Income and Taxation Equality Message Rolls Into PG
(The Fairness Express pulled into the parking lot at Fort George Park Sunday. 250 News photo)
Prince George, B.C. – The Fairness Express rolled into Prince George this weekend to talk about the growing gap in comes between the wealthy and the rest of the population.
“All Together Now” is a national campaign, sponsored by the National Union of Public and General employees, the BC Government and Service Employees Union and the Health Sciences Association. It is focused on explaining the issues and gathering peoples’ concerns and possible solutions when it comes to income inequality. The campaign began in eastern Canada and had bus tours throughout the Atlantic provinces, Ontario and Manitoba. Right now simultaneous tours are being conducted through Alberta and BC, with the tour in this province heading from north to south.
Bus co-ordinator Jonny Sopotiuk says “we’re travelling to communities talking about tax fairness, public services, labour rights and industrial strategies. We’re talking about the rising gap between the rich and the poor and how that’s affecting everyone, not just union members. We’re seeing declining revenues to government which is effecting our public services. So funding for health care, child care, everything from our road system to our water system.”
Brenda Brown, the Executive Vice-President of the BC Government and Service Employees Union, says “we’re talking about tax fairness and having a system that taxes everyone fairly. Currently we see that corporate taxes have just been decreasing over many decades and our public services have been cut. So we’re out there engaging the public about public services and the important value that they serve to the communities.”
Brown says that here in BC “over the past decade we have certainly seen cuts in services, health care and education plus a number of other services. And that’s part of the conversation and we need to get to a place where we have fair taxes so that we can support the public services that, as Canadians, we’re all very proud of.” Brown says people she’s spoken with on this tour are bringing up the issue that they pay taxes but are not getting the services, health care and education, which they pay taxes for.
“In the north we see that when people have to travel for health care and other services that they used to be able to get here at home. What we’ve heard here in Prince George is that people see the gap is increasing and they are having to work harder yet getting less. They can see the unfairness of the society that we’re living in. People are struggling.”
Sopotiuk says “in the north one of the key messages we’ve been getting is the fact that there’s a lack of jobs and there’s no long-term job strategy by this government. We’re needing jobs and more support in the public services, health care, child care, seniors care. And on Vancouver Island we heard the same thing, people are happy to be paying taxes for good public services but they want to see everyone paying equally, corporations and top income earners who aren’t paying their fair share.”
As for Premier Christy Clark’s ascertain that resource industries will solve the jobs problem, Sopotiuk says “lots of temporary foreign workers are coming in, those jobs aren’t going to the local communities and those workers who are coming to Canada are being exploited by their employers. It’s a situation that’s affecting everyone.” Brown adds “that’s a concern we’re hearing and people want good jobs that are going to sustain families and that you can live on.”
She also says affordable housing is another big concern she’s hearing, right here in the north. “Affordable housing is a big problem for some people right now and as this income inequality grows, affordable housing is harder and harder to find. People are making less money and we’re on a system that is unfair and this whole campaign of fair is fair and fair taxation and all of that is really about having a conversation that people understand that their tax dollars go to public services that we all really cherish, but governments have to change their tract on how they’re charging corporate tax.”
Sopotiuk says solutions to these problems “start first within the communities, they start in conversations within families, between co-workers, between friends and hopefully government listens and then responds.”
The bus tour wraps up in late September, at which time the organizers of the campaign will look at the feedback and conversations they’ve had and develop the next steps.
Comments
Hmmmm. Seems their only solution is to tax corporations more, so that there is more money available for public service employee’s.
We need to look at all spending in Government at all levels, ie; Provincial, Municipal, and Regional, look at all service’s provided, and eliminate duplication.
We pay for services and then what we get is a 1-800 number and the service is provided from some other City.
Government by their very nature are bloated, and cost prohibitive. Government workers providing services, are part of the problem, not necessarily the solution.
What we need is upgrading, downsizing, and streamlining of Government, and last but not least honesty, integrity, and fiscal responsibility. Don’t hold your breath for that.
JUST IN BURGER KING is buying TIM HORTONS with an estimated income of 18 BILLION, that’s right 18 BILLION DOLLARS! NOW that’s a whopper of a deal. BUT the kicker is pay the kids dirt wages and have a tax bracket of only 5%. NO wonder some posters complain continually about taxation. SEEMS to me that we should be chasing down our favourite politician with a big stick until some form of fairness, equality is leveled off.
All Together Now is a national campaign, sponsored by the National Union of Public and General employees, the BC Government and Service Employees Union and the Health Sciences Association.”
Palopu got it right. The government is bloated enough as it is. The public purse is empty.
I for one don’t think that the gov’t needs any less money. We just need to get some efficiency into the systems.
As for corporate tax rates if you examine the Tim Hortons stock quote you will see that with the 3G premium they now have a PE ratio of 22 to 1. That means they are making a 3.8% return on the value of the stock.
Ice, examine Swedish corporate tax policy here
http://www.business-sweden.se/PageFiles/10365/Corporate%20taxes%20in%20Sweden.pdf
You will see Sweden has a corporate tax rate of 22%. It is rather clear to me that we are talking about an international stage and if the USA wants to keep corporate tax at 35% they are going to continuously lose business to places that don’t.
As for 18 billion dollars for tim hortons would you be willing to buy it for 18 billion dollars with only a 1.6 billion in profit?
Remember Corporations spend usually more than 50% of their income on wages, which create jobs, generate income tax, although not much in fast food, but jobs are very important for everyone.
Also I would guarantee that THI (Tim Hortons) has more shareholders that benefit pension funds than benefit billionaires.
When corporations win, people win. We are all in this together. On top of everything else this BK-THI merger is awesome news for Canada if head office is moved to Canada as this creates great jobs in the place it sets up.
Hey Pal, cut this stuff and government employees so they get a fair wage and make a decent living. Are you the CEO of a big corporation to express such poisoness comment.
I worked for the government for 25 years much harder then when I worked in a pulp mill. When I retired they offered me a “buy out”. I got two years pay in my Buy Out. I retired in March and for July they asked me to do summer relief which lasted nine months and then they offered me the job I had before retirement and the NDP was not the government that started this fiasco.
Its not the employees its our great free enterprise government that’s blowing your tax dollar. You have a great day Pal.
Cheers
Retired. The biggest employer in BC is the Government. It makes any pulp mill, look like a **dinky toy**. When it comes to payrolls costs, waste, etc; the Government wins by a long shot.
I believe in fairness in the tax system, however when the so called fairness issue is being pushed by Civil Servants, then to me its self serving.
The great perpetual motion machine! The gov’t employees get more than 50% share- vote themselves wage increases at the cost of business, business leaves, debt increases.
The perpetual motion machine works until the money stops.
We all need money. Gov’t does not generate any money. Businesses generate money, Gov’t taxes some of that money to redistribute to keep social order.
I say more money for corporations means more money for gov’t.
One last point. If we really wanted more money we would stop giving away our hydro to ourselves. Sure we save some pensioner 40 dollars a month who lives in a nice BC box with no mortgage. But that same second cheapest in North America power is being bought by some oil baron to cool his lake front third home in Kelowna!
Raise power prices immediately, take the profits, redistribute to those who make less than 50k a year to make sure they Benefit from the transaction, cut teachers salaries, hire more teachers with the difference, stop money tranfers to private schools, and we would be a lot further ahead.
Over and out.
I say more money for corporations means more money for gov’t.
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This is the dream that keeps the working class under the thumb of our corporations that make billions in profit so they can make more profit and most of it leaves Canada. Its a big snowball.
cheers
Places without big corporations are much better off right?
Like Zimbabwe, or Liberia. Or even locally we can look at the tremendous prosperity found in places like Ft Ware, Tachie, or even Upper Fraser. Upper Fraser has flourished since Canfor closed the sawmill there. Housing prices have tripled!
Without the working class (what does that mean anymore!) there is no corporation. One has to only look at the tremendous open and generous society of Russia.
Tongue firmly in cheek! The best part about corporations is that they are mostly publicly traded, which means Mr Retired that you get paid from investments the CPP has made in them.
Before corporations there were Kings and Dukes and they didn’t share ownership.
So instead of telling me I am wrong why don’t you tell me the right way!
Cupricity I don’t think you have heard of energy poverty? You should look into what rising energy costs are doing to places like Ontario, California, Portugal, Spain, Germany England.
Here is a good example of the relationship between corporate dishonesty, greed, tax credits and rising power costs.
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2014/08/25/big-winds-latest-deceitful-ad-campaign/
This example can also be applied to unelected NGO’s trying for influence in government.
@ Palopu, couldn’t agree more with your opening comment. I’ve been stating for a very long time that it’s time for a complete review/rationalization of Government and Government Services, from the very top to the very bottom, Federally, Provincially and Municipally!
@ Retired, so let me get this straight….you had a cushy unionized Government job and then you moved on to an even cushier unionized Pulp Mill job??
Now you are retired and as I can tell, you are really suffering, right??
I agree with cupricity…..
yes there are issues with big corps, but I am glad to be a part of the working class here in Canada, over many other coutries. The system is not perfect, but sure is better than others.
I am thankful to be Canadian
“Hmmmm. Seems their only solution is to tax corporations more, so that there is more money available for public service employee’s.
We need to look at all spending in Government at all levels, ie; Provincial, Municipal, and Regional, look at all service’s provided, and eliminate duplication.
We pay for services and then what we get is a 1-800 number and the service is provided from some other City.
Government by their very nature are bloated, and cost prohibitive. Government workers providing services, are part of the problem, not necessarily the solution.
What we need is upgrading, downsizing, and streamlining of Government, and last but not least honesty, integrity, and fiscal responsibility. Don’t hold your breath for that.”
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Palopu, your post seems full of contradictions.
For example, you talk about paying for services then seem to lament the fact that the service provided is a 1-800 number. You then go onto say that government workers providing services are part of the problem.
So what exactly do you want? Do you want 1-800 numbers and centralized services, which are likely far cheaper to administer, or do you want people you can talk to face to face, which results in more expensive, but likely better service?
It’s also great to talk about upgrading, downsizing and streamlining as though they can all be achieved at the same time, but the reality is that those are often competing priorities.
If you streamline, you are likely to water down processes so that only the most common things can be provided. Need something specialized (which is often the most important)? Good luck. If you upgrade services, look for more money to be spent on systems, infrastructure, higher salaried knowledge workers, etc. If you downsize, everything else being equal, you can expect service levels to drop.
To look at it another way, it’s entirely possible that the system we have now is a reflection of what the general public “asked for” as a result of their expectations of government . . .
I do agree that it makes sense to look at the services that government provides and to look for opportunities to eliminate duplication, but that in and of itself can also be an impossible task to manage. All it takes is a change in government (and thus priorities) and the entire process winds up back at stage one. Multiply that out over the number of times that it could occur across municipalities, provinces and the feds and it becomes an absolute nightmare, perhaps even an impossibility, to administer in a cohesive manner.
For the average person, I think the most logical place to start is at the municipal level. Get involved, research who you are voting for, partake in committees, hold local politicians accountable, etc. I think the whole process has to start with a culture change and that’s probably the best place to start given that it’s the most accessible.
To simply shrug and say, ‘there’s not much we can do, we got what we asked for, it’s too hard to change’ isn’t good enough either. It just sounds like a bunch of excuses.
NMG. Governments are out of control when it comes to spending. The average taxpayer has little say in now the money is spent.
Corporations, and business gets the Governments ear, while individual taxpayer get the Governments foot.
Governments have many ways to give the impression that they are saving money, and the 1 800 numbers with centralized offices are one example. Problem is that any money saved is then spent in some other area, and taxes are once again increased.
The City of Prince George is presently in the process of increasing our taxes again. They seem incapable of holding the line, or reducing taxes and costs.
Its not that Governments cant reduce taxes or costs, fact of the matter is, they don’t want to. They like to collect as much money as possible, and then spend it like drunken sailors. The perennial excuse is that the money is needed for education, and health care. How many times have you heard this song. How many more times do you have to hear it before you realize that its all BS.
If you look at the money spent in the lower mainland, southern interior etc, on roads, bridges, freeways, and transit, you would begin to see the enormity of the problem.
The Sea to Sky Highway (which basically services very few people) cost the Government over $400 Million dollars, with the pithy excuse that it was needed for the Olympics. Fact of the matter is the Olympics themselves were a huge waste of time and effort. (Much the same as the $15 Million we will throw away on the Winter Games)
Some changes to traffic patterns, and perhaps putting a toll on the old Port Mann Bridge could have negated the need to build a new billion dollar plus bridge.
Anyway you get my point. There is no end to Government waste, and the culture of entitlement.
The only way to stop Government spending and waste, is to reduce taxes and spending. The Government can then decide what services they want to reduce, and we will see if we agree with them at the next election.
Well the inherent problem there is that while you and I may agree that the Sea to Sky or other projects were a waste of money, there are thousands of others who think the opposite.
So, who is right and how do we reconcile those differences of opinion?
Based on the fact that governments who spend on such projects keep getting elected, perhaps the people are getting exactly what they want and you are just on the opposing side of popular public sentiment?
And yes, I do see your point. There is no doubt that waste occurs, but I don’t think cutting taxes will cure the problem.
If anything I think it will just result in higher debt loads and even worse services as governments try to get by with shell programs that don’t accomplish anything. Rarely do we see strategic cuts being made, it’s usually across the board type stuff that really does nothing but cripple important programs more and retain partial funding for programs that may not be needed.
Just look at the city and ignore the goofy KPMG recommendations because they are largely immaterial. Has anyone discussed any MAJOR cost cutting initiatives? The city could probably scrap IPG without any significant impact to the local residents. Is that on the table? No, they would probably claw back a little bit from each area instead. They don’t approach these things in a thoughtful manner IMHO.
Tax increases, that’s a whole other issue but it’s late here so I’m off to bed!
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