Tele-Townhall Wraps
Prince George,. B.C.- Debt reduction child poverty, stumpage, and revenue sharing, all issues that surfaced in this evening’s tele-townhall session with Provincial Minister of Finance Mike deJong.
Callers from Prince George, Quesnel, 100 Mile House and Fort St. John, posed questions for the Minister during the session that is part of the Budget 2014 consultation process.
A woman from Fort St. John called for the province to spend more on road upgrades in her region, pointing out the region is providing a significant revenue stream for the Province, but is reaping little of the benefits.
A woman from Prince George wanted to know what could be done to reduce child poverty. While noting child poverty rates in B.C. are dropping, deJong turned things around, asking what the woman would do to reduce child poverty rates. She suggested more money for social workers ( and made it clear she is not one) and improved access to affordable day care. DeJong says there are two ways to help children in poverty and that is to help their families get the education they need to make the best of employment opportunities.
The growing sector of senior citizens in the province was an issue raised by a woman in 100 Mile and a man from Prince George. Both called on the Province for more expenditures for seniors housing and care.
Debt reduction was an issue brought up by more than one of the people on the line. DeJong says the future with liquefied natural gas, presents a generational opportunity to reduce the debt.
The moderator suggested there were more than 9,000 people on line, and while the Minister apologized for not being able to personally answer every question he said this was a very exciting time for B.C. “There has been an economic shift to the west, “said deJong, who added British Columbia is the gateway to Asia “And when we work together, there is nothing we can’t do.”
Comments
I listened in for a while. It wasn’t a bad session. There were a few goofy comments and questions, but they were handled well overall.
It seems that most people want money for this or that, but they are unable to say where the money should come from, other than to offer vague ideas.
Too bad i was’t invited, I would have suggested to them the additional revenue could come from a raise in corporate taxes in BC to a level that is more in line with other province’s corporate tax rates.
Then I would have suggested that Canada, having the second lowest corporate tax level in the world, should raise corporate taxes to a more reasonable; average world wide level.
Wow, if they did that child poverty could be eliminated, senior care would be fully funded, crumbling infrastructure and roads in the north east peace region would fixed, etc., etc., etc.
Yes, let’s raise corporate taxes! That way more people can experience what I experienced many years ago. The multinational corporation that I worked for liquidated the bulk of it’s Canadian assets/holdings and laid off 70% of their Canadian workforce. The corporation then took their capital and moved it to other markets/countries/locations where they could earn a more equitable rate of return on investment! Nothing personal, it was a business decision!
People#1, we all know how much you hate corporations, Harper, the Conservatives, the BC Liberals, Christy Clark, etc., but sometimes a comment like “let’s raise corporate taxes” seems rather simplistic! It’s easy to say raise corporate taxes, but it’s not always easy to predict the outcome!
I for one, sure as heck don’t have all the answers! I’d even hazard a guess that I probably don’t have many at all! But right now, I know an awful lot of people who are working full time and making good incomes because of the investments that are taking place in our province. Seems to me that all of these employed people are paying taxes of one kind or another to help pay for the things that we need or want.
Canfor workers are considering a new contract, one that I believe includes a wage increase. Canfor must be making money!!
It’s a fine balancing act! Tax the corporations or tax the workers? Increase taxes and reduce profits/dividends? Attract investment, stifle it or drive it away?
I certainly don’t have the answers! Perhaps some of the people who seem to have all of the answers should put their names on a ballot, get elected and then put all of their answers to work!! Or not!!
Off to bed! Need a good night’s sleep in order to face another day working in the balmy -28 degree weather. Darn Global Warming!!
Oops, sorry! It’s not a balmy -28 degrees right now! Just checked, it’s only -33 degrees now! Time to head for the lake, chop a hole in the ice and go for a swim! Gotta love Global Warming!!
Wow, just how out of touch are you Hart Guy: There if we raise corporate taxes to the same average level as a majority of other counties in the world, why would corporations move to another country to pay the same tax rate?
We are resourced based, meaning our resources are located here in Canada’s in the ground! What corporations are going to move somewhere else to pay the same tax rate and to a country that has the same natural resources, i.e..; gold, moly, silver, uranium, potash, coal, oil, natural gas. Not every country, in fact many are as resource rich as Canada.
Sounds like the same tired old argument about the NDP getting elected and all the companies and employment will move to Albertaâ¦. Umm⦠why would companies want to move away from the resources the exist to extract? Other than tar sand and some natural gas, Alberta has no where near the natural resources as BC. At the rate of extraction in Alberta it has even less than BC. Your theory about corporations moving else where does not hold water.
As far as the weather, you minus 24 celsius here in PG today, no worries it’s suppose to rain 2 days from now! Yup gotta be global warming, we get winters in one week instalments now don’t you know.
People#1: Larrivee guitars is moving to the US for the TAX advantages.
Sounds like Mike DeJong is pinning his hopes on a pipeline or two across our fair province.
The NDP is on record as being against Kinder Morgan, Northern Gateway, natural gas extraction,lng export,log exports,power expansion to Bobquin Lake, Peace power project, WL mine and on and on it goes.
So what is the natural resource export that you speak of fn toe nail clippings but am sure there would be a faction of the NDP that would be against that too.
Like a majority of British Columbians, the NDP is against the Northern Gateway Pipeline and the expansion of the Kinder Morgan pipeline. And no just because the Liberal were voted in does not mean the majority of British Columbians changed their minds. The Liberal Party, at the time, was against the Northern Gateway pipeline⦠can’t help it if they are being two-faced about it now!
As for Natural Gas development, show me where the NDP is Against it! Show me the proof they are opposed to LNG exports, show me proof the NDP is against the Site C Dam.
As for whole log exports, yes the NDP is against it and in favour of job creation here in BC by milling those logs here first instead of shipping those jobs overseas. No the NDP is not against the WL mine, why should they be when the Federal Environmental Assessment review process has rejected the Taseko mine proposal anyway?
The natural resource export you speak of would be settler “bio-mass” look at your comment ewitt as an example, as it is full of it!
People#1, as usual you are always right! Heck, even when you are wrong, you are always right!! That’s why it’s so much fun and so easy to crank you up, haha!!
For your information Mr. Expert on Everything, many years ago I DID work for a multinational corporation that WAS in a resource based industry!! The company DID sell off the majority of their Canadian assets and they did MOVE their corporate capital OUT of Canada and they did REINVEST it in OTHER parts of the world!!
Now I’m not suggesting that other companies would do the same or that all companies would do the same. I’m simply suggesting that simply raising corporate taxes as you always suggest isn’t necessarily the right thing to do! This concept is so simple that even you should be able to figure it out! Simple!!
@ Hart Gal; are you sure that multinational company you worked for wasn’t Taseko? Probably a company like them so good riddance, if they can’t abide by our environmental standards, or pay a proper amount to extract our NON-RENEWABLE resources, say good bye and take your temporary foreign workers with you!
Funny how you are constantly looking after the best interests of foreign multinational companies, while I am look out for the best interests of British Columbians, making sure we get a fair shake. But you know the Lib-Cons, promoting and siding with a Chinese owned coal extraction company, using temporary foreign workers from China to extract our coal for export to China. What a really good deal for us hey?
By the way, it’s suppose to be -1 celsius tomorrow, and raining by Friday. But that was a nice one week stretch of winter that we had there. ;-)
Here is a link to the Chinese Coal company example I used⦠wouldn’t want to just state random “opinion” without backing it up with the pertinent “FACTS”.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/asian-pacific-business/no-canadian-hires-for-four-years-at-chinese-owned-bc-mine/article6281852/
@ Hart Gal?? Ha ha People#1, you are hilarious!!
I’d love to have the opportunity to debate with you, one on one in person some evening, but I’m not so sure that your mother would allow you out after dinner!!
Also, please be very cautious in your use of the word “constantly”! After all, you are constantly on this site, constantly whining, constantly providing your constantly correct and holier than thou opinion which is constantly in your humble opinion more accurate and correct than the constantly incorrect opinions constantly posted by the rest of us!
Hmmm, do you ever get the feeling that I constantly think that you are a constantly not much more than a big joke, haha???
Ok, off to work!! Man, it’s cold out there! Brrrrr!!
Hmm.. I thought we were engaging in a debate⦠but apparently not! I don’t think it would be much of a debate anyway Hart Gal, given your “constantly” frivolous responses! In fact I have read through your retort twice and cannot find any real facts or assertions on which to engage in further debate.
Off to work here as well, just need to turn to my other laptop in this cosy basement. Warming up to -8 right now, -1 tomorrow and a couple of zeros for the weekend, will be nice to walk around outside without my bulky winter jacket. Might need to take my umbrella out for the rain we are expecting through. ;-)
*stupid spell check…
If you have such brilliant debating skills why is it that fewer and fewer people are responding to your posts? Will give you a little insight, if you were a pianist you would know one song, Chopsticks, that you play over and over and over again.
As Hart Guy says even knowing what button to push to set you off is not much fun anymore as the results are so predictable bla bla bla sheeple bla bla bla Harper bla bla bla Lib/Cons bla bla bla poverty.
We never had zero degree weather in the winter before? I must have lived in a different town or maybe a parallel universe since 1980. I do remember going out to build a snowfort and sliding in the 1970s without being bundled up like a mummy on steroids. I must have memories from another life because people#1 says it is so. Need one of those Men In Black memory rays to get rid of these memories that are wrong
And we are back to the personal attacks from the lower IQ’s on this blog. I am not always right, and in many posts, I even agree with the comments other people have posted on various subjects. Sorry it is not often, if ever, that I agree with your comments ewitt and slinky.
Hmm⦠wonder what that means? Maybe you guys can find subjects on which we would agree⦠perhaps the PAC, most of us are not for that⦠Mayor and Council, most of us agree that they could be doing a better job⦠apprehension of local suspected murders in the Bjornson case, most of us are happy with that⦠hmm⦠I am finding lots of examples where agreement seems likely.
As for the weather slinky, show me the numbers and data! Here is mine:
http://climate.nasa.gov/interactives/warming_world
Hey did you hear about the weather system in Italy today? Dumped a half year of rainfall in ONE day. Did you hear about the massive hail storm in Australia today, a historic event. These seem to be examples of extreme weather events the climate scientists are warning about.
Lets not forget the most powerful typhoon in history hitting the Philippines. More and more of these extreme weather events will cost more and more in human lives and that all so precious money. Climate scientists predict the monetary costs will be the TRILLIONS of dollars.
Hey I am just stating scientific facts, not my opinions, if you want to get mad, get mad at the scientists, not me. I’m just the messenger.
Ok, took a quick look. We indeed have a lot of rain in the winter, in fact if you look here:
http://www.farmzone.com/statistics/CL1096450/nb010
It shows you that 1950s hold a lot of records including most snowfall. In fact the 2000s and on only breaks into the record books only once, including single day which was july 2, 2000. Otherwise all of our severe weather appears to be in the 1950s and 1960s. Our average rain days in Dec and Jan are 3 per if you click on ‘get more stats’
As for extreme typhoons and hurricanes look up the most extreme hurricane ever to hit Ontario and it remains the ‘white Hurricane’ of 1913.
But hey, I am not a scientist so don’t get mad at me if the data doesn’t show what you claim
As for the worst in history of the globe here you go:
http://www.wunderground.com/hurricane/deadlyworld.asp
In fact the Philippines was hit before, twice in October and November 1912. Loss of life and damage greater than this time around… I know hey… totally weird… who would have guessed 101 years later…
http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2013/11/19/1258482/1912-reports-tacloban-storm-killing-15000-resurface
Suggesting that another poster is a one trick pony always singing from the same song sheet is an opinion.
Suggesting that another poster has a lower than normal IQ is a personal attack.
Just so you know. Feel free to use for future reference.
slinky you gave us the link to the precipitation section of the farm zone data. Here is the link to the temperature section of that same database. Take a look at the record lows and their dates⦠stocking isn’t it? All those historic low temperatures were in the 50’s and 60’s.
http://www.farmzone.com/statistics/temperature/cl1096450/nb010
*shocking, stupid spell check!
You were saying it never rains in PG in the winter so I provided you with data to show it actually does rain here, so you change the subject. Or did you forget? “no worries it’s suppose to rain 2 days from now! Yup gotta be global warming”
Yes, and the record highs were all in the 2000s…oops guess not hey? Guess all the extreme weather of the 50s and 60s were due to the high concentrations of co2
As for the typhoons in the Philippines in Oct and Nov of 1912, not nearly as strong and powerful as the one that hit last week, don’t forget, we are talking about weather extremes, and last week’s typhoon was more powerful than any in earth’s recorded history.
As for the higher death rate, of course this was a regular occurrence for hurricane and typhoons before satellite weather mapping. They can see those hurricanes and typhoons coming and are better able to prepare now. Back then they didn’t know they were coming and could not prepare for them. Even today with all that advance preparation, this last typhoons was so much more powerful and what they expected, hmm⦠I think we all know why.
Are you serious??? We are talking about global warming here! Look at the temperatures, it proves the winters today are way warmer that in the 50s and 60s locally.
Thanks for the source of local data slinky, I can now use in the future as more empirical evidence our winters today are much warmer, locally. I am more than happy to concede you are correct about the rainfall.
Any other sources of local historic temperature data out there anyone? I have been looking for something like this for a long time, it confirms my memories as a child of how cold the winters were back then (70s at least) compared to today.
Yolanda (Haiyan) had (satellite estimated) maximum sustained winds of 195mph
Maybe give this a read
http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/11/12/13/prof-typhoon-yolanda-unusual
And this
http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2013/nov/08/typhoon-haiyan-philippines-tropical-cyclones
Not sure exactly how you can say the 1912 typhoon was not as powerful or as powerful. Back in 1912 it caused 25 million in damage mostly to crops – or calculated in today’s dollars as over 600 million. Yolanda caused 100-150 million in crop damage – and what was the population of the Philippines in 1912? Or maybe during the typhoon in October 12,1897 which had a tidal wave killing an estimated 7,000 natives and which never made the western news until 1898?
People#1: “And we are back to the personal attacks from the lower IQ’s on this blog.”
This coming from the #1 personal attacker on this site. Is that what the #1 stands for?
Not sure exactly how you can say the 1912 typhoon was not as strong or as powerful (oops)
I would like to point out that People#1 earlier commented that he had to turn on his other notebook.
As someone who constantly complains about the mining industry, the Oil and Gas industry and industry in general ie: capitalism, I find it very curious that he/she would feel the need to have more than one computer. After all, think of the increased mining activity required to extract the extra aluminium, copper and other materials needed to make that second notebook. Let’s not talk about the plastics that were used for his second notebook. After all, plastics are an oil and gas industry product. Then, what about the mining and extraction of rare earth minerals, some of which surely comprise part of the components of his second notebook, including stainless steel and the battery.
OMG! After you consider all of the components needed to make a second notebook for People#1, you then have to factor in all of the energy consumption associated with the finding and extraction of the minerals, oil and gas, etc. Then there is the energy consumed in the processing of these raw materials and then in the manufacturing of the components required to assemble a second notebook for People#1.
OMG again! What about all of the labour to assemble the parts and the notebook for People#1. Some of that, good grief, was probably done in, wait for it, here it comes, CHINA!! Doesn’t People#1 hate China??
OMG for the third time! Now we have to factor in the energy required to ship the assembled computer to Canada so that People#1 can purchase it from a large corporation! Hmmm, doesn’t he also hate large corporations??
When all is said and done, by purchasing a “second” computer (who really needs a second computer?) People#1 is supporting large multinational corporations, he is stimulating a capitalist economy here at home and is supporting a communist country overseas! But that’s not the worst of it!
Factor in all of the energy used to provide him with his second notebook. Energy needed to locate and mine the raw materials, extract and process the oil and gas into plastics, manufacturing the parts, assemble the notebook, ship it to the warehouse and ultimately to People#1, log the timber required to feed the pulp mill to provide the cardboard needed for the packaging and after taking all of this into account, what have we got??
We’ve got People#1 contributing to the profits of the Capitalistic Companies involved in these processes AND WORST OF ALL, WE’VE GOT PEOPLE#1 CONTRIBUTING TO GLOBAL WARMING!!!
People#1, stop contributing to Global Warming!!
All of this because People#1 thinks he/she needs a second notebook! OMG!!
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