Premier Gordon Campbell said Monday he's hopeful he can stick to the numbers in his February budget, but refused to repeat his election-campaign promise that the deficit will remain at or below $495 million.
"When the facts change you have to be willing to look at the facts," he said, not elaborating on exactly what has changed.
Campbell made the comment Monday as Liberal and New Democratic Party MLAs were sworn in. The premier also announced the government will return to the legislature on Aug. 25, and introduce a new budget on Sept. 1.
"We are striving to accomplish the budget that we laid out in February 2009. There's a lot of work to do between now and Sept. 1 when that [new] budget is tabled, but we're still striving to do that," said Campbell.
The premier said he'll be naming his new cabinet on Wednesday, and warned that its members will be pushed to streamline their ministries to help keep within the planned $495-million deficit for the current fiscal year.
"We're obviously living in a very volatile time, but we've set a very strategic and difficult challenge for ourselves in [the budget last February]," Campbell said, pointing to a plan to cut $1.9 billion in administrative and other costs over three years.
"I don't want anyone here to underestimate the challenges of finding the $1.9 billion of savings that were estimated in February."
Of the $1.9 billion in planned reductions, $589 million are slated to happen this fiscal year.
Campbell said bureaucrats have been working over the past five months to determine exactly where the reductions can happen, but it falls to the new cabinet to finalize all the decisions.
"It is now time for the political leadership of the new cabinet to go and to look at their ministries and to see how they can maximize the benefits," he said, suggesting he will be pushing ministers to get creative to meet the targets.
"Some of the easy solutions that people have come up with are not what we're looking for," he added. "We're searching for smart solutions that will work in the long term."
During the election campaign, the premier repeatedly stated: "I can tell you this: the deficit for 2009-10 will be $495 million, maximum."
On Monday, NDP leader Carole James said she thinks Campbell may not have been upfront during the election, and urged him to release a fiscal update now instead of waiting until the end of the summer.
"I think it's ridiculous that we're waiting until the end of August to find out what the state of the finances are in British Columbia," she said.
"It's time for him to come clean, for the premier to tell British Columbians what's the real economic situation in this province and what's their plan to address it."
Finance Minister Colin Hansen said in late May it is too early to forecast exactly how much of a deficit the province will run. He said the government is still targeting the $495-million figure, but backed significantly away from offering the same iron-clad guarantee.
He did say that $495 million or less "is still our objective."
Also in late May, some economic forecasters were predicting the 2009 B.C. deficit could be up to four times larger than the government had stated.
Meanwhile, Campbell said little Monday about the cabinet he'll be appointing later in the week.
Only two members of his previous cabinet -- Wally Oppal and Tom Christensen -- are not returning as MLAs, and John van Dongen stepped down as solicitor-general during the campaign, meaning there are effectively three vacancies at the former cabinet table.
Campbell said his goal is to "bring in some of the new blood and the new ideas forward into our government."
He said choosing a new cabinet is " the single most difficult challenge you face as a premier.
"Everybody in that caucus has worked very hard to get us to the point we are. They all, I imagine, would like to be in cabinet and obviously all of them won't be able to be in cabinet."
http://www2.canada.com/vancouversun/...47&k=53331&p=2 
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