It is ironic that NDP candidate Colleen Ross, a self-proclaimed business woman from Grand Forks, doesn’t understand the importance of good credit, and the advantages for investing in new health care infrastructure for Oliver, Osoyoos and major centres like Penticton.
At a forum last Wednesday evening in Oliver, Ross was quick to complain about the lack of hospital beds at the Penticton Regional Hospital while at the same time criticizing the BC Liberal government for investing in their “legacy projects.”
Certainly, the new David Kampe patient tower – a $312 million dollar expansion – is one excellent example of a legacy project, and one that MLA Dan Ashton and MLA Linda Larson worked hard on with Interior Health to bring to the region.
The Kampe patient tower will deliver real solutions for the growing health care needs locally, health care that the NDP candidate was very quick to complain about.
So, what allows a government to fund beds and build more hospitals? An important formula that includes a growing economy, a growing labour force, political will, and the ability to borrow money to finance construction of major infrastructure. Financing for the new David Kampe patient tower and new projects in the years ahead, is facilitated by B.C.’s Triple A credit rating – or “Triple Star” – as NDP Ross incorrectly calls it.
Larger question: Why would she dismiss BC’s good credit rating so quickly? Maybe because the BC NDP had six consecutive credit downgrades in the 1990s and her party’s borrowing rate increased to such a level that it made it basically impossible to borrow and build any new infrastructure, or rather legacy projects.
The fact the BC NDP mocks “legacy projects” and B.C.’s top credit rating shows they still haven’t connected the dots on how to manage the economy to secure sustainable social programs and infrastructure growth.
Despite being in government for 10 years, despite record levels of public debt and taxes for BC families, the B.C. NDP did not build a single new hospital in the 1990s. They closed over 3,500 hospital beds – nearly a third of all hospital beds in B.C.
Failing to connect the dots on why good credit is good policy, NDP Colleen Ross and NDP leader John Horgan shouldn’t be so quick to mock or dismiss it. Without good credit, you will see no new hospitals, schools, bridge crossings, and no new dollars for capital infrastructure.
I am not ready for a BC NDP government who will offer all of us out of control operating debt, higher taxes for families, and absolutely no tangible capital infrastructure to show for it. I trust you are not ready for that kind of a future in British Columbia either.
Carolyn Madge, Oliver
