VICTORIA – The B.C. Liberals are trying to bully taxpayers into handing Gordon Campbell a blank cheque without any public oversight or accountability, New Democrats said today.B.C. Liberal cabinet minister Kevin Krueger and backbencher John Nuraney have called on the legislature to forgo public scrutiny of the government’s budget estimates.
“Only someone as arrogant as Gordon Campbell would try and bully British Columbians into giving him carte blanche with taxpayers’ money. The Campbell Liberals are trying to manipulate the process – clearly they’re more concerned with clinging to power than protecting the public interest,” said New Democrat house leader Mike Farnworth.
“It’s absolute nonsense for the Campbell Liberals to suggest that public oversight is holding up resources to fight crime. Gordon Campbell is cutting funding from corrections and prosecution services, the very services to fight the gang violence on our streets,” said Farnworth.Ministers must come before the legislature through the supplementary estimates process to get approval for any additional funding they require during the year.
“The budget estimates debate ensures there is public scrutiny before the government is allowed to spend taxpayers’ money. We all know that Gordon Campbell likes to try and duck accountability, but this attempt to manipulate the process is a new low for him,” said New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston.
“While families across the province are feeling the pinch, Gordon Campbell wants to spend hundreds of millions of dollars without any accountability. This is the same attitude that got taxpayers into the Olympic Village fiasco,” said Ralston.
Farnworth added that the B.C. Liberals’ claims that financing could be approved in a single day are misleading, since legislative debate on a bill lasts at least three days before it gets royal assent, a process which can take anywhere from one day to several weeks.
