Liberals failing the critical competence test

The last NDP government blew up in spectacular fashion, tossed out in 2001 for a long list of sins.
Two were critical. The public decided the New Democrats were both untrustworthy and incompetent. (Rightly, I would add.)
It’s early days, but the Liberals look to be at risk of the same damning judgments.
Trust is shot. An Ipsos Reid poll found 72 per cent of British Columbians believe the Liberals intentionally mislead the public about the province’s finances during the election campaign. Only 10 per cent believed Gordon Campbell’s claim that he really thought the February budget was attainable.
And competence looks shakier by the day.
Take the decision to slash grants to parent advisory councils. Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid revealed the cuts after a photo op where she announced $500,000 in Olympic spirit funding for schools. The cut affects every school in the province, but hits hardest in areas where PACs have the toughest time raising money. It matters to tens of thousands of parents.
MacDiarmid dropped the $7.6 million cut from support - from $20 to $10 per student - as an afterthought.
That’s not competent, it’s sloppy and rude.
Three days later, Gambling Minister Rich Coleman defended the cut. (The money came from gambling grants, so he was involved.)
Read carefully his quote from the Times Colonist. “I haven’t had a bunch of blowback from the PACs since the minister mentioned on Tuesday they would probably get half,” said Coleman. (Any group affected by cuts should note that. Without “blowback,” you’re forgotten.)
But what’s really striking is the phrase “probably get half.” The education minister has announced the cut. Parent councils are planning reductions in help for kids and schools. And Coleman is suggesting the decision hasn’t really been made.
It’s not an isolated stumble. The government tried to renege on $20 million in grants to non-profits that had received written promises of three-year funding.
Campbell defended the decision. The letters were’?t real contracts, he said.
And then Coleman restored the money because, he agreed, the commitments were in fact real.
After MacDiarmid cut $110 million from school maintenance funding, some districts said they would have to cancel projects aimed at meeting the province’s 2010 deadline for becoming carbon neutral.
No problem, said John Yap, the junior minister for climate action. They can have until 2012. His staff quickly contradicted the claim, saying the 2010 deadline is still in place.
Which raises three questions. Is a climate action minister - with extra pay, staff and all that - really needed? If so, shouldn’t he know the basics? And how much thought has really gone into this carbon neutral by 2010 edict?
None of this inspires confidence on the competence front. Neither did the first couple of days in the legislature after last week’s break.
The NDP used question period to ask about the elimination of $130,000 funding to B.C. School Sports. The non-profit does great work organizing regional and provincial high school sports events. The big volunteer contribution means the money goes a long way. And the government eliminated all its funding.
It’s a bad decision. And it ended up being defended, badly, by three cabinet ministers: MacDiarmid, the education minister; Ida Chong, junior minister of healthy living and sport; and Mary McNeil, junior minister for the Olympics and ActNow BC. (Chong stumbled badly in answering questions, or more accurately not answering, about a 27-per-cent cut to funding for children’s sports.)
Three ministers, all with a role in youth sports. That does not suggest competence, or concern about the taxpayers’ money. Cut any one of them and you would save enough money to restore funding for B.C. School Sports.
What it all suggests is a government in which a few people are making decisions - on new taxes, or program cuts or climate action - on the fly and in isolation.
Footnote: It’s a bumpy start for new Liberal MLAs. First they’re told, without any opportunity for input, to support a new harmonized tax they opposed in the election campaign. Then they’re called on to defend cuts that hurt parents, children and schools that even the ministers can’t keep straight.