Harper heads for B.C. legislature
Lieutenant Governor Steven Point arrives at the B.C. legislature in August to read the throne speech.
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Updated: February 08, 2010 2:18 PM
VICTORIA – Before the B.C. legislature joins the House of Commons in an Olympic recess until March, Prime Minister Stephen Harper will address the chamber on Thursday.
It's the first-ever speech by a sitting prime minister in the B.C. legislature, as the federal and provincial governments welcome thousands of international visitors for the opening of the Olympic Games Friday.
"Mr. Harper will visit Victoria on the afternoon of Thursday, Feb. 11 and, on behalf of all Canadians, he will bring a message of welcome on the eve of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games," B.C. legislature speaker Bill Barisoff said in a statement.
Plenty of pageantry and not much substance are expected in the three-day sitting of the legislature beginning with a throne speech Tuesday. Lieutenant-Governor Steven Point will read the speech that sets out the government's agenda to cope with a deficit of nearly $3 billion.
It's the second throne speech in less than six months for Premier Gordon Campbell's government. The post-election throne speech last fall painted an unusually grim picture of the year ahead, as government revenues suffered an unprecedented decline from world financial troubles.
"The fiscal cupboard is bare and currently hangs on a wall of deficit spending," the Aug. 25 throne speech said. "This government chooses to take the harder path that resists overspending.... While we protect critical health and education services, we will not throw up our hands, throw in the towel and borrow our way into oblivion."
Despite the drop in revenues and increasing social assistance and other costs, the fall speech committed the government to a list of initiatives. The most costly of these is the extension of full-day kindergarten for five-year-olds across B.C. in September 2010.
Other promises include:
• promotion of biomass power and conversion of landfill waste into clean energy
• a new power line along Highway 37 in northwestern B.C.
• a "northern energy corridor" to export liquefied natural gas from shale deposits in the northeast through a new port at Kitimat
• a task force on species at risk to make recommendations to government by June.
