Watch the Bill introduction here
The Independent MLA for Cariboo North, Bob Simpson, introduced a Private Members Bill today to change BC’s fixed election date from May 2013 to October 2013.
“The spring 2013 budget will be a critical turning point for British Columbia as it will be the first truly post-HST budget and it must be, by law, a balanced budget,” said Simpson. “It is therefore necessary that this budget gets debated, scrutinized, and passed into law before an election is called in 2013. That will not happen if the election date remains May 2013.”
Spring elections mean that every four years the government can use the budget as an election platform because that budget doesn’t get examined by the Opposition and passed into law before the May election.
“As we saw in the 2009 election, the deficit was not half a billion dollars, as then Premier Campbell projected in his pre-election budget. It was over two billion dollars and this dramatic increase in the deficit was one of the reasons Premier Campbell jumped at the opportunity to introduce the HST and grab the federal windfall that came with this tax. We all know the chaos this move created,” said the Independent MLA.
Not passing the spring budget every four years also means government agencies and organizations that depend on government money do not know what their real budgets are until at least September – unnecessarily disrupting the delivery of public services.
Moving the fixed election date to the fall will also give the public access to the Comptroller General’s and Auditor General’s independent assessments of the government’s finances and accounting practices.
“The Bill I introduced last spring had a fall 2012 election date. The reason for moving the date to 2013 is simple: it is the only way to guarantee British Columbians get a truly post-HST election,” said Simpson.
“Postponing the election to the fall of 2013 means the Liberal and NDP parties will have to base their 2013 election promises on a balanced and scrutinized post-HST budget, not an election platform disguised as a budget. This will force both parties to cost their election platforms based on “real” numbers from the Ministry of Finance and will move the political debate away from simply a rehash of the HST debacle toward a more honest appraisal of the options for BC given the real fiscal constraints the province will be living under for the foreseeable future.”