost every large post-secondary institution in the province is raising tuition fees for students this year. The University of British Columbia is raising tuition, Simon Fraser University is raising tuition, University of Victoria is raising tuition and BCIT is (you guessed it), raising tuition..Throwing lots of money at the problem isn’t fixing the problem..While Eby announces big spending on education, students in Surrey are being warehoused in double-decker portables..Getting taxpayer bailouts isn’t the only thing that B.C. Ferries, TransLink and B.C. universities have in common..They also have skyrocketing salaries for their executives..Kevin Quinn, the CEO of TransLink took home a salary of $474,000 last year. Mark Collins, the outgoing president and CEO of B.C. Ferries took home $635,000 in 2022. Of the top 10 highest-paid civil servants in B.C., five are employees of UBC according to the Vancouver Sun’s annual sunshine list..The big spending we’re seeing from Eby’s government is only expected to keep on rising. In 2020-21, the B.C. government spent around $60 billion in total for the year..By the end of 2023-24 that number is expected to be higher than $80 billion..In the past six years, the bureaucracy has ballooned by 31 per cent with 10,303 new, full-time employees on the taxpayer payroll..Revenue isn’t keeping up with expenses, which means that the government is planning on taking on a lot more debt or hiking taxes to cover its spending..This year, the interest charges alone on the province debt is around $3.3 billion. That shakes out to a cost of $620 for every British Columbian. By 2026, the debt is going to climb up to $132.6 billion from $93.5 billion at the end of the last fiscal year. Those growing interest charges are going to pay the bond fund managers on Bay Street in Toronto, it’s money that isn’t going to tax relief or new infrastructure..Our creditors are starting to pay attention to the province’s sky-high debt. S&P Global lowered B.C.’s credit rating, dropping it from AA+ down to AA status. A drop in our credit rating means even higher interest charges when the province borrows more money..Eby’s spend-now, pay-later style of government is already coming back to haunt our provincial finances..Half a billion dollars hasn’t fixed TransLink, or B.C. Ferries, or education. A premier can’t spend their way out of every problem. That’s a surefire way to create big problems with the province’s big creditors. Taxpayers are on the hook for every dime of debt that Eby wracks up, so it’s time he starts looking for actual solutions instead of hiding behind big spending announcements..Carson Binda is the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
Pouring water into a leaky bucket won’t keep it full..And throwing tax dollars at every problem won’t solve them..But that’s how Premier David Eby is running British Columbia. Every problem that his government encounters gets a fat, taxpayer-funded bailout even though big infusions of taxpayer cash don’t always fix things..While Eby is spending huge sums of taxpayer cash, he’s also dramatically growing the bureaucracy..When B.C. Ferries asked for a hand-out, Eby gave them $500 million from taxpayers. Despite this massive injection of cash, B.C. ferries is “worse than ever”, with crew shortages, interference from the premiers office and staff leaving in droves..TransLink has gotten more than $1 billion since the start of the lockdowns in 2019. The most recent round of bailouts saw the transit company take around $500 million..That huge handout to TransLink from taxpayers didn’t go far in making TransLink safer, given the shocking number of violent assaults and killings that have occurred on the company’s buses and trains in the past few months..When Eby wanted to make an announcement on education, any guesses what that announcement was?.If you said “a half-billion dollar bailout” then you win this Bingo round..Despite almost $500 million more being announced for post-secondary education, the only change most students have seen is higher tuition fees. Almost every large post-secondary institution in the province is raising tuition fees for students this year. The University of British Columbia is raising tuition, Simon Fraser University is raising tuition, University of Victoria is raising tuition and BCIT is (you guessed it), raising tuition..Throwing lots of money at the problem isn’t fixing the problem..While Eby announces big spending on education, students in Surrey are being warehoused in double-decker portables..Getting taxpayer bailouts isn’t the only thing that B.C. Ferries, TransLink and B.C. universities have in common..They also have skyrocketing salaries for their executives..Kevin Quinn, the CEO of TransLink took home a salary of $474,000 last year. Mark Collins, the outgoing president and CEO of B.C. Ferries took home $635,000 in 2022. Of the top 10 highest-paid civil servants in B.C., five are employees of UBC according to the Vancouver Sun’s annual sunshine list..The big spending we’re seeing from Eby’s government is only expected to keep on rising. In 2020-21, the B.C. government spent around $60 billion in total for the year..By the end of 2023-24 that number is expected to be higher than $80 billion..In the past six years, the bureaucracy has ballooned by 31 per cent with 10,303 new, full-time employees on the taxpayer payroll..Revenue isn’t keeping up with expenses, which means that the government is planning on taking on a lot more debt or hiking taxes to cover its spending..This year, the interest charges alone on the province debt is around $3.3 billion. That shakes out to a cost of $620 for every British Columbian. By 2026, the debt is going to climb up to $132.6 billion from $93.5 billion at the end of the last fiscal year. Those growing interest charges are going to pay the bond fund managers on Bay Street in Toronto, it’s money that isn’t going to tax relief or new infrastructure..Our creditors are starting to pay attention to the province’s sky-high debt. S&P Global lowered B.C.’s credit rating, dropping it from AA+ down to AA status. A drop in our credit rating means even higher interest charges when the province borrows more money..Eby’s spend-now, pay-later style of government is already coming back to haunt our provincial finances..Half a billion dollars hasn’t fixed TransLink, or B.C. Ferries, or education. A premier can’t spend their way out of every problem. That’s a surefire way to create big problems with the province’s big creditors. Taxpayers are on the hook for every dime of debt that Eby wracks up, so it’s time he starts looking for actual solutions instead of hiding behind big spending announcements..Carson Binda is the B.C. director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
