VANCOUVER (NEWS1130) – The Canadian Taxpayers Federation feels it has the blueprint for a balanced provincial budget next year.

Jordan Bateman with the CTF’s BC Division says it’s time for a Debt Reduction Act and an open discussion on privatizing ICBC and BC Liquor Stores. He’d also like to freeze a program you may not know about — the Childhood Education Fund.

“What it did was put $1,000 aside for every child born after 2007 in BC, with the idea that when they went into post secondary education starting in 2025, they could get that $1,000 back plus whatever interest had grown on it,” he explains.

Bateman says the account is now at $285 million. “Use the $20 million interest and the $40 million contribution now and take care of the kids today and not have stuff put aside for the future.”

He says their recommendations to the province are based on a book called Chronic Condition by Jeffrey Simpson.

“Simpson writes a lot about how hospitals have become the focal point for healthcare, but it’s the bottleneck at the other end of the hospital. It’s not the emergency rooms that are causing us the problems. It’s long term care beds — taking care of our sick and elderly.”

Bateman believes that’s how you end with overcrowded ER’s. He believes with health costs increasing four to six per cent every year, it’s time to find ways to spend money more efficiently and listen to the doctors in the system who are facing this day after day.