Given the financial constraints imposed by the pandemic and a string of natural disasters that hit the province last year, there were few expectations of big-ticket items and sexy, new projects in Tuesday’s provincial budget.
Greater Victoria business and political leaders say there’s only so much a government can do when finances are under pressure.
“Well, it’s certainly not an election budget, that’s for sure,” said Bruce Williams, chief executive of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce. “But there’s still a lot of money that’s not really committed yet. So there’s a lot that could go in a whole bunch of different directions.”
The $71-billion budget set aside billions for contingencies, including pandemic recovery and natural disasters.
“The optimist in me says that hopefully some of that will come forward,” said Williams, noting the chamber’s wish list includes a commuter passenger ferry from the West Shore to downtown Victoria, on-shore power for cruise ships, and more focus on skills training at Island post-secondary institutions.
The chamber also said the province has earmarked $84 million for the Belleville Street Terminal over three years, but neither Transportation nor Finance Ministry officials could confirm that was the case.
Victoria Mayor Lisa Helps said while the Belleville terminal wasn’t part of Tuesday’s budget, it remains in the works.
“We are working closely with the province and the federal government to get a business case ready,” she said of the massive re-imagining of the terminal, which some officials suggest could now cost more than $300 million.
“I think if that had been a fundable project at this point in the budget cycle, I think it would have been funded,” said Helps.
Despite a lack of big-project funding, Helps characterized the budget as “relatively positive.”
“We weren’t expecting massive new spending,” she said. “The fiscal situation is probably tighter than many people would like, but it’s good to see the deficit lower than anticipated.”
She said setting aside $2 billion to continue to address pandemic recovery leaves lots of room for movement and, coupled with the federal government setting money aside for transportation infrastructure, there is still a chance for Island priorities to be dealt with.
Langford Mayor Stew Young echoed those sentiments, saying he’d rather see incremental spending on health care and education and other top priorities rather than splashy wish lists when finances are tight.
“They’re in a situation where in order to give everybody what they want, they would have to raise taxes,” said Young, who had been hoping for funding for a university in his municipality.
“I was really hoping for that because we’re at that size now, and it’s important to have that in our community,” he said.
But he also worried about the lack of support funding in the budget for small businesses that are just holding on through the pandemic. “A lot of business are really struggling,” he said, adding he is still expecting some kind of provincial help, out of the contingency funds, to keep many of them afloat.
“The budget they have is not going to kill jobs, but it’s also not going to stimulate the economy that much,” he said.
Young wasn’t surprised there was no funding to re-energize the E&N corridor at this point, but he thinks given the densification of the region, there is a case to be made for either rapid bus or train service.
“Otherwise they’ll have to put another lane each way on the highway going into town, which just jams you up,” he said. “So we want to keep that [E&N] option open. We don’t want to see that option go away, at least not until somebody comes up with a better plan.”
