The Canadian Press

Finance Minister Colin Hansen says British Columbia received an Olympic-sized confidence boost hosting the 2010 Winter Games, but it will be at least three years before the province owns the economic podium.

For now, Hansen said Tuesday, British Columbia still owes on the podium, with consecutive deficit budgets until 2013 and rising debt.

“The road to economic recovery will also take some time to travel but with prudent planning and careful management, we will get there,” Hansen said in his budget speech. “We still have work to do. We won’t get there overnight.”

The budget makes no mention of continuing funding of the federal-provincial Own the Podium program, which has been credited with helping Canada win a record 14 gold medals at the recently completed Vancouver Games.

The B.C. government contributed $55 million in 2004 to a $110 million Games Operating Trust Fund, which included Own the Podium.

The $117-million Own the Podium program was launched in 2005 and was a partnership between the federal government, the provinces, Vancouver Olympic organizers and corporate sponsors.

With the Olympics done, the program has lapsed and the federal government has not committed any further funding beyond what it had been contributing.

There is no mention of the program in Tuesday’s B.C. budget.

On Monday, Campbell said “I can tell you I’ve talked with other provincial premiers. They too believe we should be supporting them (athletes) with the Own the Podium program in partnership with the federal government.”

But on Tuesday, a government official who declined to be named said B.C.’s continued participation in the program will depend on the province’s finances and the federal government’s commitment to it.

The federal government will deliver its budget Thursday.

The B.C. budget forecasts a deficit of $1.7 billion, an improvement from the $2.8-billion deficit from an updated forecast last September, following a B.C. election that saw Premier Gordon Campbell’s Liberals re-elected to a third consecutive mandate.

The provincial debt is forecast to rise to $47.7 billion, from $41.3 billion this year and the debt will top $55.8 billion by the 2012/2013 budget year.

Hansen said British Columbia did not escape the world economic meltdown as provincial revenues — especially in natural resources and taxes — plummeted by almost $3 billion.

But those revenues are expected to recover over the next three years, with British Columbia forecasting economic growth of 2.2% this year, rising to 2.7% in 2012.

“Clearly, if we want to get back to balanced budgets, we have to rein in overall spending,” said Hansen.

The budget forecasts expenses of $40.6 billion, up from $39.7 billion in the current fiscal year. The forecast predicts expenses of $42.5 billion in 2012/13.

The record $2.8 billion deficit this year forced the government to amend its own law that made running deficits illegal.

Business groups called the budget a solid guide for rocky economic times, while environmentalists, seniors and union leaders said it represented a missed opportunity to help the environment and ordinary British Columbians.

Matt Horne, spokesman for the Pembina Institute, said the government’s decision to invest in the oil and gas industry contradicts their goal of cutting greenhouse gas emissions by one-third by 2020.

“On balance, much of the lion’s share of the government’s clean-energy investment goes to energy technologies of the past,” he said.

Barry O’Neill, of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said Hansen’s budget pledge to hold public sector workers to zero-increase contracts will hurt families and communities across the province.

But Bernard Magnan, Vancouver Board of Trade chief economist, said the government’s Olympic adventure and its budget shows a province prepared to take on the future, but with a sense of control.

“We have to make sure we use the lever of the Olympics to improve B.C.’s economy going into the future,” he said. “The real benefit is going to be down the road, in increased tourism, potentially increased investment in the province.”

Hansen said the B.C. budget shows few signs of a Games financial hangover, but the Liberals will try to make do with less as resource ministries like forests and energy have their budgets cut by more than $300 million.

Campbell said the Olympics provide British Columbia with an opportunity to stimulate the economy.

“That’s why it’s so important that we actually get this economy moving, and we get the prosperity that we hope will come as we launch out of the Olympics,” he said. “Frankly, we’ve had literally dozens and dozens of enterprises and investors saying they’re ready to come to British Columbia.”

@page_break@Opposition New Democrat Leader Carole James said the budget does not include a viable plan to capitalize on Olympic economic opportunities.

“It’s very concerning,” she said. “Coming out of the Olympics, I really expected that the government would have a strategy in place and would be able to address the challenges we face.”

James said she would run a deficit past three years to allow the economy more time to gain strength.

The province is banking on growth in the oil and gas and mining sectors.

The finance minister said the Liberals plan to use revenues from the unpopular Harmonized Sales Tax, set to become law in July, to fund rising health-care costs, but that still isn’t enough.

The government did not raise individual or business taxes, but Medical Service Premiums, increased last year, are going up again for individuals and families. Individuals will pay $3.50 more while the premiums rise $7 per family.

Hansen said the Liberals are adding $2 billion to health care over three years.

But B.C. New Democrat finance critic Bruce Ralston said the Liberal government should “get a gold medal for distortion” for trying to use the HST to fund health care.

“British Columbians expect a government who will invest in our people. It just goes to show you how out of touch the B.C. Liberals are with ordinary British Columbians,” Ralston said in the legislature.

Hansen said the government is offering rural homeowners a $200 benefit above the current homeowner grant and British Columbians with children have the opportunity to defer their property taxes.

Hansen said the government will increase per-pupil funding by $100 to $8,300 and put $150 million in the budget for teacher wages.

School districts and teachers spent the past year saying many schools didn’t have enough money to repair leaky roofs or heat their buildings.