Good-years prudence didn't provide cushion the Liberals need now
Vancouver Sun
February 6, 2009
By: Vaughn Palmer

Through the good economic years, B.C. Liberal finance ministers had a ready answer when asked if the inevitable downturn would mean an end to their run of balanced budgets.

Not at all, they insisted. Provincial budgets were built with multiple levels of prudence. There was more than enough money tucked under the couch cushions to preclude any need for deficit financing….

"Over the last five budgets, the government has underestimated the year-end balance by a grand total of more than $10 billion," read a typical critique from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "That's not 'fiscal prudence.' It is gross inaccuracy."

This deliberate understating was not without consequences for program funding, as the centre's Marc Lee and Seth Klein went on to note.

"The provincial government automatically puts year-end surpluses towards debt reduction. Its ridiculously conservative budgeting habits foreclose on billions of dollars that could instead be invested in reducing class sizes, shortening health care waiting lists, building a universal child care system and improving public transportation."….