Read this editorial from Vancouver Sun columnist Craig McInnes commenting on the BC Liberal response to budgetary drain of plummeting natural gas prices, unveiled by new Energy Minister Mike De Jong this week. (Sept. 13, 2012)

The biggest issue, however, is that the budget is suffering from gas pains, or more precisely, the foul effect of the continuing decline in the price of natural gas. The low price means the province is looking at a $1.1-billion decline in the revenue it expected from natural gas over this year and the next two.

The decline this year has blown a $241-million hole in this year’s budget that de Jong says will now be “managed” by lining up the usual suspects. There will be a clampdown on travel and other so-called discretionary spending; a freeze on management salaries in government, crown corporations, colleges, universities and health authorities and a hiring freeze in government.

In all, fairly routine measures taken by governments with underperforming revenues. In other circumstances, the final announcement — that the bargaining mandate for negotiations with public servants is being given another look — might be considered just as routine, but not in an election year with an unpopular government in a desperate search for a winning issue against a party that is naturally aligned with unions.

On the day when members of the B.C. Government and Service Employees union were finalizing a ban on overtime as an escalation of their job action, de Jong said in his best tough-love manner, that while the government wants to show how much it values public servants, it can’t do it in the form of a big raise.

The government had been offering 3.5 per cent over two years but took that offer off the table when the BCGEU held its first job actions.

The union, which hasn’t had an increase in more than three years, was asking for 3.5 per cent in one year with cost of living adjustment in the second.

The premier has already put the union’s demands in the context of positioning the Liberals for the provincial election in May.

“A lot of middle-class families are struggling to make ends meet,” Clark said on a video released in June.

“And I want to be sure that the wages and benefits for unionized government employees aren’t out of step with people in the private sector.”

De Jong continued in that vein, arguing that one of the things he hopes differentiates the Liberals and the NDP is their willingness to make the tough decisions needed to keep the province’s finances on track.