De Jong vows balanced budget with no pre-election goodies for B.C.

VANCOUVER – Finance Minister Mike de Jong says there is $43 billion in investment on the line in northern B.C. and he warns that now is not the time for B.C. to change its political course.

De Jong was speaking to the Vancouver Board of Trade, alongside Jobs Minister Pat Bell and Opposition NDP critics Carole James and Bruce Ralston.

With an election in less than four months, de Jong says B.C. is in a better financial picture than most jurisdictions and needs government stability to continue that recovery.

The minister committed to tabling a balanced budget on Feb. 19, but says voters shouldn’t expect any of the kind of pre-election goodies they may have enjoyed in the past.

Ralston says the New Democrats will offer up their own budget next month.

The finance critic says the sum total of Liberal accomplishments over the past four years was to introduce and then repeal the Harmonized Sales Tax.