The B.C. Liberal government’s throne speech was delivered by Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon on Feb. 12 and it rang the bell for a four-week rapid-fire sitting of the legislature prior to the run-up to the May 14 provincial election.
Normally, throne speeches give British Columbians an idea of where the government of the day stands and what it has planned for the coming year and, more often then not, the remainder of its mandate.
In fact, it’s really a blueprint of the government’s goals and the kind of legislation it will enact in order to meet those goals.
For a beleaguered and unpopular government, which is the case for the B.C. Liberals, the leader dons a pair of rose-coloured glasses to paint the rosiest picture possible in the throne speech – especially going into an election.
When the immediate future looks bleak, as it does right now, the government has no choice but to offer a vision for the long-term future.
This throne speech did that in spades – it offered the road to nirvana some three decades down the road.
It offers British Columbians life in a perfect place where there is no provincial debt, but there will be improved social services and an easier life for families through tax reductions (eliminating the PST) and long-term investments in key services, such as health and senior care, and education.
The goose that lays the golden egg will be the production and export of liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Premier Christy Clark estimates that over a 30-year period of LNG production and sales, $1 trillion will find its way into the provincial coffers through taxes and royalties, starting 2017.
When we take the rose-coloured glasses off, we realize 2017 is two full election cycles away, and a lot of problems can happen in the meantime.
These would include depleting a non-renewable resource, dealing with environmental concerns and receiving lower-than-expected revenue due to the glut of LNG on the market.
On the upside, there will be the massive job creation through not only the construction phase, but also through the operation phase.
If the LNG run to the promised land does pan out, and even if the non-renewable resource does start to peter out after three or four decades, the project will have given our forests an opportunity to grow back from the pine beetle devastation.
This would mark the return of another economic driver.
