Premier's move undercuts budget consultations
Vancouver Sun
November 6, 2010
By Vaughn Palmer

On the day that Premier Gordon Campbell commandeered the headlines by announcing he would be leaving office, a telling sideshow was playing out at the provincial legislature buildings.

The setting was a meeting of the finance committee. The six B.C. Liberal and four New Democratic Party members had just wrapped up their annual fall tour of the province to conduct public consultations on the next provincial budget.

The order of business for the day called for them to begin generating recommendations based on the input from a dozen and a half public sessions, visits and online consultations with two dozen communities, and submissions from several hundred organizations and individuals.

But in the previous week the premier had taken action that undercut the entire basis for the budget consultation.

The government, in its September call for public input to the process, had touted the availability of some $2 billion in unallocated revenues over the coming three years.

Then on Oct. 27, Campbell had gone on provincewide television and announced a major cut in income taxes in an attempt to resuscitate his political fortunes.

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