Premier Christy Clark says "defending and creating jobs" in B.C. won't be expensive because she is ruling out big spending to reduce unemployment in the province.
Austerity is being forced on the province as the demise of the harmonized sales tax has thrown off revenues, but Ms. Clark put an extra philosophical spin on the approach Wednesday – the third day of a provincial tour to tout her jobs strategy.
"The plan is not, overall, about going out there and spending way more of taxpayers dollars," Ms. Clark told reporters following a speech to 300 members of the Surrey Board of Trade, who paid $50 a plate to attend.
Instead, the Premier said, her government is trying to focus current spending on bringing "new money" into the B.C. economy.
"I think this idea – and we've seen other governments do it around the world – of trying to bring in new money by racking up debt, and recirculating money within your economy doesn't work," she said.
Her approach may inoculate her politically from attacks by the B.C. Conservatives, who are targeting the provincial Liberals from the right and who would presumably criticize the government for any generous job-creation spending.
"What you have to do is you have to go out and you have to find new money by opening new markets, and repurposing the money you're already spending to spend it better," she said
To that end, Ms. Clark told the board of trade she would spend $96-million over three years to expand access to venture capital tax credits for small businesses, and extend the $31-million annual funding for the B.C. Training Tax Credit program to help employers and apprentices toward skills and training.
Ms. Clark also said Finance Minister Kevin Falcon will appoint an expert panel to work through such issues as closing tax loopholes and streamlining the sales tax system without a return to the HST.
She described the measures, overall, as aimed at "getting out of the way of job creation" and recognizing government blocks creation of jobs.
Ms. Clark did not say how many jobs her policy would create. She did, however, make specific job predictions for other new measures announced this week during visits to Prince Rupert, Kitimat and Kamloops. Jobs Minister Pat Bell explained that the measures announced Wednesday will have widely varying impacts on different industries.
But Ms. Clark promised the full plan will include job-creation targets when it is released, in full, on Thursday, during a speech to the Vancouver Board of Trade.
One key benchmark, she said, will be how much new investment is attracted to the province "because if we were successful in that and we have done better than other jurisdictions in the country, I think we'll count ourselves as winners in this uncertain economy."
NDP Leader Adrian Dix said the plan will lack value without targets.
"The government is under an obligation to present targets, and I would assume the Premier tomorrow, when she announces her jobs plan, will set targets," he told a news conference.
To date, Mr. Dix said it appears the Liberals have pulled the plan off the shelf to enhance the Premier's image without substantive measures to deal with accessible, sustainable job creation.
"It's a jobs plan," he said. "Her job."
Ian Bailey