Just how much trouble is B.C. in financially? According to Premier Campbell, B.C.鈥檚 debt stands at $47.757 billion which is $13.969 billion more than it was when Mr. Campbell took office.
Unfortunately that figure does not tell the whole story, which is another $60 billion in unfunded P3 projects, which they do not include in the budget.
According to the so-called liberals, it is free money.
Is it really free money or is that just a convenient deception on the government鈥檚 part?
If it isn鈥檛, B.C.鈥檚 real debt is actually $107.757 billion, which is a staggering tripling of debt in one decade.
Ask the taxpayers about their P3 involvement in the Olympic village.
Every one of these P3s depend totally on the financial health of any particular partner that these contracts are entered into with.
They are all done with borrowed money, and if that company goes bankrupt or folds for whatever reason, the lenders still want their money and guess who is the co-signer of all these unfunded loans.
The individual taxpayer always pays the piper in the end.
Even if everything goes right, it is still the taxpayer that pays either in taxes, user fees or tolls, depending on the type of facility or infrastructure that is involved 鈥� in the end it is anything but free money.
In the real world, anybody that reads knows that even the biggest companies in the world are subject to insolvency or bankruptcy 鈥� General Motors and Enron, to give two examples 鈥� and if we end up having to swallow the debt of even a few of these huge P3s (the Canada Line, for instance), it is not hard to imagine what that would do to our already onerous tax load.
Welcome to California North.
I believe this is a perfect example of real voodoo economics.
Wayne Clark, Maple Ridge
