One of the BC Liberals finance critics says “the devil is in the details” with the NDP’s $1.5 billion surplus last year.

Surrey-White Rock MLA Tracy Redies says any government can balance a budget and create a surplus if it taxes its citizens to death.

“This surplus is being generated on the backs of hard working British Columbia taxpayers and businesses. Taxes went up about 20 percent last year by 4.4 billion dollars, that’s an almost unheard of amount.”

Redies says $950 million of the one-and-a-half-billion-dollar surplus relates to a one-time accounting adjusting for B-C Hydro regulatory accounts.

Meanwhile, the Kamloops North MLA says it’s concerning that $772 million dollars worth of highway projects were deferred last year.

Peter Milobar says the longer the wait, the more the costs are.

“You take the highway project just east of Kamloops, that cost over run on that project alone, would have fully funded then next capital need for the Kamloops and District school district. So, You know it’s not just about how much money the government can spend but are they spending it effectively.”

Milobar told NL it’s the first year in a long time where he can’t remember one construction project up the Highway 5 corridor between Kamloops, Clearwater and beyond.

Finance Minister Carole James says the deferral of that $772 million dollars is because of challenges with construction.