I am very disappointed in Falcon, not only is he bargaining in bad faith by publicly detailing negotiations he is being highly disingenuous by highlighting wedge issues to gain public support. Some truths Falcon fails to share is after a decade of repressive tax cuts BC had yet to recoup these loss revenues.
Where did the balanced budget of 1999/2000 go? This is a made by BC Liberal revenue crisis. To expect the cost of these poor tax policies to be the responsibility of the unionized labour market is highly offensive.
It is about political choices and the BC Liberals have been deliberate and intentional in their poor tax policies. Intentionally preventing the prosperity of the unionized labour force.
Unionized labour lifts workers up and maintains a strong middle class…Falcon is not about maintaining a strong middle class.

So that was at slap in the face to the teachers. At least these folks were offered a wage increase. I doubt the Instructors Union in BC is going to bother trying to get a contract with this government too. Their contract was up in April and they have already been forced to take a net zero contract last time. So maybe the unions should just call off all contract negotiations until they see who the next government is.

I am new in this town and the pulp mills are sure making an awful smell the last two days. I don’t know how people that have lived here can deal with that smell from the mills! Someone said to me that maybe it was other pollution and I just laughed and said…people are not burning their fireplaces in the hot weather….what a laugh that was!!!

A three year lul in increases?

WE THE DISABLED HAVE NOT HAD A REAL INCREASE IN OVER TWELVE YEARS!!!!

(We did receive an increase four years ago that equaled a cup of coffee a day, but that was an insult not an increase).

WE have no union, the press refuses to do stories on our plight, no active meaningful agency speaks for us. We are all alone in our pain and poverty. All we have is public opinion and instead of supporting our most vulnerable, we re-elect the same people inflicting hell on the disabled.

Sorry, BCGEU, I understand your plight but where is the help for the disabled?

Union members fight for the rights of their current and former members.

The anti union gang needs to remember that when they come crying about what they don’t have after they campaign to have unions outlawed.

Mine, mine, mine. Where’s my share?

Yours is coming to an end as soon as the tax dollar handout kings are booted from office. Wasn’t ten years of Liberal handouts enough for you?

“Falcon, BCGEU Don’t See Eye to Eye”

And this is surprising? Why?

Sort of like “The sun rose in the east this morning to bring us daylight”

“We are experiencing unpredictable economic circumstances around the world.”

Oh? Do tell! Not prepared for unpredictable things, are we?

Dragon,How is allowing taxpayers to keep more of their money a hand out? Dropping the top tax rate from 54% to 44% was a great move. The dipper tax the rich BS, took affect at 70K, how is that considered rich?

Forget it dow, Dragon is a lost cause. He is a lifetime union member, has probably never been in the private sector, and figures anyone who is not a union brother or sister is evil.

Actually, there are many good unions out there. Ones that tend to stay in the headlines (i.e. government unions, BCTF, etc.) tend to be the biggest PITA’s.

Bad employers create radical unions, if not for those bad employers unions would have disbanded years ago!!

Falcon is negotiating in the press assuming it will bring him public support, what a dorky thing to attempt. The vast majority hold nothing but contempt for his ilk.

Teachers should get pay and benefit increases that maintain their standard of living. If you have to raise corporate and personal income taxes a little so be it. Better than a carbon tax for sweet pea all.

Realist–I hear you, apparently this Liberal government has no empathy for those in your situation! They would rather you live in the streets so they can give tax breaks to their corporate buddies!

Raises or bonuses are OK for CLBC and WorkSafeBC??? This BC Liberal government has no idea what it is doing. Yet there are still people in this Province with their head stuck deeply up their A$$ who support them UNCONDITIONALLY!!!

Ther day after the Dippers get elected they will open the vault doors real wide. Just you wait. Then “Happy Days Are Here Again” Just like the song says.

Jim: “Teachers should get pay and benefit increases that maintain their standard of living.”

Teachers are demanding about $2B in wages, perqs and benefits. I don’t know about you, but I’m taxed out.

Taxed: “Raises or bonuses are OK for CLBC and WorkSafeBC???”

Typical scary line of thinking which leaves everyone broke in the end. “If he or she got it, I demand at least that much if not more.”

Beware of dippers making huge promises with your tax dollars, with no idea how to pay for it.

Jim13135

Thank you for your post. It seemed to me that my post would be ignored and this would yet again prove my point that the public does not care. I am diabetic and after choosing to pay my rent, ran out of food last week. I spent four hours in emergency last Friday after not having anything to eat for four days. The taxpayer spends about a grand in emergency after the Ministry of Social Developement refused my request for $20 for food. I told them I was diabetic and the lack of food was playing havok with my blood sugar. They refused me still, knowing I have no way to get to the food bank or St. Vinney’s. What kind of people can do these things to fellow human beings?

Who is paying for your internet Realist? That otta = a burger or two.

Johnn Belt wrote: “I’m taxed out.”

You know what the City does when it has too many expenses and not enough revenue, don’t you?

It finds new sources of revenue.

We should all take a page out of the City’s “How to Manage a City’s Finances for Dummies” and find new sources of revenue. :-)

Sorry to wreck your hate, NoWay, but the net was a gift from someone else. I have no control over someone elses gifts. The disabled could never afford the net or a computer to use it on but try again to sooth your conscience with another swipe of hate.

If I did not have the net, how would I know just how little my fellow man cares for each other. Thanks for renewing my faith in a hatefull, inhumanne public. You are a Prince amung men.

They could start by quit sabotaging their existing revenues, gus. This government has sabotaged its own revenue stream to a point where with commodity prices at all time highs, the Province is operating on all cylinders and the Province is broke. Before all you right wing/trickle downers start screaming you can’t tax the “job producers”, Even this mentally challenged government has admitted reducing corporate taxes does not turn into a revenue bonanza for the Province, as it has said it may have to raise corporate taxes, cause they are broke.

They could start by quit sabotaging their existing revenues, gus. This government has sabotaged its own revenue stream to a point where with commodity prices at all time highs, the Province is operating on all cylinders and the Province is broke. Before all you right wing/trickle downers start screaming you can’t tax the “job producers”, Even this mentally challenged government has admitted reducing corporate taxes does not turn into a revenue bonanza for the Province, as it has said it may have to raise corporate taxes, cause they are broke.

Taxed..are you aware of any global economic events in the last 5 years? Raise corporate tax rates to NDP levels and watch the BC turd circle the bowl. The basic concept of a functioning economy in a global perspective is lost on you. Sadly it looks likes you need another lesson. If all we needed in this world was highly renumerated public servants, we would never have economic downturns.

There are many countries in the world that operate on a higher corporate tax rate than we do in BC, dow7500. Many of those higher corporate tax countries are doing alot better than Canada and BC,dow7500. Germany for one, a manufacturing economy and Norway for another an oil commodity economy for another. Trying to run an economy based on the USA will get us exactly like the USA, a race to the bottom. The base of any economy is in a strong middle class, having a middle class struggling results in small business struggling. As far as big business in Canada our country is a very political stable country to invest in even with higher wages and taxes than other countries. Having a publicaly educated, universal healthcared workforce, and an oportunity to operate without fear of domestic terrorism as is the case in many commodity based countries, is something our counrty needs not to sell ourselves short on.

The only thing I want to hear from Kevin Falcon is ** I have decided not to run in the next election**

That would be music to my ears. Hopefully he wont, or if he does, hopefully he loses.

As far as the Teachers go they are being looked after quite well in BC. If they did not get any raises, benefits, etc, for the next five years they would still be well off.

As far as Kevin Falcon goes Papopu, I agree! Didn’t know this was a teacher bashing story, kinda thought it was about the BCGEU?

It was only a suggestion Realist no hate involved at all. Maybe the same folks that gifted you the Internet would gift you some food too.

Taxed, Norway is a complete welfar state. They would be in spains shoes if not for north sea oil. I agree, the middle class is very important. But high tax rates, with high public sector wages is not the answer. It works for public servants but not so much for the rest of the economy. We’ve seen the movie before.

My point exactly dow7500, Norway has oil, therefore they raise everyones standard of living off the benefit. Just like Canada has resources only Conservatives think the only ones who should profit from it is the companies who dig, drill, or cut it. In fact they believe this profit system to the point where we as a country can’t get the resource out of the country fast enough, yet our Conservative government collects so little from so much that it is forced to cut to balance the budget.

Its kinda like a giant garage sale where Canada has the best things in the neighborhood to sell off their front yard. While the other neighbors also have a garage sale Canada reduces the prices on everything on the table causing all the garage sale shoppers to buy everything on the Canadian front lawn. In fact it is so busy at the Canada garage sale Canada cannot find enough workers to help pack out the cheap good stuff that all the garage sale shoppers buy. But the next week Canada wants an even bigger garage sale so it comes up with a great plan. Now Canada has reduced the prices on everything on our front lawn that it is almost free, so it goes to the next place to save money and cuts the wages of the garage sale workers. Then at the end of the day when Canada counts its money we find we have no more things to sell and we are still broke. So what does Canada do, well it lays off the workers that helped at the garage sale and cuts any benefits to try and balance because our economy is in the toilet. This is the movie that we are seeing in the US, this is the movie that is playing in Europe, altho in Europe there are indications that reducing corporate taxes and austerity just doesn’t seem to work.

Tell me dow7500 why is it that since Reagan and Thatcher first started this trickle down economics it has been a steady decline? The political spectrum has shifted further to the right even since those two were in power but our worldwide economy is on the brink of disaster? Why then if this system is driving us to poverty would we want more of it? Give me one Conservative government anywhere in the world that because of their policies has become flush with money and doesn’t cut to balance?

Markets set the price at our garage sale. Not us. There are plenty of people, companies, and governments making money off our resources. The issue becomes how much before we are uncompetitve? As we saw with the Liberal NEP of years ago, setting our own price in a global world will have huge negative effects. Europes problem has been caused by bloated expenditures relative to income. Funny you should mention Thatcher. She had the wisdom to see the EU gong show years in advance. She clearly understood economics. You clearly do not.

Name me one socialist government that has spent their way to prosperity. Hugo Chevez?
Castro?

Thats not what I meant dow7500, I meant the price we Canadians charge companies to harvest our resourses. Alberta buckled under and reduced its Royalty?Taxes on oil and gas, while Newfoundland didn’t. The result was they both still sell their product on the market except NFLD retains a much larger Royalty?Taxes. Norway also charges a higher Royalty/taxes than we do and they sell their product as well. I made the point earlier about our society being a better place to invest, it has alot more to do with just a cheap tax rate to be competitive. Your view on economics is very one demensional, there are more than one thing involved.