Richard Lee, MLA for Burnaby North, is welcoming several initiatives in Tuesday's throne speech, including a new "prosperity fund" to save the profits from liquid natural gas exports.
"There were quite a few initiatives in the throne speech. The emphasis is on liquid natural gas. That will create many jobs and attract investment," Lee said. "There will be more investment coming. In the next 30 years, the estimate is there will be $1 trillion dollars to the GDP."
The speech, read by the lieutenant-governor on behalf of Christy Clark's Liberal government, announced a new "B.C. prosperity fund" to reduce provincial debt. Future royalty revenues from natural gas go into the fund, and according to the throne speech, the money could exceed $100 billion over the next three decades.
"Over the next 30 years, there will be a lot of benefits to our province," Lee said.
Lee, who is the Liberals' parliamentary secretary for Asia Pacific, also said there would be an announcement in the coming weeks regarding the government's plan to establish B.C. as a hub for corporations, in order to attract investment from the Asia Pacific region.
"It will be exciting," Lee said.
The government also promised legislation in the coming weeks to establish the long-awaited seniors' advocate and to address elder abuse, and Lee said there will be some resources for institutes to do more with traditional Chinese medicine.
The throne speech kicked off this legislative session, which will end on March 14. The government also needs to table legislation to end the harmonized sales tax and bring back the previous two-tax system.
"April 1 is the day to switch back to PST, so the house will have to pass those bills in order to make it happen," Lee said.
Burnaby Edmonds MLA Raj Chouhan was less than impressed with the speech.
"A careful look at the B.C. Liberals' throne speech will confirm that this is a government that is at the end of its mandate and disconnected from the very real challenges facing British Columbians today," he wrote in an email from Victoria. "The throne speech did not talk about sectors like forestry, film and television, high tech and tourism. The Liberals seem to have given up on their own goal of a comprehensive jobs plan, leaving natural gas exports as their only approach to the economy."
According to Chouhan, the Liberals have talked about the prosperity fund with great enthusiasm but there is no money attached to it.
"According to the Liberals' own plan, it would be 2016 before any money could be put into it. That will be around the next election cycle," he said. "The Liberals' future fantasy fund ignores the need to take care of B.C. today - for example, a real plan for skills training to ensure British Columbians are ready for the jobs of the future."
The provincial budget will also be tabled next week, and Chouhan expects a "one-time, short-sighted fire sale of assets."
To read the full text of the throne speech, go to Jennifer Moreau's blog at www.burn abynow.com.
