VICTORIA 鈥� The B.C. legislature resumes with a brief throne speech on Wednesday and an updated budget Thursday that will be the focus of opposition critics in a month-long summer session.
NDP house leader John Horgan said the government's plan is to push a "bogus" budget through "while people are at the beach," and then continue the B.C. Liberal tradition of skipping scheduled fall sessions in October and November.
Horgan said the government's target to limit health care spending growth to less than one per cent hasn't been achieved since former premier Bill Bennett's restraint program in the early 1980s.
"At some point the reality has to hit the road, and this is why, I believe, they have jammed us in here in July, rather than having a more thoughtful session starting in September, when their [spending authority] runs out," Horgan said.
Finance Minister and B.C. Liberal house leader Mike de Jong hasn't ruled out a fall sitting of the legislature. He promised "no surprises" during the rare summer sitting, which the government intends to wrap up by July 25.
De Jong said he will update resource revenues that have changed since the current budget was introduced in February, and independent economic forecasts that have downgraded projections for B.C. economic growth since then. A smaller surplus will be forecast as a result.
After a series of deficits since 2009, the February budget projected a surplus of $197 million for the fiscal year ending in March 2014.
That is to be reached with an increase in the corporate income tax rate from 10 to 11 per cent, a temporary 2.1 per cent increase in personal income tax above $150,000 a year, and a $2 per carton increase in tobacco taxes effective in October.
The government plans no new legislation in the summer session, or reintroduction of provisions for an election for B.C. senators and other bills that were left unpassed when the legislature adjourned for the May election.
