The bright sky over the Westwood Plateau Golf & Country Club was in stark contrast to the message brought by Premier Christy Clark during a stop in the Tri-Cities Tuesday.

Clark told a packed room of Tri-Cities Chamber of Commerce members gathered for a luncheon at the golf club her government is determined to balance the budget in 2013.

However, she made it clear tough choices are on the horizon to get to that balance.

"I want to give you the heads up," Clark told the crowd.

"It won't be pretty." Today (Wednesday), B.C.'s finance minister is releasing the province's quarterly financial report.

Though the premier didn't divulge the details of the report, she noted due to global economic uncertainty, commodity revenues are down this year.

Clark stressed the last quarter has been a difficult one for the province, making it a hard task to balance the budget.

"Nonetheless, we're going to do it," she said, noting her government's plan to stick to the balanced budget law.

Clark also told the chamber crowd her government has no plans to cut spending on health care and education, but would do what it takes to get the books out of the red.

"We cannot borrow now and leave the debt for our kids and grandkids to pay off," she said in a nearly hour-long speech. "We have to control our spending."

The premier's appearance was billed as an "important speech" in a media release sent out Monday.

Clark noted the province paid down $1.2 billion on its debt in 2012, which works out to about $400 for the average family in B.C.

She also defended her own government's record when questioned about millions of dollars being spent on advertising, including $15 million to promote the BC Jobs Plan.

Clark argued people depend on consumer confidence in order for businesses to continue to function, adding the ads are intended to help B.C. residents understand they can have confidence in the economy compared to people in other places.

But PoCo NDP MLA Mike Farnworth, who was also listening to the speech, wasn't buying her argument. He said cutting the Jobs Plan ads would be an easy choice to prove fiscal discipline.

"I think it was a bit of a start to beat the drums in the run-up to the election and there was nothing new in what we heard today," Farnworth told The NOW.

As for a balanced budget, Farnworth said every government wants to balance the books, but wouldn't say if the NDP would commit to meeting the budget law.

jdeutsch@thenownews.com

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