Dear Editor:
A number of comments have been made recently about how bad the NDP fiscal policy was during their rule from 1991 to 2001. These details are over a year and a half old, but they speak to the truth of the matter.
Let’s set the record straight using details from an article in the Georgia Strait (Gabriel Yiu), Sept. 25, 2011.
The NDP formed the government in 1991 and inherited a debt from the Socreds of $20 billion.
Ten years later, when the NDP was defeated by Gordon Campbell’s Liberals, B.C.’s deficit stood at $33.8 billion.
So, during the NDP’s 10-year reign of power they accumulated a debt of $13.8 billion.
Ten years later (2011) the Liberals had added an additional $19.6 billion. That’s 42 percent higher than the NDP’s “debt-mired tax-and-spend” 1990s.
Near the end of 2011, B.C.’s deficit was then at $53.4 billion.
As I’ve mentioned in a previous letter, the Liberals “hid” an additional $46.4 billion by engaging in public-private partnerships.
Our combined deficit and additional debt in September of 2011 was then an astounding $99.8 billion, according to the Georgia Strait.
This is more than seven times the accumulated debt of the NDP in the 1990s.
“The biggest deficits in B.C.’s history were recorded during the decade of the Liberals governance.” says Gabriel Yiu.
Without exaggeration, then, the Liberal total debt is now standing at well over $100 billion, an accumulation of $65 billion over the last 10 years.
Inflation might account for a part of that, but I believe that most of it went to Liberal’s corporate friends in the form of PPP’s.
Frank Martens
Summerland
