Premier Christy Clark is kicking off the second week of the BC election campaign with an appearance on the Bill Good Show on CKNW.
During that appearance, she had this response for those who are calling the Liberals' financial management into question, and asking if that new budget is really balanced.
"You can believe Moody's, you can believe Adrian Dix. You can believe Dominon Bond Rating Agency--they also said it was balanced....you can believe Adrian Dix. You can believe the former chief economist at the Bank of Montreal. Or you can believe Adrian Dix. I mean, the budget is balanced."
A big slogan for Clark is "Families First."
But BC continues to have a high child poverty rate.
The Liberal leader says while there is work to be done, that rate is dropping.
"Ask yourself why they are dropping. It's because we are growing the economy and we are putting people to work, so you know......"
Bill Good: "......we have lost 35 thousands jobs."
"....No! In the last--since we introduced the Jobs Plan, we have added 32 thousand jobs in British Columbia."
NDP Finance critic Bruce Ralston says Premier Christy Clark's claims that bond rating agencies have called her budget "balanced" are misleading.
"and the rating agencies did not specifically mention that, in fact dominion bond rating service has their own calculation and they calculate the government finances as being in a deficit, they have a different way of calculating the spending, so to say that is simply false and misleading, i don't think that's an accurate reflection of those reports."
The bond rating agencies did uphold BC's triple "A" credit rating, but they did not pass judgment on whether the budget is balanced; nor did former BMO economist Tim O' Neill, who only approved the government revenue projections.
