Premier Christy Clark says this week鈥檚 throne speech was a sign of her 鈥渦nwavering consistency鈥� 鈥� and it鈥檚 hard to argue with that description.
The speech on Tuesday showed that Clark is unwavering in her commitment to the same principles she extolled during last year鈥檚 election: creating jobs, balancing the budget, expanding the economy and developing a liquefied natural gas industry.
The theme of the throne speech came near the beginning: 鈥淲estern governments face a stark choice: to manage decline and spend themselves into bankruptcy, or find new ways to grow the economy.鈥�
Only someone who has been living under a rock for the past two years wouldn鈥檛 know Clark鈥檚 choice between those two options. Economic growth is her mantra.
To make the economy grow, Clark has established five priorities: control spending; open new markets and attract new investment; leverage the province鈥檚 existing strengths; create an LNG industry; and 鈥減repare British Columbians to be first in line for job opportunities through skills training.鈥�
Her faith in the benefits of LNG underpins all of it. That commitment is turning into a nail-biter, as Clark has admitted time is of the essence and the province has fallen behind its timetable for creating the legislative framework.
Clark and her advisers have visions of middle-class Asians dancing in their heads. The throne speech says the Asian middle class will number 1.7 billion by 2030. Like the middle classes everywhere, those millions will use a lot of energy.
The sa国际传媒 Liberals are counting on selling liquefied natural gas to the middle-class masses, and reaping enough economic advantage to fuel growth, 100,000 new jobs and provincial revenues. As an added bonus, the government maintains that LNG is much cleaner than those other fossil fuels, so we will be doing the rest of the world a favour.
While debate on that point will drag on endlessly, the question of whether the plants will ever get built also remains open. The speech points to agreements with LNG companies on two parcels of land at Grassy Point near Prince Rupert.
Those will remain parcels until the government presents the regulatory and tax framework for LNG. It had been promised by the end of last year and has been put off until the end of this year. Businesses are not going to commit until they know enough to calculate the bottom line.
Despite the many questions about the possibility of a windfall, Clark remains committed to the dream that she says will eliminate the debt and create a huge rainy-day fund.
British Columbians who are hungry for jobs might be willing to hang onto the premier鈥檚 coattails, but to take advantage of the developments, most will need training. The government is promising to do a better job of training workers than it has in the past.
Both federal and provincial governments have been fiddling with training programs lately. Prospective tradespeople who can鈥檛 get apprenticeships are justifiably wary of promises to train British Columbians to fill the new LNG jobs. But Clark鈥檚 promise to improve the Industry Training Authority and overhaul post-secondary institutions so they prepare students for vacant jobs suggests she knows where the problems lie.
While 9,300 Victorians are looking for jobs, sa国际传媒 should not have to bring in foreign workers. Government, industry and education have to work together to make sure they are training our citizens for the jobs our economy needs.
Clark and her government are gambling on LNG. While it鈥檚 a risky play, it is forcing the government to fix the training system.
Fixing that will benefit British Columbians even if the LNG plants never materialize.
