BINDA: So BC's NDP won, barely, and now they have promises to keep

With Premier David Eby’s new cabinet sworn in, here’s what taxpayers want to see from the B.C. government: lower taxes, balanced budgets and less government spending.“British Columbians … expect us to focus on the challenges they worry about at the kitchen table,” Eby wrote in mandate letters for his ministers. “Specifically, we will work to: Reduce costs for families.”If the Eby government wants to reduce costs for families, the best way to do that is to leave more money in their pockets. And that means cutting taxes.Eby knows this, that’s why he promised tax cuts during the election campaign. He promised an income tax cut, a rebate and to scrap the provincial carbon tax.But now, those promises need to happen. Taxpayers can’t afford to wait. But waiting is exactly what Eby is having us do.Instead of calling the legislative assembly together to get British Columbians the relief we were promised, Eby delayed the legislature’s opening until the middle of February. Eby also won’t match temporary sales-tax cuts being handed down from Ottawa.While the province is cutting taxes, it also needs to cut spending.Right now, B.C. is staring down a $9-billion deficit. That’s the deepest in the red our province has ever been. Total provincial government debt is $128 billion.Government debt is just a tax pushed off to tomorrow. Every dollar of debt the government wracks up today must be paid back, with interest, down the line. And those interest charges are outrageously expensive. This year alone, B.C. taxpayers are on the hook for $4.7 billion in interest on the provincial debt.That means every British Columbian is paying the equivalent of $821 for interest charges on the provincial credit card this year. Between now and 2026, B.C. taxpayers will be on the hook for a total of $16.9 billion in interest payments, the equivalent of more than $2,800 per British Columbian.British Columbians need tax cuts and they need the province to cut spending. Unfortunately, Eby’s government isn’t off to a good start when it comes to saving taxpayers money.With his first action as re-elected premier, Eby handed every single NDP MLA an appointment and pay raise. If Eby had kept cabinet to John Horgan’s 2017 levels, taxpayers would save about $2 million over the course of this government.That would be a good place to start saving taxpayers money. The list of waste goes on.Eby should scrap our agreement with FIFA that will see taxpayers on the hook for $581 million for seven international soccer games.Then cut wasteful Crown corporations like the InBC investment corporation, a $500-million slush fund that sees bureaucrats role-play as investment bankers with taxpayers’ money.Next the government should stop giving away taxpayer cash to big corporations. Last year, the provincial government handed out more $75 million to big-pharma company AbCellera. The province claimed that $75 million in corporate welfare, alongside $225 million from Ottawa, would create 400 jobs.Do the math. Each new job cost taxpayers $750,000. Does anyone really think that’s good value for taxpayer money?One more thing: The provincial government needs to stick to its budgets for big infrastructure projects. A 16-km sky train extension linking Surrey and Langley is $2 billion over budget. Hospital projects in Surrey, Richmond and Cowichan are all facing cost overruns of more than $1 billion. The cost overrun for those four projects alone is more money than the province takes from taxpayers in the carbon tax and property transfer taxes combined. Eby’s new cabinet must get to work cutting taxes and cutting spending. Carson Binda is the B.C. Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation

BINDA: So BC's NDP won, barely, and now they have promises to keep

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