Finance Minister Mike de Jong said it best when he described the sa国际传媒 budget he unveiled Tuesday as 鈥渂alanced on a razor鈥檚 edge.鈥� A razor鈥檚 edge it is. The budget calls for a surplus of $175 million with total spending of $44.4 billion, which means there is a thin margin for error indeed.
If anything goes wrong, the government will not be able to meet its fiscal targets. But if the economy is stronger than forecast, and the budget鈥檚 rainy-day reserves are not needed, the surplus could be much higher than $175 million 鈥� and de Jong would look like a hero.
Once again, the budget has few goodies or surprises. The government does not have a lot of money to toss around.
It could certainly borrow more money if it wanted to; our debt-to-gross-domestic-product ratio is healthy, and our AAA credit rating is matched in sa国际传媒 by only two other provinces and the federal government. That reflects strong management, and makes it cheaper to borrow money.
But borrowing money today means paying later, and de Jong is right to reject that notion. His concern is to reduce the province鈥檚 $64-billion debt, not add to it.
As the minister sees it, the formula is quite simple: Keep revenue above expenditures. 鈥淚f you want to tackle your debt, you need to stop spending money you don鈥檛 have,鈥� he said.
He could have also noted that one way to tackle soaring health costs would be to encourage us to lead healthier lives. His budget offered that encouragement, once again, by raising the tobacco tax by 32 cents a pack. That means that smokers are giving the government $4.78 every time they buy a pack of cigarettes.
The additional tax means $50 million a year, but as de Jong said: 鈥淭his is a stream of revenue we would like to see disappear.鈥�
Much of the money raised will go to the Canadian Cancer Society and other research agencies to help deal with the negative effects of tobacco use.
There are sure to be more film crews in Greater Victoria, now that the province has given a tax credit to productions here. It comes too late to help Gracepoint, the television series already in production, but is bound to lure more movies and series here.
The capacity of Camosun College will increase by 2016, which will help to ensure that we have the skilled labour that is sure to be needed in the marine, mechanical and metal trades.
The government鈥檚 three-year plan allows for no new money for advanced education. The theory is that it is better to refine the programs offered rather than throw more money around to see what sticks.
Overall, it is an optimistic budget. The government is expecting the gross domestic product to rise by 2.0 to 2.7 per cent a year, every year from 2014 to 2018.
Employment numbers have recovered from the recession as well, although job growth has been flat for more than a year. Retail sales are strong, a sign of consumer confidence. Housing starts are at historic averages, a recovery from the recession years.
The United States remains the largest single importer of goods from this province, but its importance has dropped significantly with the rise of Asian markets in the past decade. sa国际传媒 ships a higher percentage of its goods to Asia than does any other Canadian province.
This diversification puts the province in a better position to deal with economic uncertainty.
In all, de Jong鈥檚 budget is not flashy. But a steady, predictable budget means stability 鈥� and after the stresses of the past five years, stability is what we need.
