B.C. Finance Minister Kevin Falcon introduced a stay-the-course budget Tuesday afternoon, with tight controls on government spending and a plan to get B.C. out of the red by increasing some business taxes, MSP premiums and selling off some government assets.
Both health and education - which make up the lions share of the budget - will get small increases, with the health budget expected to increase by just three per cent. Social services and the new justice ministry will also get small increases.
The ministry of advanced education, however, will be cut by one per cent.
Total government spending is projected to rise by just two per cent a year for the next three years. Falcon made it clear there will be no money for public sector wage increases - unless departments can find "equivalent savings" within their budgets, without reducing services or increasing costs to the public.
There were few handouts for either businesses or average citizens in the budget and its emphasis on what Falcon described as "fiscal discipline."
Those that were announced included nods to the construction industry, including a $10,000 temporary refundable income tax credit for first-time new home buyers, increasing the threshold for the HST rebate on home purchases to houses worth $850,000 and a renovation tax credit for seniors of $1,000.
Port industries will also benefit from a plan to make the existing cap on municipal port property tax rates permanent.
Families can get a $500 tax credit for children's art or fitness programs, but will also be paying four per cent more for medical premiums - an average of $5 a month.
To help raise $700 million over the next three years, the government plans to sell off some of its assets, including properties that it had been holding for possible hospital expansion in Surrey.
B.C. will end this fiscal year with a deficit of $2.5 billion. That will improve to a deficit of $968 billion by the end of 2012/2013, said Falcon. He projected a surplus by 2013/2014.
The government projected capital spending of $19.2 billion over the next three years on schools, highways and health facilities.
Both Conservatives and the NDP criticized the budget.
Conservative leader John Cummins criticized the budget for "ballooning debt levels, higher taxes and growing spending masked by accounting tricks."
The NDP criticized its lack of money for education and skills training.
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