VICTORIA, BC – The 2013 British Columbia budget introduced this afternoon shows little movement on climate action or environmental protection with regard to the oil and gas sector. The Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations took a significant hit in the area of “resource stewardship” with funding going down by a third—from over $100 million to approximately $67 million. Additionally, the Live Smart Program appears to have disappeared.

“The environment was largely notable by its absence in the 2013 BC Budget,” said Gwen Barlee, policy director with the Wilderness Committee. “Here we have a government wanting to dramatically ramp up the liquified natural gas (LNG) industry as well as the natural gas sector, but the numbers today show they want to do it on a shoestring budget. They promised us world-class environmental oversight but the reality is that we have lax, inadequate and weak environmental standards in BC, and today’s budget won’t change a thing.”

The government also projected that the number of full time government employees (FTEs) would decrease by four per cent this year, and by an anticipated one per cent the year after. Budget documents no longer provide the FTE numbers for each ministry.

“Given the emphasis on expansion in the resource extraction sector, the stagnation in environmental monitoring is appalling,” remarked Torrance Coste, Vancouver Island Campaigner with the Wilderness Committee. “It’s clear from this budget that there is no priority in having people on the ground to regulate industry.”

The 2013 BC Budget also shows that the government is relinquishing its role as a leader in tackling climate change. The carbon tax, currently at $30 per tonne of CO2, will not increase and large industrial emitters such as natural gas processing plants continue to be exempt from the tax.

“This government seems to have lost its way in terms of taking action on climate change,” said Coste. “This is an issue that needs to be at the forefront of our political discourse, and now the government is continuing to shirk responsibility on climate despite the overwhelming desire of British Columbians that it take action.”

Given the dramatic weakening of federal environmental legislation and the concurrent cuts to the budgets of federal regulatory agencies, the environmental community in BC was looking for the provincial government to step up to the plate and increase the Ministry of Environment's budget to ensure adequate environmental oversight of resource extraction industries in BC.