Education Promises from Dix
Thursday, April 18, 2013 @ 11:18 AM
Prince George, B.C.- Day 3 of the campaign has the NDP leader, Adrian Dix promising to invest $100-million to improve classroom learning conditions.
Dix has also announced $60 million to provide more spaces and lower the cost of infant and toddler care. Families with children in licensed care will save an average of $2,000 per year.
In addition, an NDP government will create an Early Years Innovation Fund, using the BC Liberals’ education savings contribution scheme.
The costs for the announcements today are $87 million in 2013-14, $122 million in 2014-15, and $163 million in 2015-16. According to the NDP the total new spending announced to date in the NDP platform is $174 million in 2013-14, $294 million in 2014-15, and $389 million in 2015-16.
Meantime, Liberal leader Christy Clark has started the day in the Peace region, where she is reiterating the importance of the natural gas sector in B.C.’s economy. The Liberals have set a goal of having at least three LNG facilities on line by 2020. She will be in Prince George later this afternoon.
The BC Conservatives have announced that if elected, they would end the government subsidy to the BC Pavilion Corporation (PavCo), the organization that operates BC Place and the Vancouver Convention Centre, and PavCo will be restructured to be self-sustaining.
BC Conservative leader John Cummins says his team would sell the naming rights to BC Place stadium and use the revenue to replace the government subsidy for PavCo. PavCo would be instructed to be self-sustaining by Fall 2016.
Comments
The gates just opened and here we are with more fluffy promises and a higher tax burden promised by the Never Done Party. I wouldn’t trust anything Dix says, hence I won’t be voting for them. The Liberals have screwed up, yes but the NPD is rank with costly screw ups during there stay in office. It’s time we look for a party that shuts up and listens to the people of the province. Maybe we need something completely new. I for one would like to see a people driven party, enough of big business, oil company, gas company and private interest groups getting there say. Mr. Dix and the NPD once a liar always a liar.
Adrian Dix is promising the moon but negects to tell the people of BC just exactly where he plans to get the money to fulfill his promises. Okay everyone, where do YOU think the money will come from? Get ready, if the NDP are elected, we had all better be prepared for Dix and the NDP to have their hands in our back pockets. Higher taxes guaranteed!
The NDP in Manitoba have just announced the PST will increase to 8% in their province…will BC be far behind.
Three LNG facilities on line by 2020. What a crock.
On line to where??? Who is going to purchase this gas??? Who has the contracts?? Who is building the ships to move this gas to market?? When will the pipelines be built??
I doubt if they have any answers to these questions. Pure unadulterated BS.
Is that the best the NDP can come up with??
Those numbers pale in comparison to the spending pattern of the BC Liberals over the last few years. One cost overrun on a project exceeded $500 million and we are supposed to be concerned that this is an indication of the NDP going spend crazy??
I think it shows they are being very prudent.
Palopu FYI: LNG contracts are pending with Japan as a major interest in BC LNG. Some funding could be provided by Japan for it’s export from BC.
Helps to read more than Opinion250 from time to time.
Professional, might I just point out a couple little fibs the Liberals gave us: “We will never sell sell BC Rail” or “HST isn’t even on the radar”.
“The Liberals have screwed up”? That’s like saying the ocean is damp!
To answer the question from Northern Gal as to where the NDP is going to get the money from, the answer is from a program already announced by the Liberals. Obviously she did not understand what the word “repurpose” means. It means taking something already existing (funding for an already announced program in this case) and using it for a different purpose. That means there is no increase, just spending the same amount for a different purpose.
To make it clear, if the money is decried when spent by the NDP it must also be decried when it is spent by the Liberals. It is the same money!
True Professional, Japan has said it may help fund LNG projects. My understanding is that this will be to Japanese companies, not to companies in BC. Japan is helping their own to do business in Japan not in Canada.
As you say, it helps to read more than Opinion250.
I predict the voter turnout will be one of the lowest ever ! We do need another alternative in this province…..the present parties have proven time and time again they are not worthy, all at taxpayers expense !
Translation: Teachers will be getting more money and even more vacation days.
That will somehow magically improve classroom learning conditions.
axman….that is superior to “wealthy Indian movie moguls get $25 million dollar handout”
axman can complain about teachers if he wants. He’s never been to one.
Short version: More highly paid government employees.
The Japanese presently get most of their natural gas from New Zealand and Papua New Guina. So unless there as a huge increase in the demand I doubt if they will be changing suppliers. BC is not the only Country that has a surplus of Natural Gas.
In addition, where will the power come from to run these LNG Plants. Are we going to build natural gas electric generating plants in Kitimat.?? We surely will not be getting a power from Site C as it will not be off the drawing board by 2010.
Soooooo. Lots of questions, very few answers. If we keep in mind that all this horse manure is being thrown out just before an election, we should be able to determine with some degree of accuracy, that most of it is hyperbole.
Have a nice day.
Should read by 2020, not 2010,.
The NDP Education Platform can be downloaded here: http://www.bcndp.ca/files/Platform_Rollout-Education.pdf. It says that the increased education spending is for hiring more teachers, teacher’s assistants, librarians and so forth.
Posted by: PGguy1234 on April 18 2013 1:04 PM
axman can complain about teachers if he wants. He’s never been to one.
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Ah yes, pathetic insults; the definitive forte of the highly educated.
Palopu
The NDP will carry on with LNG plans as well. South Korea has shipos built waiting for the gas already. It is already sold
Palopu, are you an expert in the field of oil and gas and what the landscape will look like in 2020, or are you just spewing ‘unadulturated BS’?
“Time to wake up and smell the roses”.
Oh yeah, hold onto your wallets everyone. The NDP will be looking at them closely over the next while.
JB. Not much point in this pensioner hanging on to his wallet. The Libs have already emptied it.
“All of us learn to write in the second grade. Most of us go on to greater things.” –
Bobby Knight
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I propose a challenge – for one day of this election campaign, posters to News250 stories restrict their postings to positive, supported comments of politicians’ statements or constructive, informed alternatives stated in the affirmative.
Posted by: PGguy1234 on April 18 2013 1:04 PM
axman can complain about teachers if he wants. He’s never been to one.
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Ah yes, pathetic insults; the definitive forte of the highly educated.
Touche’
“I propose a challenge – for one day of this election campaign, posters to News250 stories restrict their postings to positive, supported comments of politicians’ statements or constructive, informed alternatives stated in the affirmative”
You lost most people at “informed” ;)
Libs screwed up hydro, sold BC Rail were 35 billion more in the hole good money managers dont think so time to go. They had 12 years and what did they really do? spend, spend, spend great
Did anyone see Dix on CTV news? What an asshole!!!
interceptor, thanks for the feedback .. it may be that I lost them at “positive” :-(
Northman, please read Axman’s comment about insults, then look in a mirror!
“Three LNG facilities on line by 2020. What a crock. On line to where??? Who is going to purchase this gas???”
Just about everybody. In the US they are converting their trucking fleets to burning LNG. I wish CN would convert their engines to burn LNG rather than diesel – it sure would improve the air quality in the bowl area!
“It means taking something already existing (funding for an already announced program in this case) and using it for a different purpose.”
Like Harcourt did with the money scheduled for building highways in B.C. – he reduced the highways budget from a billion to one-tenth and spent the money elsewhere! Where is still a mystery.
Amornna.. It wasn’t an insult its a fact!
why shouldnt the teachers get a raise . They work 8.5 to 9 months a year for 70k plus medical , dental and pension. Who would work under such conditions.
I just hope Dix doesn’t forget about the poor teachers as he promises every other cause in BC endless amounts of money. I still can’t forget the mess they left BC in last time they were in.
Huh?……and this Liberal mess will be any better!
1) It amazes me how little some people know about the state of government finances under the BCLiberals. First, is the myth of balanced budgets. Christy Clark and her cohort have raided BCHydro for $2.2 billion dollars by using deferred expense accounting. That is where you take $2.2 billion dollars of expenses and push them into the future. Like they never existed in the years they occurred. Then declare a big surplus – profit (when in fact there was none). Then you raid that “fake surplus” from BCHydro and use it to “balance” your budget. What do you have, a “fake balanced budget” – oh looks good to the ordinary citizen but in reality was a deficit budget – and pushed the debt from the visible government accounts to the hidden BCHydro accounts. Then do the same with ICBC. The end result is you are indebting crown corps into bankrupcy and/or you are taxing the people of BC in the most devious way, as rates will have to rise to pay for the money stolen from those crown corps. A nice practice of smoke and mirrors balanced budgets.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2011/10/27/bc-hydro-deferral-accounting-doyle.html
2) Christy Clark campaigns on reducing the debt and good fiscal management, yet has a plan that will double the debt under her premiership. Let me repeat that. DOUBLED THE DEBT.
http://www.vancouversun.com/news/bc-election/Vaughn+Palmer+road+debt+free+Clark+piles+ever+more+debt/8246543/story.html
3) The proposed NDP education plan released by Dix does not put more money in the hands of teachers, it puts more educators at the hands of students. It puts educational resources (teachers, librarians, educational assistants, counselors, special education teachers, and specialized classroom assistants) into an education system that has been gutted by the BCLiberals. It returns the supports that at risk students need to be successful. For 12 years, over a decade, it has been “all about the money” under the BCLiberals, rather than “all about a good education for all students of British Columbia”.
The BCLiberals have mismanaged the provincial finances long enough and short changed a generation of students.
CBC is running a great series during the election called Reality Check. I encourage all to read them. The latest is on Partisan Advertising by the BCLiberals leading up to the election. See what their investigation uncovered at
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/04/17/bc-reality-check-ads.html
Have a great day.
Posted by: omgreally? on April 18 2013 8:39 PM
why shouldnt the teachers get a raise . They work 8.5 to 9 months a year for 70k plus medical , dental and pension. Who would work under such conditions.
Why shouldn’t they be paid. We expect them to go to university and get degrees and then make 70G a year. Spend less time in school, get a college degree in power engineering in half the time, make 150G a year and to hell with your kids. Society’s success or failure is directly attributed to it’s education system.
Only having to pay 70G a year for an employee with a university degree is criminal. My daughter wants to be a teacher. I think she’s nuts. Listen to a bunch of half wits expounding ridiculous comments like yours.
If ou have kids in school, do you think we should open the schools year round.
Go back to school.
What planet are you from where 70 thousand a year isnt a lot of money for only working nine months a year?
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