B.C. NDP, protesters, ready to battle provincial Liberals
Tuesday's speech from the throne in Victoria is expected to kick off a stormy session of the legislature.
The B.C. NDP says it's fired up and ready to take the Liberals to task on a number of issues that have developed since the May provincial election.
"This is the time to tell the public how they lied," said New Democrat MLA Harry Bains said Monday.
Bains was referring to issues the opposition has maintained that the ruling B.C. Liberals knew about but did not talk about during the campaign. They include the plans for a harmonized sales tax, the extension of the provincial budget deficit from a two-year to a four-year reality, and looming cuts to health care.
"To be looking at reducing surgeries, to look at reducing care for seniors, to be kicking seniors out of the only home they know, these are all things that occurred in the last few weeks," said Opposition Leader Carole James
B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman admits provincial budget — to be presented Sept. 1 — will be one of the most challenging the Liberals have ever had to produce but said it would be prudent and responsible.
"I think people will find the budget pretty balanced in the way it's approached the issues in the province. I think as we go into this session, there's a lot of hype but I think it's a lot of hype people will find to be completely unnecessary," Coleman told CBC News.
Phil Lyons says the criticism isn't "hype" at all.
Lyons, 72, represents a Victoria seniors group and says 50 per cent of the country's elderly women live below the poverty line. He said he's worried about the possible impact of more privatized health care and a reduction in provincial services overall.
"Particularly, senior women are very close to the edge in terms of what they get on their pensions and what they have as income. And as you do user-pay, they end up paying more for what they get rather than less," Lyons told CBC News on Monday.
Lyons's group is just one of a number of organizations who said they will be on the lawn of the legislature Tuesday to voice their concerns.