Just stay away from Hart guy . He doesn’t like anyone in public service . He wants to privatize all your jobs because of his gargantuan tax bill . I figure it’s way up in the high three figures .

Ataloss, over the past couple of years, there have been more and more and more reports about the never ending increase in both the size and cost of our public sector!

Seriously, I surprised that someone who is such an expert on absolutely everything would be so completely oblivious to the facts as represented in these reports!!

I have been consistent in my suggestions that we are long overdue for a complete review and rationalization of the size, cost, efficiency and necessity of our public sector, at all levels, Federally, Provincially and Municipally!

If you had any grasp of reality, you would have no problem supporting my suggestions!

Perhaps you can enlighten me as to why you think such reviews are not necessary. Are you or were you and/or your spouse public sector workers?

By the way, Ataloss, my brother was a veteran. He lived in a community that did not have a Veteran’s Affairs office. He never had an issue with the methods that he had to use in order to access any services from Veteran’s Affairs.

It is my understanding that the case load of the Prince George office was not particularly large. At what point do we consolidate services? Do we have an office if we have only 2 caseloads? Do we have an office if there are only 20, or what about 200?

let’s consider another public service, healthcare. People from Hixon travel to Prince George or Quesnel for medical services. Do we need to build a hospital in Hixon so that we meet their local needs? What about Bear Lake?

The population and the need for services must be used to drive the availability of services. Does Prince George have sufficient demand from veterans to justify having an office here? My understanding is that we don’t!

Your understanding is that we don’t need an office . How the heck would you know ? You agree with everything harper . With our warmonger in-chief ,Vets is a growth industry . Churning out more dead and injured since Korea so called police action . If your guy gets us into a shooting war with Russia ,like he seems to want . Then we’ll need many more vet cemitaries And vets offices in every community .

oh Ataloss, forever the drama queen!

Tell me, how many active files were managed by the Prince George office at the time that it was closed? How many in the year leading up to the closure? How many on average, per year for the 5 years preceding the closure?

Our public sector employees should be working with what should be considered a reasonable workload. Having an underused office staffed with underworked public sector employees doesn’t seem to me to be a good use of tax dollars.

By the way, I was in the Service Canada office last week. Other than the staff, I was the only person in the place!

I’m all for shaking up the status quo! Obviously Ataloss, you’d rather not rock the boat!

The problem with the Service Canada office is not the very helpful staff but the lack of parking. So most people will go elsewhere if they can. Sometimes I think the Government finds the hardest place to access so they can say no one visits.

Good Luck with trying to make the public service leaner! Many brave souls have tried only to admit defeat!

Hart Guy. Trying to talk sense to Ataloss is a losing proposition. Don’t hold you breath waiting for him to answer your questions.

Hart Guy states; “Ataloss, over the past couple of years, there have been more and more and more reports about the never ending increase in both the size and cost of our public sector!”

Yet we have this excerpt from the Center of Policy Alternatives:

“It is a little known fact that BC’s public sector has been shrinking both in terms of employees per capita and expenditures relative to GDP (or the size of the economy) since the early 1990s. This is because our public service already went through several comprehensive reviews in recent years that looked for ways to cut costs. Simply put, BC entered the recession with one of the leanest public sectors in the country and there was little room for cuts without compromising much-needed public services. The recent round of cuts has made it even more difficult for the province to deliver important programs and services.”

www.
policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/reports/docs/ccpabc_shrinking_public_sector.pdf

copy and paste the above link, then deleted the space between the www. and the p
Proponents of small government, like Hart Guy, continue to claim that our public sector is bloated and inefficient, but in reality BC’s public sector is the leanest in Canada. Ataloss, save this link and use it every time Hart Guy complains about the size of our public service.

Sophie, you’re back!! Thought you were gone forever!

Seems like I asked you a question a few days ago, something about facts and truths. You didn’t respond and I suspected that you were hiding, hoping that we would all forget that you were asked a question but chose not to answer it!

I didn’t forget! It seems to me that you don’t like to address questions that bring into question your facts, truths and personal intelligence. So be it! That’s kinda sorta like what my old buddies Peeps and BeingHuman used to do, before they disappeared off into the sunset!

Funny thing is, every once in a while this site attracts someone who thinks that they know it all and thinks that they are smarter than the rest of us! Eventually they come to realize that they are no smarter and no dumber than the rest of us and it’s with this realization that they fade away!

Sophie, I fear that you are already starting to fade away!

Sophic:-““It is a little known fact that BC’s public sector has been shrinking both in terms of employees per capita and expenditures relative to GDP (or the size of the economy) since the early 1990s”
—————————————————————————————–

But the actual ‘costs’, Sophic. Have they been ‘shrinking’, too? Or are they still rising? It would be normal for the public sector to shrink in the number of people employed just as the private sector has also shrunk that way in many areas due to increased advances in technology. I wouldn’t put any more credence in figures put out by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives than I would those put out by the Fraser Institute. In both cases they don’t hire economists and turn them loose to find all the relevant facts, whatever they might indicate, but rather set down the positions they want to try to push, and then have their economists select some facts to try to do it.

Sophie, speaking of the size of our public sector, I am an advocate for a smaller, leaner and more efficient public sector. I believe in getting the best value for my hard earned dollar. This comes from being self-employed and recognizing how hard it can be at times to earn a dollar.

You seem to want to a large public sector and you seem to think that our public sector operates in a efficient manner. Wow, for someone who likes to think that they are so intelligent, you really missed the boat on that one! Glad you like paying taxes!

Perhaps you are employed in the public sector and you have been conditioned to believe that the inefficiency that exists within it is normal. Our public sector unions whine about how overworked their members are, but one doesn’t have to look very far to see public sector workers wasting time. Like I said in an earlier post, some public sector workers greatest ability is their ability to look busy, while doing and accomplishing very little. I saw that first hand, years ago when I worked in the public sector! I left the public sector because I soon tired of carrying the weight of those that preferred to do little more than put in time waiting for their defined benefit pension plan to kick in!

So Sophie, I’m self-employed but have in the past worked in both the private and the public sector. What is it that you do? I bet it’s something that allows you to utilizes your incredible “smarts”!

Sophie, I’ve got a bunch of articles about public sector excess saved on my notebook. Unfortunately I’m on my tablet right now so their not right at hand.

In any event, here’s a link from a year ago that talks about our poor public sector workers. Better grab some tissues before you read it.

http: //business.financialpost.com/fp-comment/ high-times-for-the-public-sector

You’re smart Sophie, so I don’t have to reming you to remove the 6 spaces!

Cheers!

Here’s another link Sophie! Grab some more tissues.

This one is very recent, June 25, 2015. From the article:

Below are provinces, listed with their public sector growth rate and private sector growth rate, between 2003 and 2013:
•Ontario – 27.6%, 5.6%
•Alberta – 31.9%, 29.3%
•B.C. – 24.3%, 14%
•Quebec – 16.1%, 10.1%
•Manitoba – 15.6%, 12.1%
•New Brunswick – 9.7%, 2.1%
•Saskatchewan – 22.9%, 16%
•Prince Edward Island – 20.9%, 10.9%
•Newfoundland – 11.8%, 14%
•Nova Scotia – 12.6%, 1.1%

Wow, the BC public sector growth rate was 24.3%, while the private sector growth rate was only 14%!

Those Sophie, are the FACTS and TRUTHS!!

Once again, remove the six spaces that I so conveniently placed in the link!

http: //www.torontosun.com/2015/06/25/ public-sector-job-growth-stronger-than-private-sector-study

You’re getting harder and harder to see, Sophie! Must be fading away!!

G’nite!

Veterans Affairs visits Prince George, hmmm… I wonder if anyone will bring up the Harper Government spin that closing the Veterans Affairs office here in Prince George would actually result in “better service” to our veterans in central and northern BC?

We already have veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder who die untimely deaths, locally and nation wide, due to the lack of support from the very government who sends them to war. A sickenly ineffectual level of government support for our veterans once they come home with missing limbs, or mental health issues. Thanks Harper!!!

I’m guessing that this issue about a Veterans Affairs office is more about complaining about the Government than about services for Veterans.

Lets see how many people actually show up, and what they put on the table.

Sophic there is little point in trying to educate the harper excuse factory . It’s not a logical beast on any level . It’s the right wing ideological maze of blame the victim . Hart guy is so paranoid he now imagines that anyone and their spouses that appreciate our social services also have civil service jobs . If one want a civil society , then you need a civil service and all of society including business , corps etc. must pay the price . Are you a tobacco smoker hart guy ? Do you also love guns hart guy ? Would you like to change the name of PG to Harpervalley hart guy ? I just thought I would join you in asking stupid questions , hart guy . Those are rhetorical questions . I already know the answers .

@hart guy in essence your hero Steve is the top civil servant in the country . So maybe you should have a look at how he spends our money . At the tyee read this.
Anatomy of a Stephen Harper Photo Op

ooooh Ataloss, another article from the Tyee! We all know how unbiased the Tyee is, much like the HuffPost.

Did you read the articles that I provided links to? Hmmm, probably not! How about you sophie? You like to think that you are well read. did you read them?

I’m so glad to have Steve leading my country. Perhaps you and Sophie might want to leave our Canada and move to Greece? How are things today in Greece, what with their socialist government and all?

By the way, Ataloss, I don’t smoke, never have, never will! How about you?

I have no issue with guns, don’t own any but have lots of friends that do and I respect their right to own and use them! How about you?

Would I change the name of PG to Harpervalley? Of course not, that’s a stupid question but I must remember who asked it, haha!

So, Ataloss and Sophie, I’ve already stated that I have worked in the private sector (and have managed a private sector company), I also worked in the Public Sector but left as I got tired of receiving the same wages and wage increases as people that did as little as possible on the job, and I have been self employed for over 30 years.

What do you two do, besides coming on this site to amuse the rest of us?