Ministry of Finance and Corporate
Relations
Joy K. MacPhail, Minister
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This electronic version is for
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Budget ’99 increases health-care and education spending, cuts small-business
taxes to encourage investment and create jobs, and supports regional development.
Improving Health Care: more beds, more nurses, shorter waits
- Increased health-care spending eight years in a row, in spite of drastic cuts in federal
transfers.
- Giving patients the surgery they need sooner is the government's top health-care
priority; the budget increases health-care spending $615 million this year.
- 58,000 more surgeries and other procedures this year, a 13-per-cent increase.
- $15 million more for 400 more nurses.
- $21 million for 480 long-term-care hospital beds, to free up acute-care beds.
- Shorter waiting lists for children needing pediatric surgery.
- 5,000 more chemotherapy treatments and 5,000 more radiotherapy treatments to shorten
waiting times.
- Almost 19-per-cent more screening mammograms to check 38,000 more women each year.
- 700 more cardiac procedures.
- 1,000 more knee and hip procedures, a 22-per-cent increase.
- $64 million more Pharmacare spending, a 13.4-per-cent increase.
Cutting Taxes to Help Small Business Create Jobs, Diversify the Economy
- B.C.'s small business tax rate will be cut to 5.5 per cent — lower than Alberta's.
- This cut will leave tax savings of $63 million in the hands of 40,000 small-business
owners so they can grow and diversify B.C.'s economy.
- Corporate Capital Tax threshold will increase to $3.5 million from $2.5 million on
January 1; by 2001, 90 per cent of B.C. businesses will pay no Corporate Capital Tax.
- International jet-fuel tax cut two cents per litre effective April 1, 1999.
- Personal income tax cuts amounting to eight per cent since 1995 have put $385 million
back in the pockets of British Columbians.
- The new business lens on regulation examines the cost of every new government
regulation.
- The liquor regulation review simplifies the liquor licence approval process, supporting
small businesses.
- Third report of the Business Task Force will lead to streamlining more legislation.
- $20-million High-Technology Fund to create new incentives for research and development.
- The Economic Council of Ministers ensures the economy is a priority in all of
government's deliberations.
Strengthening Education and Continuing the Tuition Freeze
- Giving our young people the skills and knowledge they need to succeed in the new
economy.
- Tuition fees are frozen for the fourth year in a row.
- $45 million core education funding increase to help schools meet the needs of their
students.
- Hiring of 300 more teachers to give students more individual attention.
- School construction budget $341 million to build 13 new schools, renovate 103 others,
and retire 560 portables, giving students more room to learn.
- 2,900 new post-secondary spaces including 700 for students in high-technology fields.
- Investing $34.5 million in Youth Options BC to help 17,000 young British Columbians
start their careers.
Regional Economies
- A $10-million strategy for regional community economic development to give people in
local communities the tools and opportunities they need to take charge of their futures.
- Premier's Summits on Economic Opportunity have brought community leaders together in
Prince George, Kamloops and Castlegar to develop strategies to promote regional
diversification.
- Summits will be held this year in the Cariboo and North Island.
Housing Opportunities
- Working with the industry and construction workers to develop new initiatives that will
boost housing construction and create new job opportunities.
- Increasing social housing by 1,200 homes over the next two years.
BUDGET
’99 HOME PAGE
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