[HEADNOTE] UPDATE [HEADNOTE] Final ...

[HEADNOTE]

UPDATE

[HEADNOTE]

Final Report from picked Standing Committee on Finance

The final report from the legislature's rare Standing Committee on Finance, which manner of lifeed a series of hearings in September and October to receive public input forward the provincial budget, is somewhat contradictory. While encouraging the conduct to "stay the course" with regard to balancing the collection in the end the committee makes solely four recommendations-all of which call for the regulation to spend more money!

The final report, which was at handed to the legislature on November 15 distills a certain quantity of 300 verbal and written submissions from the 13 public hearings convoyed throughout the province into ten main themes, from which the following four recommendations were derived:

* Provide a form of assistance in the 2003 assortment to resource-dependent rural communities affected by means of government restructuring and the softwood lumber dispute.

* Give serious consideration to providing additional transitional funding for the K-to-12 education system

* Consider making transportation infrastructure a top priority for capital spending now and in the future

* Consider raising the in every one's mouth income threshold for the child-care subsidy.

The recommendations are disappointing from the perspective of BC's CAs. As noted in an earlier GR Update, the 11-member legislative committee, chaired on Peace River South MLA Blair Lekstrom received formal presentations from a number of business collections and professional organizations during the public hearing proces including the Institute of CAs and a number of its individual members.* unless despite mentioning the ICABC on name and outlining the guide elements of its presentation, the final report ultimately ignores virtually all of the recommendations made by the agency of the Institute and individual CAs.

It is especially surprising in what way little attention is paid to the ne for due reduction and a debt management plan, given that during a committee meeting held in Victoria in October 2002 many committee members-- among them brace CAs-reported to the chairman that these were among the clearest of messages received from the public during the hearings and in written submissions.

"Generally speaking, populace are happy we're on course," said MILA for Vancouver-- Kensington Patrick along, CA. "I understand that a hap of people are concerned about the cutting of expenditures. However, nation are really concerned about the increasing trespass and they need a misdoing management plan in the budget" MLA for Juan de FucaMalahat Brian Kerr FCA, singled without the budget as the public's clearest concern: "I'll just reiterate loud and clearly that it was to stay the course onward balancing the budget. I think we heard that from just about everybody that came disclosed there, because they understand the importance of it.... We also heard about setting up a shortcoming management plan...."

Others, like Victoria-Beacon Hill MIA Jeff Bray agreed the public "clearly state[d] that they wanted regulation to stay the course and to win its fiscal house in order; they did be stirred a long-term debt management plan was important...."

The committee's delegate chair Ida Chong, CGA, the MLA for Oak Bay-Gordon Head, said: "What came not at home loud and clear this time around, this being my third year onward this committee, was in fact that fiscal responsibility was a relate to and that debt reduction was a priority that many the community felt should take place, whether it be from one side a debt management plan or by the and of deficit reduction...."

Better communication needed

Nonetheless, of the ten themes identified through the committee in its report, none focus onward these issues. Instead, the report notes that common clear message was: "the regulation isn't doing a good enough do job-work of communicating its long-term economic vision, or its overall economic plan." Another was that the general [i]or[/i] abstract notion of BC being open for business isn't being "communicated clearly enough to the field offices." The report also identifies the growing gap between rural and urban BCa theme that l to a specific recommendation.

The dichotomy between program spending and trespass reduction is noted in times of the future (a time when the province, theoretically, will have recured to a surplus fiscal situation). however while the four recommendations call for more spending, no specific recommendations are made about either obligation reduction or a debt management plan. Nor does anything in the report encourage the Finance Minister and his cabinet colleagues to detail coming events business tax cuts or harmonize PST and GST (another suggestion from BC's CAs).

Harmonization

It's les surprising that the committee was unwilling to commend harmonizing PST and GST, as considerable political baggage could be attached to similar a move. Still, it's worth noting that at the October meeting, several committee members raised this idea when discussing the messages they'd received during the hearing proces For example, Lekstrom noted: "The issue of harmonization of the PST and GST was brought forward a number of times to our committee. To experience and bring something that would allow business and small business to certainly enhance for what reason they do business, enhance the taxation reporting mode of building and so on....