After briefly flirting with fiscal restraint in this year's budget, Premier David Eby was back on the more familiar ground of spending and borrowing at an event last week marking progress on the Surrey-to-Langley SkyTrain extension.
Eby's Defense of Debt
"This project is not only necessary and essential," said Eby. "It will create new economic opportunities, it will increase prosperity, and it will make life better for people south of the Fraser. And to build this project, we have to borrow money and that is what the debt is about."
The province is borrowing plenty. The 16-kilometre, eight-station extension was initially budgeted at $4 billion and scheduled for completion in 2028. Lately, the cost has jumped to $6 billion with the province on the hook for the entire 50 per cent overrun. The federal government wisely capped its contribution at $1.3 billion back in 2021.
Comparing Debt to Homeownership
"Well, when you build a house, when you borrow that money from the bank to buy the house, your debt increases dramatically," said Eby. "But for your family, for the future of your family, for what's important for you, that is an investment in your future that you will pay off over a lifetime."
Or maybe more than one lifetime. The SkyTrain debt is part of Eby's plan to increase the total provincial debt from $90 billion when he took office past $234 billion before the line opens in late 2029.
Contrast with Conservatives
On Friday last, Eby's comments about the virtues of debt and borrowing were all by way of underscoring the contrast between the New Democrats and the B.C. Conservatives. "It's important to recognize that government is about choices and to recognize that our government has made and will continue to make very specific choices when it comes to south of the Fraser, and they are different choices than are being advocated for by the Conservative Party," the premier continued.
"And if you think for one second that this project could not be cancelled because it's already underway, you are wrong. Because the Pattullo Bridge was more than halfway built when the Conservative transportation critic said that government should cancel the project because it was too expensive."
Criticism of Eby's Stance
It takes a certain amount of gall for Eby to link the Conservatives to cancellation of transportation infrastructure south of the river. One of the first acts of the NDP government on taking office in 2017 was to cancel the bridge replacement for the Massey tunnel. The 10-lane bridge would be finished by now. Whereas the NDP's back-to-square-one plan to replace the tunnel with an eight-lane tunnel is still mostly on the drawing board. The budget, last updated at $4.15 billion in 2021, is a work of fancy.
Besides, would the Conservatives, if they took office, really cancel a half-completed transit mega project serving Surrey and Langley, communities where they captured nine of 13 seats in the 2024 election? Eby is making different choices all right. But he doesn't need to trade hypotheticals with the Conservatives to draw the contrast.
