Tom Birch: Victoria In Your Hands

As part of our plan to bring in transparent government that truly partners with the people, the BC Conservative Party is piloting a smart phone app. This app will allow an honest 2-way conversation detailing what government is doing for the people and inviting input from the people as to what they expect from their government.

I had the privilege of releasing this on Friday (Jan 18, 2013) during a press conference that was also live streamed to the internet.  The following links will take you to the content of that conference where you can judge its value for yourself.

Victoria In Your Hands - Part 1 (presentation)

This is about 6 minutes long and gives the context into which we are releasing this app.

http://youtu.be/aDkZwI-dT-s

Victoria In Your Hands - Part 2 (demo)

This is about 13 minutes long and shows how the app will bring transparent government and will open up an ongoing 2-way dialogue between the voters and their representatives. This is how government should work in the 21st century.

http://youtu.be/nWayw88jRYA

Victoria In Your Hands - Part 3 (questions/answers)

This is about 8 minutes long and just covers questions that were asked after the presentation.

http://youtu.be/4G5BzGbxCtY

The BC Conservative Party is committed to using all the tools at our disposal to shine a light on our government and to hold them to account for the people of BC.  We challenge every other party and candidate to show their constituents how they will do the same.  Voter confidence is at a shameful low in our province due to 2 decades of scandals and breach of trust. Right now, our current government is increasing tax payer debt just to fight the Auditor General in court so that they will not have to submit to public scrutiny.  THIS MUST STOP!

I encourage all those who do not vote due to a belief that all parties are the same and looking out only for themselves: Review this app and see if you don’t agree that it is a chance to change the system. Get involved one more time and demand that your candidates show what they are willing to do. Then vote for a new kind of government. We can change the system!

This app will:

·       Connect voters to their representatives.

·       Allow ad hoc ‘referendums’ on any topic at any time.
While these are not binding, they will be a matter of public record that the MLA will have to stand on in the next election.

·       Document exactly how MLAs have voted throughout their term.
Again, this becomes a simple access point to information for the voters.

·       Document MLA use (or misuse) of public funds

·       And much more – download it and check it out.

The intent is not to replace public forums but to identify where they are needed and allow more focused discussion on the issues that concern the public. It will take power away from parties and give it to the voters and it will allow everyone’s voice to be heard between elections.

True leaders are not afraid of being transparent and listening to the people they are serving.  The BC Conservative Party is showing their leadership with this app and other party policies. Only time will tell what other parties are willing to do.

Addressing the Real Provincial Shortfall

When it comes to the provincial budget shortfalls, we need to admit how big the problem really is. The budget showed a little less than $1 Billion deficit for 2012-2013.  In the end it turned into between $1.5 and $2.25 Billion depending who you talk to.  BUT, the debt increase was budgeted at just over $6.6 Billion and it likely ended up at about $7.5 Billion.  So what is going on to turn a $1 Billion deficit into a $7.5 Billion debt increase?

The issue is that we hide debt all over the place. So the $23.6 Billion that are borrowing over the 4 year budget plan includes the deficit + the borrowing on un-funded capital projects + the borrowing to pay previous debt. Then, there is the increased debt that was off-loaded on crown corporations like BC Hydro. That doesn’t even show up at all. (The General coffers takes dividends from crown corporations even though they are losing money and thereby transfer debt over to them).

Another thing that does not get noticed is the increased commitments to buy services in the future that are already weighing down the budget for decades to come. I am not saying that all commitments are bad. If we lock in good rates for services that we know we will need, that is wise. However, we seem to often lock in high rates and buy services in advance that we don’t know if we are going to need.

So if we look at the total shortfall this year and include crown corporations, it is close to a $10 Billion shortfall on a $44 Billion budget.  Make that your household budget and it is like earning $44,000 after taxes but spending $54,000. Some is a personal loan and some is money you borrowed from a friend so it doesn’t show up on your net worth and some is credit card debt and some is capital expenses like a car loan. But rather than work the monthly payment into your budget, you pay everything with a second credit card that you later plan to bury in your mortgage when it comes due.  You can get away with it for a few years, but not for long before it will catch up with you.  

Provincially, we have a major spending problem and by focusing only on the operational deficit we are pretending that we have almost balanced the budget!

In truth, we have to either increase income or decrease spending by close to 20% in order to stop adding to the provincial debt.  Until we admit the full scope of the problem, we will not get serious about fixing it. The BC Conservative Party is dedicated to reducing the debt and not just playing games with how to hide it.  We will address the deficit, we will reduce the borrowing for unfunded capital projects and we will reduce the bleeding at BC Hydro and ICBC and BC Ferries, etc. In short, we will put the province on track to getting to a place where we can reduce the debt.

This will not be an overnight solution but we will address it by:

1)      Making the fall session of the legislature into a governance session where we manage the budget that is put out in the spring so that we don’t have overruns and we review the crown corporations so they don’t go crazy like ICBC has done in hiring dozens of managers making over $200,000/year (remember how they recently went from something like 17 to 53 and the government never noticed).

2)      Continually reviewing all ministries for overlaps and inefficiencies and getting rid of the waste. There are significant gains to be had by doing this.

3)      Increasing revenue by being open to investment in our province. For example, the carbon tax is decimating the cement industry and high paying jobs are being lost because we cannot compete with companies outside BC that do not have to bear this cost. That is a double hit. When a job is lost the government loses revenue (taxes) and gains expenses (social services).  We need a job plan that believes that responsible development is possible in BC and that we can build on our foundational industries without destroying the environment (those being primarily forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas).

We are not looking at cutting services but cutting waste. And we are not looking at increasing taxes but increasing high paying blue collar jobs.

Check out article 4 of our policies and guidelines http://www.bcconservative.ca/media/2012/10/2012-Policy-adopted-Sept-22-2012-final.pdf