November 1, 2008
Click here to download full audio of the Premier's Keynote Address
You know, looking across this room, just feeling that enthusiasm, feeling that energy, I gotta tell you, there’s two things I really, really like. First, there’s a real pride in the new era and second I see the beginnings of a new majority BC Liberal government!
I gotta tell you; I’m surprised you guys have this much energy after yesterday. I really hope that you all had a really good Halloween. And we’re different from the other guys. Of course for the NDP it’s Halloween every single day. Every day they’re putting on new disguises and trying ‘em on but it’s the same old NDP. And don’t, what ever you do, don’t let them trick you. They only want your candy! No matter how hard you work to get it, no matter how big a bite the government’s taken out of it, it doesn’t matter. They always want more. That’s the NDP. What are the scariest letters that you can think of? N-D-P. So warn your children. Warn your friends. If the NDP’s on your doorstep and they’re knocking on your door don’t answer.
And let’s remember how we did that. Four words: lower taxes and responsible management. Lower taxes and responsible management. We’ve lowered taxes a hundred and three times in the last seven and a half years. And the NDP voted against every one of those measures. You, your neighbors, co-workers across British Columbia should all understand that if the NDP had its way you would be paying 37% more in provincial income tax today. 37% more. And this from a party that pretends to care about working families. And then, just a few days ago, we heard it on the airwaves, Bill Good, newsmaker, out of the clear blue of the western sky, a miracle: Carole James said that she and her caucus would support tax cuts that they voted against just six months ago. Well, we’ll believe it when we see it. But hope springs eternal. Maybe, just maybe, she’s had an epiphany. Maybe she understands at last. Maybe she sees the light: tax cuts work! Who knows, anything can happen in this world. Maybe tomorrow Jim Sinclair will see the benefit of having workers’ tax go up. You know – and maybe not!
Now just think of this: in the last few months Carole James, the NDP, and their surrogates have said they wanted to renegotiate the Softwood Lumber Agreement, they want to increase taxes on the energy industry by at least a billion dollars, that they want to stamp out the $4.5 billion independent power businesses that are creating a thousand jobs all throughout rural British Columbia, and they want to add $450 million to the costs of small businesses in our province. You know what’s really frightening about the NDP is they don’t know that the world has changed. It is not good enough to be anti-business in this world. Anti-business means you’re anti-jobs. We’re pro-business, we’re pro-jobs, we’re pro-working families in the province of British Columbia.
So how do we get through these challenging times, these difficult times that the entire world economy is going to experience in the next couple of years? Well a few days ago I laid out a ten-point plan that tries to provide British Columbians with at least a platform for us to move forward. And I hope that you’ll agree that it was a good start. We’re going to accelerate personal income tax cuts and income tax cuts for small businesses. We’re going to protect our Credit Union depositors so their money stays in British Columbia and goes to work in British Columbia. We’re going to work with Alberta to create a new pension opportunity for thousands of British Columbians who don’t have that chance today. And we’re going to accelerate capital spending so we can take advantage of lower interest rates, a far more competitive construction market, but equally importantly and perhaps more importantly, so we keep the construction trades at work in every region of this province as we go ahead.
We’re also lowering some of the costs that our major industry faces in British Columbia, our pulp mills, our sawmills, our mines, our energy infrastructure. All of these steps will help to keep British Columbian families whole as they go through this difficult time. They’ll help all of our communities in stabilizing their economy as we move ahead.
Second, we have to be sure that people can maximize their RRSP and their RRIF investments. And you know there are a lot of seniors that we actually say to them you must do X-Y-Z over the next little while. And one of the things we say to seniors is when you turn 71 you must convert your RRSP. Well, I don’t know how many of you have RRSP’s or how many have been looking at your RRSP’s lately; this is not a good time for conversion. In fact, the last thing we want to do is add additional pressures to our seniors right now. So a week this Monday I will be going to a meeting with the Prime Minister and other Premiers and I will be advocating that we convene a national meeting on RRSP’s and RRIF’s and I will be asking the federal government to amend their legislation to allow people to actually keep their RRSP’s until they decide it’s in their best interests to convert it to a RRIF.
Third, we’re going to act to help people cope with the turbulence in the housing industry right now. We’re going to lock-in assessments at the 2007 assessment roll level. Now for many of you, you may not be aware of this but as Kevin Kruger can tell you, we go out in the summer of 2008 we were out, as we always are, we do assessments and values come in. Values have changed since the summer of 2008 so we want to say to businesses, to citizens, to homeowners, to local governments, you know, let’s try and stabilize this for the next year. We’ll keep it at 2007, we’ll see how things go, and we’ll do the assessment business at the end of, in the summer of 2009. I think that creates stability for people, it creates some certainty and some confidence for people in a difficult time and we’re going to work with the UBCM in the next few weeks but I expect that but I expect that to be brought in and be in place in time for next year so everyone can take advantage of that.
So we’re able to do this because we spent seven and a half years getting our financial house in order. We’re able to do this because we’ve built confidence across the province over the last seven years, confidence that was sadly lacking in the 1990’s. You know, when the international credit agencies give you a AAA credit rating that is sending a message to the world that the world can have confidence in British Columbia. And, if we have confidence, that will keep BC strong. If we encourage private sector investment, that will keep BC strong. Confidence is one of the major things that separates us from the Opposition; BC Liberals have confidence in our future. The NDP does not. We’re positive about our province. The NDP is not. We’re for moving British Columbia forward into the 21st century. And the NDP wants to take us back. You know, every time I hear a New Democrat speak in the back of my mind I hear this sound: [audio of a truck reversing]. That sound has a bunch of messages: danger, watch out, someone’s going backward and they probably can’t see where they’re going! That’s the NDP.
Who knows how to figure out what the NDP is for? I can’t tell. In fact, I don’t think Stephen Hawking is smart enough to come together with a complete and unified theory of anything the NDP says. You know? In fact, I think I’ve got to help out our young people and I’ve got to help our forgetful people and I think I might actually write a new book based on Stephen’s old title: A Brief History of NDP Time. I’ve only gotten the first line so far: ‘It was a dark period; a period of random logic, empty space, blackened skies, and utter chaos!’ You really don’t have to be Stephen Hawking to know that there’s only one way to have a black hole in BC and that’s an NDP government. The NDP created that black hole in the 1990’s. For all of our young people just remember this: in the 1990’s there was this big, black hole in British Columbia. It sucked money out of people’s paychecks, it sucked jobs out of our economy, it sucked hope out of our families. In fact, now that I think of it, I can shorten that. The summary: it sucked!
Over the last seven and a half years we’ve put your plans into action, your plans. We listened to the people of Kamloops and they said they wanted to be a university town. And we now have Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops. We listened to Prince George. They wanted a medical school, a Northern Sports Center, an airport expansion. We listened, we acted, and the NDP voted against every one of those Northern assets. We listened to the people of Nanaimo. They wanted a new Convention Center, they wanted an airport expansion, they wanted a new cruise ship facility, they wanted Vancouver Island University. We listened, we acted, and the NDP opposed it. When Cranbrook wanted to have a truly regional hospital and an airport expansion we built it. When Kimberley wanted to have a special center for paralympic athletes in Kimberley we built it. The Opposition voted against it. As we think of the future one of the things that you can be proud of for this party is BC Liberals help people build their dreams wherever they are in British Columbia.
And you’re strong when you have partnerships. Partnerships build strength. We’ve built true partnerships with the federal government as we’ve worked to create a better British Columbia. We’re partnering with them now on Pine Beetle Assistance, on municipal infrastructure, on the Olympics, on the Pacific Gateway, and on transportation projects all over British Columbia. In seven years we’ve managed to secure 40% more federal funding than the New Democrats were able to do in ten years. And there’s 12-billion more dollars that’s coming in the next two years. You know why? Because we work with our federal MP’s instead of fighting with our federal MP’s because we’re all together in serving British Columbians.
For a hundred and fifty years, it’s been people’s ideas and dreams that have driven this province forward. That’s what our new open platform is really all about. It’s asking people to give us their ideas and their dreams. We want to tap into the best ideas, the best solutions, the best suggestions from any person in any quarter of the province. Young people in particular, we want to hear from them because they have new eyes, they have new approaches, they have a new outlook. They will help us build the kind of British Columbia that they want to live in 10, 20, and 30 years from now. And that’s going to critical to our province’s future.
And I think we all have to know this. This is not a time for procrastination. This is a time for action. This is not a time for expedience. It’s a time for us to act on principal and on the values that we all hold. As I look across the province of British Columbia I watch as we face a number of significant challenges. But you know the thing that encourages me, that gives me optimism, that gives me strength and energy is I’ve seen British Columbians deal with every challenge that’s been put in front of them and come through it stronger and better for themselves and for their community and for the quality of life of their families.
When Carole Taylor introduced the budget in February of 2008 she did something that was historic in Canada. We did develop the Carbon Emissions Tax and it is the first tax in the history of Canada that must be used to reduce other taxes. It cannot be spent. And we have to think about that because that makes a difference. That’s how we can afford the Personal Income Tax cuts that people are going to benefit from. That’s how we can afford to cut Small Business Tax by 44% in 2008 alone. And that’s how we can afford to be sure that our Corporate Income Tax will be the lowest income tax of any jurisdiction in the G7 just two years away.
There’s a Chinese symbol for crisis; it’s danger and opportunity at the same time. We should take that symbol to heart right now because it suggests a different way of looking at our world even when we’ve reached this critical point. We can take the challenges we face and convert them to opportunities. The mountain pine beetle is clearly a huge crisis, it’s a big problem. But in today’s world we can make it an opportunity that will create jobs all over British Columbia. We can use that wood to create clean, renewable bio-energy. The NDP oppose it but we’re going to help it happen. We can use that fiber to create cellulosic ethanol which uses four times less energy to create than other biofuels. The NDP oppose it; we’re going to help make it happen. We can use that wood for new buildings and new building products in new ways like we did in the Richmond Speedskating Oval, the new Vancouver Convention Center. The NDP oppose it; we made it happen. We’re going to continue to insist on incorporating BC wood into every new public building in British Columbia. Wood is the environmental building material of choice. Wood is [audience chants ‘good’]! Wood is [audience chants ‘good’]! Wood is [audience chants ‘good’]! Good, you got it. And when we put wood to work we keep BC strong and that’s what BC Liberals are going to do.
None of the things we’ve accomplished in the last seven and a half years would have been possible if we’d failed to bring people together and if we hadn’t stood up to the organized resistance, to the vocal minority. If we’d chosen the safe route, the familiar route of political expedience, our province would be far weaker for it. The organized resistance said we shouldn’t lower taxes, we shouldn’t balance the budget. BC wanted it and we did it. The vocal minority said that we shouldn’t give parents new choices in our schools, the right to volunteer in our schools, or even a real choice in school planning. British Columbians wanted it and we did it.
We, BC Liberals, are going to care for people that can’t care for themselves and we’re going to do it until they’re well. We’re not going to abandon people to subsist on the streets as a danger to themselves or to others. That’s why we need to elect a BC Liberal government.
Are we going to support green developments that are lighter on the environment, better for health, cheaper to maintain, and the future of economic growth in North America? Yes we are!
Are we going to keep BC strong? Yes we are!
When the world is changing before our eyes we can think to ourselves how small we are or we can think how lucky we are to live in British Columbia. We are incredibly lucky to live in this province at this time. There isn’t another place in Canada that I would rather live. There is not another place in Canada with more potential for positive growth than British Columbia. There’s not a place in the world that I would rather be living in. Nowhere on earth is more spectacular. Nowhere on earth is more diverse, more blessed with natural wealth and raw human talent than the province of British Columbia.
As I said, we’ve been through difficult times before in British Columbia. But British Columbians are always up to the task. We can get through this. And when we come through we’ll come through stronger. We’ll come through smarter. And we’ll come through better.
We’re in a battle to protect all that we have earned over the last seven and a half years for British Columbians. May the 12th, 2009 will be a turning point for our province. We can turn to the future. We can lead the country. We can move into the Asia-Pacific world with a sense of opportunity, with a sense of excitement, and with a sense of energy and enthusiasm. Or we can go back. It’s a turning point.
I’m here today with Margaret McDiarmid and Arthur Griffiths, two great candidates. And through this weekend you’ve got to meet other great candidates like Diane St. Jacques, and Mark McKee, Jody Twa, Jeet Manhas, Josh Smienk, Dawn Miller, Jagmohan Singh, Bill Yuen, Stephanie Cadieux, Mary McNeil, Andrew Mak, Moira Stilwell, Stephen Chong, Dallas Henault, and Terry Lake; great candidates to join a great caucus.
Thank you all very much! Thank you!
