“We are on a dangerous path,”: Nechako Lakes MLA blasts NDP’s spending spree budget

Nechako Lakes Conservative MLA John Rustad believes Budget 2023 shows that the NDP’s spending habits are getting out of control.

Today (Tuesday), the province announced 4.2 billion dollars in funding towards affordable housing as well as another billion to be put towards assisting communities impacted by the recent struggles in the forestry sector.

Rustad told Vista Radio while he supports spending increases in health care and mental health – it’s being accompanied by a hefty price tag.

“These are things that need to be done but you have a base that the NDP has put in place that is unsustainable and quite frankly it’s going to lead our province into a financial crisis if this unconstrained spending increases.

Rustad was also disappointed the battered forestry sector received very little mention, except for one thing.

“The only thing they did put in place was investing a billion dollars to help communities with a focus on those impacted by closures. It’s very disappointing that this government is resigned to the fact they want to see a forest sector significantly reduced.”

Rustad also touched on the recent debate in the BC Legislature, which eventually led to the government fully covering prescription contraception options, including most oral hormone pills, contraceptive injections, copper and hormonal intrauterine devices, and subdermal implants.

He added while that’s all well and good, it does not assist those who are diabetic that still have to pay high costs for insulin.

“These are things that have someplace, have some Merritt but when you are talking about it from the context of somebody who has to take insulin every day to survive who is a diabetic and has to pay for that, I do wonder about the priorities of this government.”

The Nechako Lakes representative also gave a big thumbs down to the province’s direction to raise the Carbon Tax by $15 a tonne every year until 2030.

“That will take it up to $160-$170 a tonne and what that actually means is that will take away about $10 billion dollars a year of British Columbians’ pockets just on a carbon tax – that’s cost increases to food and transportation,” added Rustad.

He added the province is on a very dangerous path due to deficit forecasts being projected by the NDP over the next three years.