The following letter by Paul Ramsey to the Prince George Citizen should
prove interesting to all.

Dear Editor -

Last week Premier Campbell and his Caucus members put forward a lot of
reasons to justify their savage attack on our province's public services and public servants. Most of those "reasons" don't stand up well to serious examination:

They said they "inherited" a huge deficit. Here are the facts: B.C.'s
audited books showed a budget surplus for 1999/2000 of $40 million and a surplus for 2000/2001 of $1.498 billion. (Source: "B.C. Public
Accounts," released by Finance Minister Gary Collins on July 30, 2001.)

They said that spending on government programs in B.C. was out of
control and out of line with other provinces like Alberta. The facts are otherwise. In 2000/2001 British Columbia spent $5,842 per capita on
government programs; Alberta spent $6,513 per capita. (Source:
"Comparative Provincial Program Spending 1989-2001," by Canadian
Taxpayers Federation.)

They said that they didn't know how bad things were because the
province's books weren't trustworthy. That's not correct. "British
Columbia is a Canadian leader in public sector financial reporting. We
found that the province's accounting policies and practices provide a
high overall level of financial disclosure and accountability." (Source:

"B.C. Fiscal Review Panel," released by Premier Campbell on July 23,
2001.)

Finally, they said they "had no choice." That's nonsense. Every
government has choices. Premier Campbell chose to cut taxes by over $2
billion, and gave most of those tax breaks to corporations and to
high-income British Columbians who needed them the least. Now he and his

government have to cut $2 billion out of government programs and lay off

thousands of public servants to pay for those tax cuts. That's not the
choice Premier Campbell said he'd make in his "New Era" document, but
that's the one he's made. Nobody forced him to; he did it all on his
own.

Paul Ramsey
Visiting Professor, Political Science Department, UNBC
Former MLA and Minister of Finance

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