Last weekend, as 400 registrants thundered through the homes on Salt Spring Island’s Eco-Living and Home Tour, the B.C. government quietly cancelled its “LiveSmart” program.

LiveSmart was designed to financially reward homeowners who have made their homes more energy efficient by replacing windows, installing heat pumps and the like. Kind of makes the Eco Tour pointless, doesn’t it?

The three-year, $60-million LiveSmart program ran out of money 15 months into its three-year plan. The Campbell government chose to dump this incredibly successful stimulus program rather than commit any more money to it. Can you blame them?

B.C. has been swamped by a financial tsunami in the past few months, to the point where the 2009 shortfall is now estimated to be over $3 billion, a quantum leap from the original election estimate of $495 million.

How is such a discrepancy possible? How could they have missed the mark so badly? Where do you start? 

• Natural gas prices are at record lows at $3 a unit. B.C. was calculating twice that number, based on estimates from such financial stalwarts as TD Bank and the Bank of Montreal. Oops. B.C. has lost $500 million in the gas sector since June.

• The B.C. salmon fishery, which brings in $1.6 billion and employs 52,000 people, is close to a collapse. The fisheries department estimated about 10.6 million sockeye salmon would make their way up the Fraser River this year. That number has now plummeted to 1.7 million. 

• In the forest, mills continue to shut down. That industry has seen its revenues drop 58 per cent in the past four years, and even the B.C. government’s dropping the stumpage fees by 50 per cent has not helped significantly. 

• This summer’s forest fires alone have cost us over $400 million, some $360 million more than budgeted. 

• B.C. Ferries has hemorrhaged $3.6 million in the last quarter, an amount exacerbated by new passport regulations courtesy of Mr. Harper and the present trend of “staycations” embraced by the new pecuniary class of North American tourist.

Needless to say, this is not a “made in B.C.” situation, not some ghastly error on the government’s part — like, say, the Fast Cat ferries. Even once-flush, once-smug Alberta, the only province without a provincial sales tax, is in the red to the tune of $7 billion at last count. 

The Canadian federal government has gone from a $1.64 billion surplus in June/08, to a $5 billion deficit in June/09. There is no umbrella, no “happy place” to escape these numbers. This is global.

Is it any wonder, then, that B.C. chose to eliminate the LiveSmart program? Want another sign they are circling the wagons? The government is raising the on-line gambling limit to $10,000 less a dollar, from the old $120 limit ($9,999 being one dollar less than the amount you are legally obligated to report to the federal government.) Extreme times call for extreme measures.

And I would be remiss if I did not throw the harmonized sales tax (HST) onto this bonfire. The HST will bring B.C. $1.6 billion in federal “transition” money — money desperately needed just to fund basic services like hospitals.

Is it all doom and gloom? There are signs all over the place that we are coming out the other side. Economists say that statistics like the ones quoted above always lag behind the reality of the moment. Last year, the Toronto Stock Exchange, arguably a “live snapshot” of the real time economy, plummeted from 14,000 to 7,500. It is now knocking on 11,000, inching closer to those healthy, halcyon days. 

The real estate market all across Canada is red hot at present, with British Columbia registering July sales up 53 per cent over the same month last year, according to the B.C. Real Estate Association. Vancouver leads all regions in Canada, up an astonishing 90 per cent over last year.

Even provincial liquor sales are up by $35 million. Whether the increase is a product of people popping champagne in celebration or guzzling cheap wine to forget their troubles, only time will tell. 

But what can you do, other than float around with the other boats? You may agree with the opposition that the Campbell government has been disingenuous and dishonest, but what do you want, the NDP at the helm of this financial quagmire? Last go around, the NDP taxed the stuffing out of businesses and high-income earners, causing a mass exodus, leaving the province in financial shambles. Now that really was a truly “made in B.C.” mess that took years to recover. If you say “anything is better than this government,” I’ve got news for you.

Finance Minister Colin Hansen delivers his budget Sept. 1, and as the song goes, “hold on, this is going to hurt like hell.” Make the best of it, and remember, virtually any other place on the planet is far deeper in this mess than we are. 

I understand. That is cold comfort, if you have single-pane windows and no job. But however cold the comfort, take heart. The world economy may have turned the corner. If not, next year’s Eco Tour might be called “SurviveSmart.”

republicofsaltspring@mac.com