Housing, legal pot concerns for BC Public Safety Minster ahead of federal budget
Posted February 26, 2018 7:20 pm.
Last Updated February 27, 2018 9:47 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VICTORIA (NEWS 1130) – Funding for transit, housing, and the legalization of weed–that’s what BC’s Public Safety Minister is hoping for in the federal budget tomorrow.
Mike Farnworth says there’s a wide range of areas where provincial and federal cooperation is required and he’ll be looking to make sure there’s no downloading of issues onto the provinces.
In particular, he wants enough funding to address concerns about the legalization of recreational marijuana.
“The drug-impaired driving, and the money for education around that front, and that British Columbia is getting its fair share of the crime money that the federal government said they intended to be spending.”
He says housing is also a big issue.
“Will there be money for in the federal budget for getting affordable housing? Co-ops for example being built, we’re watching this with great interest.”
Farnworth also will be looking to see if there’s funding for transit and infrastructure projects, adding the federal government committed to working with provinces to get projects off the ground.
Significant new spending not expected
But University of the Fraser Valley Political Science Professor, Hamish Telford, doesn’t expect much spending in those areas.
“They are going to be running a deficit again but they’ve commited themselves to not increaseing the debt to GDP ratio,” he says “That doesn’t really leave them a lot of room for much new spending.”
The federal Liberals will also want to save the major spending for next year.
“Which will be the pre-election budget. That’s when we can anticipate lots of goodies for most people,” Telford adds.
As for infrastructure, Telford says the previous budget commited a significant amount of money for projects, most of which hasn’t been spent yet.
“I think the Liberals have sort of checked infrastructure off their list and are moving onto other things.”
Telford expects a lot of the new spending to go towards improving living conditions on reserves.
