B.C.’s finance minister says tomorrow’s provincial budget will not ignore the rural parts of the province.
Conroy, who represents the riding of Kootenay West, made that promise during a pre-budget photo opportunity Monday at Ruth King Elementary School in the Victoria suburb of Langford, one of the fastest growing regions in Canada. “I believe we have already sent a message to the forestry industry that we are supporting them, that we are supporting companies to re-manufacture their plants that they can actually do more value-added work as opposed to utilizing old-growth for instance,” she said while pointing to a number of programs aimed at getting more value out of available fibre.
“We believe that surplus money that we are spending right now, we are spending on people,” Conroy said. “Even though we have a surplus this year, we…are thinking that we will probably have some deficits in the coming years. This is bit of an anomaly, this year’s surplus.”