Bond touts new budget during visit

By Dan Hilborn
Feb. 19, 2005


B.C. Health Minister and Deputy Premier Shirley Bond was in Burnaby on Wednesday morning to deliver what she believes is the good news coming from the provincial budget.

The plan calls for $32.4 billion in taxpayer-supported spending over the coming 12 months, up $1.5 billion from the previous year, according to government documents.

But Bond, who was accompanied by local MLAs Richard Lee and Harry Bloy for a 20-minute interview with the Burnaby NOW, said the best news in the budget is the largest paydown on the provincial debt in the history of the B.C., plus a variety of tax cuts for lower and modest income British Columbians.

"If you earn $80,000 or less, you'll pay the lowest tax dollars in Canada," Bond said. "That's a pretty phenomenal change."

A senior couple who earns $30,000 per year will save $900 under the Liberal plan, while a family of four with an income of $35,000 will save $1,300 a year.

"We actually believe if we leave dollars in the peoples' pocket, we're doing our job," she said.

In her own health ministry, Bond is glad to see a total $1.5 billion spending increase over three years, including a $400 million boost for the Pharmacare program, plus the reduction or elimination of MSP premiums for 213,0000 British Columbians.

The government is also committed to spending $100 million on preventative and public health programs over the next three years.

"We are starting Act Now BC which will encourage a healthier, more fit lifestyle," Bond said. "The premier has said that B.C. should be the healthiest jurisdiction to ever host the Olympics."

Among the many initiatives included in Act Now BC will be a drive to reduce smoking in the province by 10 per cent, increase physical activity by 20 per cent and reduce obesity by 20 per cent.

"We want to encourage people to eat in a healthy way," Bond said. "One of the biggest issues facing the ministry is chronic disease and many of those problems are the result of lifestyle choices, and they are preventable."

Bond said the province also has several lifestyle initiatives underway in the public school system, including a program to ensure every student has a fitness component in class each day, although she confirmed the province will not restore mandatory physical education for students in secondary schools.

"Our goal is to increase fitness and our program is called Action Schools," Bond said. "Unless we change our lifestyles, our children could be the first generation to see their life expectancy reduced because of lack of activity and exercise."

Bond also said the province will spend $77 million for the "recruitment, training and retention" of nurses.

"The big picture is that health care will continue to be the largest ministry in government," she said. "Where it was 38 per cent of the budget in 2004, it will be 44 per cent of the budget by 2007."

Between 2001 to '07, the province will invest an additional $3.8 billion in health care, including a six per cent increase this year to bring the total health care budget to $11.6 billion - the first time B.C. has spent more than $11 billion on health care.

"Out of all the increases in the B.C. budget, 71 per cent is going to two areas - health and education, which British Columbians have told us are their highest priorities," Bond said.

Bond also said she has uncovered new information that shows the Fraser Health Authority has had an increase of 54 residential care beds since the B.C. Liberals were elected, not a 29-bed loss, as initially reported by local health authority officials last week.

Bond said her numbers include new supportive housing beds, which were not included in the numbers given to this newspaper last week by Keith Anderson, the vice-president of health planning for the region.

She also said that one of the reasons the government is giving itself a two-year extension to its promise to build 5,000 new residential care beds by the year 2006 comes from the fact that the continuing care facilities were in worse shape than they anticipated when the Liberals came to power.

"We did an inventory of every facility in the province and we discovered buildings that were 30 years old with narrow hallways, four seniors to a room and washroom doorways that were so narrow that wheelchairs couldn't fit in," she said.

"The challenge was we had a whole bunch of beds that were not suitable," she said. "We're not going to move ahead as quickly as we anticipated, but we'll do it properly. ... It's going to take longer than we hoped, but we're going to do it right."

Bond said the government consulted experts around the world and made a decision to offer different types of care to seniors. "Previously, seniors only had two options, home support or residential care. But many, many seniors were in residential care when they didn't need it. That's why we're shifting the mix of beds."

Bond pointed to the example of a 90-year-old woman who recently moved into the Christmas Manor facility in Bloy's Burquitlam riding, and her desire to have a computer hookup in her room so she could produce newsletters for the local Catholic diocese.

"That's the kind of dramatic change we're looking at," she said. "Facilities in the past weren't built to accommodate that. The nature of seniors has change, but the model has not.

"Seniors deserve facilities that meet the needs they have.

And Bond noted that the private sector has added another 5,000 units of residential care across the province that are not included in the other health ministry numbers.