British Columbians are facing increased medical service premiums, and health authorities have been told by the Health Minister to cut their budgets, ensuring that surgeries, seniors’ programs and services for the mentally ill are being scaled back to facilitate the government’s wishes.

But out of all the cuts that are being made by the BC government as part of the province’s largest ever deficit, those to school boards across the province are absolutely shameful.

A gutless provincial government cuts and cripples school boards across the province, obscuring responsibility by making school board trustees do their dirty work

Not providing any leeway with regards to borrowing money or the ability to run deficits, however, is unacceptable.

With a week to go before kids from across the province were to return to school, school boards were left to scramble with the announcement  that the annual facilities grant program worth $110 million was going to be eliminated ($10.6 million of which was allotted for the Vancouver School Board).  And what, pray tell, is that $110 million used to pay for each year.

Nothing too important – just fire testing, mechanical and electrical upgrades, roof replacements, site improvements, exterior building envelope inspections (earthquake protection), graffiti removal, asbestos removal, washroom maintenance, indoor air quality, and this year, preparing schools against the H1N1 virus.

There are three important considerations to factor in when contemplating this cut.  First, the BC School Trustees Association already identified the annual facilities grant to be inadequate to keep schools in good, safe and up-to-date condition.

Secondly, the surpluses that the government is claiming the school boards have in their coffers has already been committed to work performed over the summer to get schools ready for the start of the year.

Third, these are expenses that have to do with the safety of children, and so upon having to make the decision between this kind of essential quality control and something like a special needs class or a music or sports program, the losing side of the equation becomes painfully obvious in terms of spending priorities.

To add insult to injury, the Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid has just shut the door on allowing school boards to borrow money or go into deficit for the sake of our children.

When asked about whether the cuts could lead to closing schools or trimming staff, she said that it was up to the individual school boards to decide.  On the bright side, she did offer this ray of hope:

“It’s hard for everybody.  It’s much more important for us to work together.”

Budget cuts that go straight to the heart of kids’ safety, no access to funds from other sources, and an inability to weather the fact that “the fiscal cupboard is bare” through the possibility of deficits (like the other two levels of government) – that’s working together for kids with the BC Government.

]]> http://civicscene.ca/the-bc-government-cuts-at-the-safety-of-kids/feed 1 http://civicscene.ca/327 http://civicscene.ca/327#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:51:22 +0000 Jonathan Ross http://civicscene.ca/?p=327 Canadian municipalities are not recognized in the Constittuion, and are legally subordinate to the provinces.  The scope of provincial control over municipalities is almost unfettered – the provinces can alter municipalities’ boundaries, powers, responsibilities, financial resources, and can even abolish individual municipalities.  As such, municipalities have no legal ability to introduce new taxes or enter into a deficit.

]]> http://civicscene.ca/327/feed 0 http://civicscene.ca/the-bucks-stop-here http://civicscene.ca/the-bucks-stop-here#comments Thu, 03 Sep 2009 18:31:56 +0000 Jonathan Ross http://civicscene.ca/?p=307

A new sign of the times at Vancouver City Hall, where someone is finally taking some responsibility over spending

In consideration of the fact that the Whistler Athletes’ Village will be handed over to 2010 Games organizers with a $1-2 million surplus in the bank, it is amazing how Vancouver’s was originally conceived and managed during the heart of construction by the previous civic administration.

First to clarify, current Vancouver City Manager Penny Ballem has introduced some major changes with the way in which capital projects are funded – namely that they are going to have to face  “more oversight, due diligence, [and] rigour in terms of our original estimates.”

This is in stark contrast to the days of Sam Sullivan and Peter Ladner, who both offered lackadaisical attitudes towards a project that was to cost hundreds of millions and advertised as a jewel in the massive global profile that Vancouver was to experience both during and after the Olympics.

First, it was back in 2007 that the NPA majority council voted in a completion guarantee for the project (a decision opposed by both Vision Vancouver and COPE), in order to appease the financier Fortress Investment Group enough to prevent them from pulling out of the project altogether.  This is on top of the fact that right up until her departure, the city’s former Chief Financial Officer Estelle Lo was completely kept in the dark about the project, as detailed by this email sent while she was on vacation last October.

In the final weeks before the election, Peter Ladner offered his “distress” about the financing troubles of the project, and told CBC news that he “hopes that the private sector developers of the project will be able to finance the overruns.”

In a commentary offered after his term as Mayor, Sam Sullivan downplayed the importance of the cost overruns and whether the city would be on the hook for them because the “Southeast False Creek is just one development in the citizen’s real estate portfolio,” a statement which suggests that the size of the city’s Property Endowment Fund should somehow allow for the absorption of such losses.

All I can say is thank goodness we now have a City Manager that is willing and able to take the proper precautions to protect Vancouver taxpayers, and a Mayor that isn’t afraid to take on the private sector and work out terms that are favourable for the public good – in the case of the Olympic Village, a decision that saved the electorate $90 million in interest payments.

In times such as these, the nonchalant attitudes of the past just aren’t going to cut it anymore.