B.C.'s finance minister is projecting three years of surplus budgets and reduced debt.
Minister Mike de Jong made the rosy forecast in the 2014 budget speech delivered to the legislature Tuesday afternoon.
Using nautical analogies throughout the speech, de Jong compared B.C. to a ship sailing out of a storm but still contending with choppy waters.
According to government figures, the province will net $841 million in surpluses over the next three years, starting with $184 million in 2014-'15.
"It doesn't mean everything from here out is easy. In fact, to continue meeting our targets, we will have to rely on more of that old-fashioned discipline that got us here in the first place," de Jong said.
While expecting to keep the province in the black, De Jong also announced another $2.5 billion for the Ministry of Health and a contingency of $1.275 billion over three years for "notional allocations for public sector wage increases."
The speech, however, made no mention of the potential costs stemming from the recent court ruling that teachers have the right to negotiate class size.
Liquefied natural gas featured heavily in the government's plan, introducing the tax regime for the LNG export companies seeking approval in the province. After 10 years, a single plant could produce $1.4 billion a year in taxes, de Jong claimed.
To aid things along, the government is putting up $29 million to the ministries of aboriginal relations, environment, forests, and natural gas development to support the development of B.C.'s LNG industry.
Those working in the film industry looking for some perks will have to move to Victoria, as the only mention film got in the budget speech is an extension of the distant location tax credit to the capitol region.
The New Democrats issued a rebuke of the budget shortly after it was delivered, targeting the government for the higher costs the budget will foist on families.
BC Hydro bills will go up by about $477 for the average family over the next three years and Medical Services Plan bills another $400 according to the Opposition's crunching of the numbers.
That doesn't include upped ICBC rates or ferry fares, added Craig Keating, NDP president and a City of North Vancouver councillor.
"It does very little for the foremost concern of most people I talk to, which is affordability. People are stretched. People are stressed. This budget does nothing," Keating said.
