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Stay the Course Budget is the Right Decision PDF Print E-mail

The Surrey Board of Trade is encouraged to see that the Campbell government has planned their recovery against a more conservative 2.2% annual growth forecast, as opposed to a 2.9% projection by the Economic Council of Canada.  Although there has been some concern that they haven’t been more aggressive with the deficit, we believe this steady approach will project a greater sense of confidence in the BC economy, which we hope will attract more business development both at home and abroad.

The return of some $8 million in gaming funds to community organizations is a good start back, however it needs to be recognized that these “social businesses” play an important role in our economy, as well as our social fabric, and we encourage the government to restore funding as soon as possible.

We support the $60 million funding for arts and culture and sports programs.  It’s our belief that this type of support builds stronger youth, who go on to contribute significantly to our economy.

Finally, we applaud the efforts to redress the health care imbalances in our city, but we must remind the government that there remains an imbalance in funding education here. The government has committed additional funds for Education province-wide and this is important. However, the only growing school district in the province (Surrey) is not being equitably funded to serve our students.  Similarly, both Kwantlen Polytechnic and Simon Fraser Universities have much greater capacity to serve this region's residents if equitable funding is provided.

We look forward to working with the MLA and Ministers in this government to resolve these problems and help move us all along to a better economy across the south Fraser region and the province.

Sincerely,
James Stewart, President
Surrey Board of Trade
 

Surrey Board of Trade