IN THE LEDGE – A litany of projects that are over budget and behind schedule

Debate between Kamloops Centre MLA Peter Milobar and Premier David Ely in the B.C. Legislature on Thursday, March 6, 2025:

Peter Milobar: This has been quite the question period of bluster from certain members on the other side, but total evasion of questions. It’s interesting. You always know the government’s in a bit of trouble when they start falling back to the year 2001 and things that happened in 2002, because that’s relevant to the fact that they’ve been government for eight years.

We had a health minister answer a question about patients going to the United States by saying this government will not be adopting two-tier U.S. health care on a question of sending people to a private U.S. hospital.

You have the transportation minister touting their $15 billion in capital spending in this budget. I’d point out that the projects in the capital budget for this government are currently $15 billion over budget. Of course they needed that $15 billion in the budget.

They seem to not understand that there’s a finite number of dollars to work with in British Columbia. Surrey SkyTrain, $1.9 billion over budget and a year behind. Richmond Hospital, $1 billion over budget, two years behind. Surrey Hospital, $1.2 billion over budget and a year behind. Patullo Bridge replacement, $260 million over budget and two years behind. Broadway subway, $127 million, two years behind.

That’s $4.5 billion in overruns right there and multiple years of delay. This government clearly cannot manage the finances of British Columbia.

Again, why is this Premier, in the light of all of this fiscal mismanagement, prioritizing and actually protecting the hiring of political spin doctors and staff over the better finances for the rest of everyone else in British Columbia.

The Speaker: Members, these desks cost lots of money. Be nice to the desks.

Hon. David Eby: Let me begin first by thanking the member that asked the question for standing up for residential school survivors. I know it’s not easy, but he stands with integrity, and I respect that. We don’t always…. Well, we don’t agree generally, but on that point we do.

Costs are up. Absolutely. Families doing renovations, contractors wanting to build housing, businesses wanting to expand, they’re seeing the impacts of global inflation, higher interest rates. Government’s not immune from that.

When we see these costs go up, we do have a choice. We’re going to build all the things the member listed: hospitals, rapid transit, schools, critical infrastructure to grow our economy.

Or do we abandon those projects?

The choice is obvious. We have to build these things. We have to build our province. In this moment, more than ever, we have to make sure we can stand on our own two feet, train our people, treat our people, support our people, grow our economy. And that’s what we’re doing.

I am proud that last year we had the fastest growing economy in the entire country. I am proud of the 10,300 jobs that the private sector added just in January. But we are on the abyss of the gravest economic threat this country has faced in generations.

We are going to support British Columbians. We have the second-lowest debt-to-GDP ratio in the entire country. We have the space to do it. We have the people. We have the geographic positioning. We have the resources. And we have the government that is unquestioningly supporting British Columbians and Canadians every step of the way.

We don’t mistake racism for the truth, and we don’t mistake traitors for patriots.

Source: BC Hansard