I haven’t used a food bank, but I can attest that my food dollars are really stretched these days. I take measures I never imagined I would just so that my child and Inhave food to last between pay days. It never used to be this way, so it really is harder to feed two people now adays.

This point to a larger societal problem that the socialist NDP will also be unable to solve as throwing more money at the problem only creates greater dependence. Canadians are becomming less productive than even the Americans, so if we do not improve our productivity and education levels, then we will suffer with a lower standard of living. As far as the dollar stretching as far as it used to, we just have more things to spend it on and our wants will forever exceed the funds available. e.g. how many people now have a big screen TV that they feel is a need or a smart phone where they feel they need to pay $80 for usage. How many still bake bread or make their own soup???

“How many still bake bread or make their own soup???”

Or plant a garden to supplement your meals for at least part of the year.
metalman.

“smart phone where they feel they need to pay $80 for usage”

Heck of a good point!

Maybe there should be some way to have to prove you dont have a smart phone or HD TV before you can use a foodbank.

May sound stupid to some, but I really have high doubts towards some peoples priorities.

My best example? My nephew, bought a new pickup last fall from a local dealer know for “creative” financing. He drives a truck worth twice what mine is, yet I am the one he comes to when he needs to borrow some cash for payments or fuel.

There are those who are in need of the food bank, and there are those who just use the food bank.

This report must be bogus. Christy tells us we have made this biggest increase in jobs in the last year of any province in Canada. 57,000 new jobs. No need for food banks now!

(tongue in cheek)

But if all those people DIDN’T buy that cell phone, or the new pickup, or all the other seemingly non-essential alternatives to spending their income on food, would there then be LESS people everywhere using food banks, or MORE? If the system of production is capable of making all these things, and the food that’s on the shelves in the store and the food bank, which it clearly is, then why is it not capable of also distributing incomes sufficient enough for people to buy them? THINK ABOUT IT! And why, also, we should all work harder, and longer, and become still more productive, when we can’t sell all the goods we’re producing right now at a price that covers their costs. Is making still MORE goods again going to solve anything?

“”Canadians are becomming less productive than even the Americans, so if we do not improve our productivity and education levels, then we will suffer with a lower standard of living””

It’s more likely that Canadian families are being taxed and billed to death….leaving less disposable income for them to spend on necessities. Carbon tax, surcharges, HST, inflated fuel prices..10%+ hydro rate increases…with no pay increases all equal a lower standard of living. NetZero is what our Liberal government wants to call it.

I bake my own bread (not with a bread maker either) and my own soup. I also cut my own steaks and make my own hamburger, cut my own chicken up, and grow veggies.

Also, how are people supposed to get more education when people can barely afford to eat?! Catch 22. Education and food are not free. You want a more educated populace, you need to have accessible education. Being saddled with even $10,000 in debt when you graduate is hard on those already struggling.

As long as govt continue to pander to corporations, the difference between wealth and poverty will continue to grow. There is more than enough wealth, food, energy, water, etc etc to go around. The problem is, too few people control too much of the wealth. Dont expect your govt (ndp or liberal) to change that. Revolution will be the only solution when the people get hungry and cold enough.

I agree with Nao, Jim1315. This is a biggar problem than most people realize.

Fact of the matter is people on low income jobs, and fixed pensions are facing a crunch.

The strange thing is that part of the taxes they do pay goes to pay for the huge salaries and benefits of Government entities such as BC Hydro, BC Ferries, Government MLA’s and of course the 26000 or more Government workers. This does not include all the Police, Fire Departments, Municipal Employees’s,etc; These people have good wages, salaries, and benefits, and would not need a **food bank**

How can people on limited incomes be expected to continue to pay rising costs every year. Such as gas, fuel, hydro, car insurance, groceries, house taxes, etc; etc;.

Thats the real problem. No one in charge of this Province.

When bills like BC Hydro go up to the extent that it has… that money has to come from somewhere, in my house it’s had to come from my grocery budget, so ya, my cupboard gets pretty sparce between pay days. I’m a full time single parent with three kids. No support. So, one income household. Maybe the government should take a look at the cost of some of our necessities. ie. Hydro, which holds the monopoly, I can’t threaten to take my business elsewhere if they don’t lower my rate.

Hydro and some of its employee’s live **high** off the hog. Some of the wages and benefits these people get are unbeleivable.

As an example Powerex which is a subsiduary of BC Hydro has the top five highest paid civil servants in BC. Seems to me that they get paid over $500,000.00 per year, plus benefits. You wont see these people complaining about the cost of living.,

Hydro is just the tip of the iceburg. We are being ripped off by the huge cost of Government, and Government entities, and thats where the money goes.

Take the stats for what they are worth! BC has the most generous programs for low income and welfare recipients. Add in the fact that the weather is better in the lower mainland than much of Canada,and you will find that lots were not BC residents to start! They have relocated to BC because we are easy marks!

I always get a “twang” of pain behind my eyeballs when I hear of some retired person complain about their “fixed income”.

We all have a fixed income. I can only work a fixed number of hours for a fixed rate. On a monthly basis, this is my fixed income.

If you did not meet your retirement needs, why should I have to pick up the slack for you?

Especially when they went through the most prosperous times we have ever known!

PaysHisOwnWay. It would be a frosty Friday before I would let you or cougs78 pay any of my costs.

You guys/gals as usual dont know what the hell you are talking about.

I dont have any problem paying my taxes, or with my pension. However that does not mean that there is not a problem out there.
Its people like you who dont understand the fundamentals of life that make it more difficult to get things changed..

The average wage in Prince George is $40,000.00 per year. That means that a hell of a lot of people are earning less than $40,000.00. When you have Government entities such as Hydro, ICBC, BC Transit, BC Ferries, and the Provincial Government squeezing you for every cent they can, and business’s and oil companies squeezing you also, then you have a serious problem,
especially if your income or pensions are not increasing.

Its about time people in this Province faced facts.

The biggest receiver of welfare in BC are Government employee’s, politicians, and those who earn their living by working (or attempting to work) for Government entities.

All these people are paid in tax dollars, the very same as people on Welfare. One could argue that you get some value for your money from a Government worker, however one could also argue that 50% of Government workers are free riders. It all depends on your understanding of the meaning of the word **work**

So lets not sit in our pious pulpits and pass judgement on those who are feeling the pinch. They are feeling the pinch because of the greed of the high income, Goverment Workers, Union protected jobs, and business’s that grinds its employee’s.

Half the so called business’s in Prince George would go broke if they had to pay a decent wage to their employee’s. The fact of the matter is, they are only in business’s because of cheap labour. Not because they have a brain for business. In fact for some I would seriously doubt if they had a brain at all.

Businesses are needed for the jobs, unfortunately not all jobs provide a decent wage that can support a family. Lots of businesses face the same challenges as many individuals….high rents, ever increasing and costly regulatory requirements, and sky rocketing insurance and utility bills !!

I don’t think it’s fair to blame businesses, or business owners, for the plight of low income families and those struggling on fixed incomes.

In a prosperous country such as ours, it’s important to realize that not all people produce during their entire lifetime. Infants certainly do not and cannot produce. The elderly or incapacitated do not or are unable to produce. The unemployed while not working do not produce. And then, there is that large segment of society which depends entirely on government support. These people are not producers either. Although we are not all producers, we are all consumers.

So, just who is supposed to foot the bills for all of the consumers who are not producers? It appears to me that there are more and more people on the receiving end than on the producing end. This is why the contest is so close between Obama and Romney. Obama and his supporters on the receiving end want government to provide everything. You can imagine what the producers are thinking?

I blame the Government for allowing entities like Hydro, ICBC, BC Transit, BC Ferries, and others to bleed us dry.

The Government syphons off money from these entities which goes into general revenue and then disapears into the sunset.

The Government taxes us on fuel under the guise that higher prices will reduce the consumption of fuel. What a crock. The consumption of fuel has been reduced all across Canada in all Provinces in the past few years. Our Government states that the reduction in fuel consumption is because of their carbon tax, and therefore voted at their convention last week, to keep it in force. The other Provinces had reduced fuel consumption with no carbon tax.

The carbon tax has nothing to do with fuel consumption. It is just a low life ploy to increase taxes. Vintage Liberal Government con game, much like the HST. The problem is that higher fuel converts into higher transportation costs, which means higher food costs. This is where the consumer gets it in the ear. Increased cost of services, and increased taxes, federal, provincial, and municipal, without any understanding or care, as to how these increases will effect the citizens of the Province.

In other words a different form of **taxation without representation**.

If you dont think that this situation is serious to-day. Then wait and see how serious it will be when interest rates rise, and people can no longer afford to make their house payments. Then what??

My point about business owners is that if these low income workers were able to get organized, and demand the wages and benefits that are presently paid to pulp mill workers, school teachers, forestry workers, or government workers, most smaller businee’s would go broke or go out of business’s. I agree that business’s have problems. But again these problems are for the most part caused by Government.

For those people who are fortunate enough to have a good job, with good benefits, count your blessings. Dont fall into the trap of thinking that you have the job because you are brighter than most. For most people they get the cushy jobs because they were connected.