THE BC Liberals alleged on Monday that while the government forges ahead with Premier John Horgan’s billion-dollar vanity museum project, the NDP have frozen construction of new schools, blaming the burden of significant capital costs from 2021’s devastating year of fires and floods.
“This is an appalling decision by John Horgan and the NDP. To spend a billion dollars for a brand-new Royal BC Museum (RBCM) that nobody wanted, while halting construction on already announced schools that parents and teachers were promised is unacceptable,” said BC Liberal Leader Kevin Falcon.
“The fact that John Horgan and the NDP are blaming the school construction freeze on last year’s fires and floods while forging ahead with their billion-dollar boondoggle museum project speaks to just how out of touch they are with British Columbians.”
The BC Liberals said that while under fire from them in Question Period for misplaced priorities regarding the RBCM boondoggle, Horgan boasted last Wednesday that he could have his vanity museum cake and eat it too, stating “The notion that we’re not building schools, the notion that we’re not building hospitals is just not true.”
However, a letter to the Mission School District reveals that the NDP government, now feeling pressure on capital costs, have announced a freeze on school construction, including the $87 million replacement of Mission Secondary School that NDP MLAs Pam Alexis and Bob D’Eith promised to voters in 2020, they added.
“The people of Mission deserve so much better than the disrespect of John Horgan and the NDP, who not only blatantly backtracked on their election promises, but did so while dropping a billion dollars in the Premier’s backyard for a museum that nobody asked for,” said Todd Stone, MLA for Kamloops-South Thompson. “This out-of-touch NDP government must immediately scrap this billion-dollar boondoggle and invest that money in the people of British Columbia who expect sound judgement and a focus on real priorities from their elected representatives.”
MLAs Alexis and D’Eith met with the school district on May 26 to discuss the Mission Secondary School delay and stated they would “advocate strongly for this project and will do everything we can to help it along.” The following Monday, MLA D’Eith proudly pledged his full support for the Premier’s vanity museum project in the Legislature.
