B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen spent Wednesday trying to set the record straight on what they knew about the province's dismal economic picture during the May election.
Despite dwindling resource revenues and a world economy that was crashing, the B.C. government kept telling voters that the spring budget was solid.
"I can tell you this: the deficit for 2009-10 will be $495 million maximum," Premier Gordon Campbell said during the campaign.
But now, Hansen and Campbell admit they were told during the election campaign that revenues were dropping. They never told voters.
"A $200 million dollar drop in revenue sounds like a lot of money, and it is a lot of money, but I knew that was totally manageable in the budget we tabled," Hansen said.
But by election day, May 12, finance officials found things were much worse.
"They realized that revenues were actually down to the tune of $1.1 billion," Hansen said.
Hansen, however, insists he didn't tell anyone about the falling revenues because he believed he could still keep the budget on track.
But he couldn't.
On Tuesday, he tabled a re-written budget with a record $2.8 billion deficit, nearly six times larger than promised.
The opposition went on the attack Wednesday.
"Maybe competency is a bigger question than honesty," said NDP MLA Shane Simpson.
"My question is to the premier: Will he tell the house today, who told him, when was he informed and why did he keep it a secret from the voters of British Columbia?" said NDP leader Carole James.
Campbell responded that "at no time, during the election was I informed by any of our staff that we were not going to be able to achieve our February budget."
Outside the House, Campbell stopped only briefly and was asked if he still has confidence in his finance minister.
"Absolutely," he said.
With a report from CTV British Columbia's Jim Beatty
