• Budget 2010 released –Budget 2010 commits $2 billion to Health care, the big winner, and $100 million to climate action and clean-energy development. The Ministry of Finance forecasts the economy to grow by 2.2 per cent in 2010, up from 1.9 per cent projected in September 2009 update. The total provincial debt is forecast to be $47.8 billion in 2010-11. The deficit will be $1.7 billion in 2010-11, $945 million in 2011-12, and $145 million in 2012-13, returning to balanced budgets by 2013-14.

• PM & Premier announced 15 new projects - Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Gordon Campbell announced support for fifteen new infrastructure projects across British Columbia to improve highways, local roads and bridges throughout the province. The federal government will invest more than $17 million in federal funding under the $4-billion Infrastructure Stimulus Fund. 

• HST report purported to create jobs and investment – Finance Minister Colin Hanson announced that sales tax harmonization and corporate tax cuts will increase capital investment by $14.4 billion and result in a net increase of 141,000 jobs by the end of the coming decade according to a new report by Jack Mintz. 

• Community Health Employees ratify agreement – The B.C. government ratified an agreement with community health employees on a new two-year contract, covering approximately 17,000 unionized workers primarily represented by the BC Government and Service Employees’ Union. The agreement includes no net compensation increases.

• New Chief Judge Appointed - Attorney General Michael de Jong appointed Judge Thomas James Crabtree as chief judge of the British Columbia Provincial Court. Crabtree is currently a judge in the South Fraser district, based in Chilliwack.

For the full report download the PDF here.