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VICTORIA — Regardless of how tired we all may be
of hearing more horror stories about the financial
incompetence of the former Social Credit govern-
ment in B.C., those nightmare tales cannot be
ignored.

Setting aside the predictable political spin which
the New Democrats are applying to the financial

“ review of the previous administration, its findings

truly must be considered disturbing.
- When firms such as Peat Marwick and
Deloitte Touche, both with solid international
reputations for accuracy, provide summaries which
chronicle a record of lies, deception, confusion,
duplication and ineptitude over a period of years, it
cannot just be dismissed as mere political revenge.

And, there is more to come. On Wednesday, the
bottom-line deficit. figure will be included in the
accountants’ overview, and apparently will be accom-
panied by some more political dynamite.

It is true, I am sure, that this $1 million finan-
cial review, overseen by a steering committee which

has a political agenda, has painted.the blackest of

black pictures of what the NDP inherited when they
blasted the Socreds from office last October.

__But even. putting ‘it in the most optimistic of
light, there is a minefield littered with a couple of
billion dollars worth of explosive economic shocks
which sooner or later will have to be absorbed.

_. From overdue maintenance for highways and
schools and other. infrastructures, to half-a-billion
dollars needed for environmental clean-up of con-

taminated sites, it is an ugly prospect indeed.

Couple those lurking costs with the actual deficit
state of the province's finances ($3 billion and rising
for the current fiscal year), and one has to wonder
how ':this all will be translated into the first
Harcourt/Clark budget.on March 26.

; You may recall that Premier Mike Harcourt
has maintained all along that the new budget must

be kept beneath a $2 billion deficit, regardless, of the

Socred mess. «: :«
- Will these aforementioned horror stories change

_ Terrace Review —March 13, 1992 °

that? This scribe says No.

Despite pressures from within his own party and
his own Cabinet and caucus to loosen the purse
strings, it looks as though the NDP leader will stick
to that $2 billion limit.

In fact, the Premier is still said to be determined
to bring that deficit down annually, towards achiev-
ing a promise of balancing the provincial books by
1995/96.

That means finding more ways to increase
revenues and taxes incoming, while keeping the lid
on expenditures outgoing.

This first budget will reflect that; and you may
rest assured some of his colleagues don’t like it now,
and won’t like it next year.

But he and Finance Minister Glen Clark are

- holding all the cards right now, as well as controlling

the power, so they just might pull it off.

However, if the party’s green caucus or the
women’s caucus, or the trade unions, or the mysteri-
ous but powerful NDP provincial council turn on
them, if the wheels start to fall off the wagon, then
the moderate, all-but-free-enterprise days of the
Harcourt?Clark government may end with a jolt.

Don’t touch that dial!

You know, there are times as a political analyst
when I wish that you, the readers, could write to
provide some answers to a few questions.

We pundits do try to reflect the thoughts and
reactions of the average person, coupled with apply-
ing years of experience and observation. to the
passing political scene. —

But as we sift through the entrails of the body
politic, there are times when more input from Mr.
Joe and Ms. Jane Public would be welcome:

For instance:

* Has the flurry of press conferences, stacks of
financial documents, and government threats of tax
increases and/or cuts in services, reached a point
that you are numbed by it all?

With the most recent batch of accusations — and

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