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Imagine their fury now that they learn there was money all along. How much, de Jong will reveal later this week in public accounts. He’ll insist he was just being cautious and prudent in his forecasting. Whether anyone believes him — even in his own party — is another story.

The government has been too “hell-bent on balanced budgets” and conservative forecasts while crises brewed on mental health, social programs and housing affordability, said Liberal MLA Darryl Plecas.

“We still have wanted to do these things, in caucus we yell and scream about the need to do more, but it’s always been up against: ‘Yeah, but we will do those things so long as we can afford them’,” said Plecas in an interview.

“I think you need to have a mindset that says figure it out, make it work. And I think right now we’re at that place.”

“We take no risk when it comes to money,” added Plecas, who has pushed internally on mental health funding in particular. “And I think at some point you have to say we’ve got some serious problems here that demand us to take some risk we would not have taken before.

“We don’t have anybody who is more competent than Mike de Jong. He’s outrageously competent as a legislator. But he’s conservative. I don’t want to take away from that, and I know part of why he’s doing it, which is to pay down the debt so we’re debt-free, whereas my argument would be that’s great but maybe we should think about doing that once we’ve had a better attack on all these things.”

Clark acknowledged in an interview with Postmedia News this week that her government was a “bull in a china shop” on jobs and the economy, but should have moved sooner on social reforms.

She didn’t. The resulting throne speech was a mess that has damaged the credibility of Clark, de Jong and the Liberal brand. Now, the recriminations begin.

rshaw@postmedia.com

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