Last we checked, Easter had passed and spring was on its way. But you would be forgiven for thinking it's Christmas because of all the goodies being handed out by the provincial government in the waning days of this parliamentary session.
In the Tri-Cities alone, home to no fewer than four provincial ridings, PoCoMo Youth Society received a $100,000 grant on top of gaming funding and other grants also totalling $100,000. School District 43 is getting cash for long-awaited seismic upgrades and the Tri-Cities, Anmore and Belcarra are getting $175,000 in total as rebates for the carbon tax they paid last year. It's likely those sums will pay for new energy saving projects, too.
That's all great news but the timing of these announcements is so obvious as to stretch the credulity of even the most uninformed voter, and in the carbon tax press release, it wasn't a specific ministry but rather the BC Liberal government caucus that released the information.
Certainly it's a time-honoured tradition for the governing party to use its control over the purse-strings to get important things done and then seek publicity for them. But when the efforts are all lumped together and offered as a package just before the election writ is dropped, the projects lose credibility.
For example, if PoCoMo Youth Services Society needs and deserves stable, sustainable funding to keep its mobile out-reach service to at-risk youth on the road - which it does - why wasn't this money found years ago?
In the case of SD43 seismic upgrades, these projects have been on the books for some time but we still don't have an official project agreement, and a total rebuild, not an upgrade is needed for at least one of the schools, Minnekhada middle.
We love it when our hard-earned tax dollars are spent appropriately on worthwhile projects but not when cash is shovelled out the doors of the legislature in the dying days of a government.
A thoughtful review of this practice is necessary but is likely a long-shot because vote buying has long been the practice and the prerogative of whatever party is in power when it's time to vote.
