Recently Carole Taylor, British Columbia's Finance Minister, made an announcement that she touted as good news for everyone in the province. The province, she said, had under-budgeted by $4.1 billion, producing the largest surplus in British Columbia history.

Now, I'm all for fiscal prudence. I don't think it's wise to budget every perceived penny so that there is no room for contingencies or readiness for lower than predicted revenues. However, it's pure lunacy to suggest that one can just accidentally under estimate revenue to the tune of more than $4 billion, while predicting a $600 million surplus.

Many valuable programs were cut or killed to get that surplus. The Finance Minister deliberately under-estimated revenues, excluding 'surplus' funds from the scope of legislative debate and thereby deserting democracy in favour of allowing billions in discretionary dollars to fall into the government's pockets.

I've repeatedly asked the provincial government to invest further in energy and communications infrastructure in Prince Rupert in order to facilitate the port upgrade. I've also brought up the concept of making the upgrade a green one, facilitating the overall transition to sustainable port management throughout the province.

So far I haven't gotten a single satisfactory answer from any minister I've spoken to on this matter. It seems clear that the provincial government doesn't believe our port upgrade matters, because they certainly have the money to address our difficulties.

The same goes for other issues that affect coastal residents. Although there is $4 billion rumored to be kicking around Victoria, every time I've asked for the government to consider stepping in to make ferry fares more affordable for the people who rely on our marine highways, it is as if our province is dead broke.

You certainly wouldn't expect a province that is rolling in dough to be cutting funding for childcare resource and referral centers. Nor would you imagine that a government with an extra $4 billion in the bank would cut childcare subsidies for children under three.

You would think that a province with $4 billion in the bank would have to have the best social programs money can buy, with attendant gains in the well- being of the populace. One wouldn't think that home support for seniors, funding for transition homes and services for those in need of legal aid would be cut when there is so much money to spare In British Columbia, however, the government is hording the biggest surplus in our province's history while our social conditions, as measured by crime and poverty, fall to the second worst in the whole country.

The Finance Minister might be right to say that social problems can't be fixed in one stroke, but a good start would be to stop choking the life out of every budget so ministries actually have some money to work with. Somehow I never imagined that the 'best place on Earth' would be a province at the bottom of the social justice pile. If the provincial government wants to continue to use that moniker, they ought to earn it.