BC Liberal House Leader and Langley MLA Mary Polak on Tuesday in a statement said: “Public Accounts show the NDP continue to ride on the previous BC Liberal government’s economic record. It took 16 years of hard work to rebuild our province’s economy after the NDP’s disastrous term as government in the 1990s.
“What today’s numbers don’t show are the impacts of a pile of taxes the BC NDP have recently imposed on British Columbians.
“The NDP are using Public Accounts as a smokescreen to avoid tough questions about massive tax increases that will have a profound impact on our economy. Over the past year, the NDP have introduced a phony speculation tax that is driving away investment. There is also the heavy-handed Employer Health Tax, which will hammer small businesses across the province.
“In the meantime, private sector job growth has fallen steeply under the BC NDP, with 40,000 jobs lost between June 2017 and June 2018. Construction projects are starting to dry up because of these damaging taxes, which will cause further job loss and slow down housing supply growth.
“This year’s financial statements are the continuing result of the hard work of British Columbians who are creating jobs and economic activity – and because of our previous BC Liberal government’s sound fiscal management. However, we fear that under the NDP, B.C.’s momentum will grind to a halt sooner than later, and hard-working British Columbians will suffer the results of the NDP’s poor decision-making.”