VICTORIA — New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix said Thursday he will repeal the province’s balanced budget law if he forms the next government.

“It’s better to not have a law than have a law that you change and give yourself a loophole every time it gets in your way,” Dix told reporters after a speech to the Union of British Columbia Municipalities in Victoria.

“Let’s be realistic. Let’s have a more honest debate about this,” he continued, pointing out that despite the law’s requirement to balance each year, the government has run deficit budgets since 2009.

“What you’d know if you look at the history of budgets over a long period of time, (is) that when revenues drop, it’s impossible to cut spending to meet those revenues,” he said.

“Let’s balance budgets and acknowledge that when revenues drop it’s going to be very difficult to do.”

Dix said he believes in a need to balance the province’s books, but said the Liberal government’s record has shown the law to be highly problematic.

“We’ve seen this over the past four years. It’s kind of a Monty Python sketch — we have a balanced budget law and we never balance the budget,” he said.

“Every time they run into a problem, they change the law and give themselves an exemption. We haven’t had a balanced budget in this term.”

The B.C. Liberals passed the Balanced Budget and Ministerial Accountability Act after taking office in 2001, outlawing provincial deficits beginning in 2004/05.

But the government has given itself repeated exemptions from that law starting in 2009.

Finance Minister Mike de Jong responded Thursday by acknowledging the balanced budget law is an “imperfect instrument” but saying it remains a valuable tool nonetheless.

“I believe you show respect for taxpayers by making the tough decisions not to spend more than they’re sending you,” he told reporters.

“The principle … that you table a balanced budget and anything other than that requires a specific permission from parliament is, I would suggest, a pretty good starting point in terms of conveying your respect for the taxpayer,” he continued.

“Even before being in a position to potentially govern, Mr. Dix and the NDP are saying those rudimentary rules of not spending more than you take in shouldn’t apply to an NDP government. I think it’s troubling.”

In his speech to the UBCM, Dix also promised to give municipalities greater powers on a variety of issues.

“I think local governments should decide, not by dictate from Victoria, whether they use P3’s (public private partnerships) on a project in their community,” he said.

“I think local government’s role on the TransLink board should be fully restored,” he added.

Dix also said he thinks local governments should have a role in the creation of mountain resorts, such as the proposed, and controversial, Jumbo Glacier Resort in the East Kootenay.

Dix also called for the government to reverse the changes it has made at Tourism B.C.

“I think we need to restore at Tourism B.C. an industry-led independent agency that is formula funded, that can plan for the future and that can reflect communities,” he said.

“I think the centralization of that agency has taken away power from the communities and the ability to plan and every single community in the province has an interest in promoting our tourism better.”

Dix also reiterated his call for a more positive and civilized tone in politics, adding he thinks B.C.’s two main parties agree on more than they’d like to admit.

“It comes down to division without difference. We have differences on issues, and that’s the democratic debate, but sometimes the approach is more like comparing Coke to Pepsi,” he said.

“We need, in difficult times, a better debate,” he added, criticizing Premier Christy Clark for cancelling the fall session of the B.C. Legislature.

“I think such things (cancelling the session) increase the cynicism about our politics, and we can‘t really afford that at this time.”

Reacting to Dix’s speech, de Jong said Dix failed to outline what he plans to do to grow the province’s economy, something he said is central to the future of B.C.

“I didn’t hear anything coming close to a vision for the economic future of this province,” said de Jong.

Clark is scheduled to speak at the UBCM on Friday morning.

jfowlie@vancouversun.com