Hard to happy about a surplus when the cuts to mental health have resulted in the loss of life dont you think ?

Agreed. Surplus is obviously where we want to be, but some cuts have really hurt this province. Lots of revenue grabs, but I worry not enough re-investment into important areas.

Good news, yes. But we shouldn’t be jumping for joy necessarily. I suppose this is better than being Quebec though.

It is all well and good for Wally Opal’s inquiry to recommend a shuttle service between Prince Rupert and Prince George while giving little or no thought of how such a service might come to fruition. It was implied that the once a day service offered by Greyhound, daytime from PR-PG and overnight on the return leg, did little to reduce hitchhiking and that something in the range of hourly service would be the answer.

Since the inquiry has any research been done to come up with a number as to how many people would use the service? Would the service be for the exclusive use of single women who would otherwise hitchhike? Talk on this site and elsewhere that the poor, those who are handicapped and people traveling for medical appointments should also be allowed to use this service.

Some of the considerations in having 8 am-4pm hourly service each way between PR and PG.

>Size of vehicle. 12 passenger van, 24 passenger mini bus or full size bus. 16 will be on the road at a time meaning and at least one extra to account for service and maintenance. 16 drivers plus a couple extra to cover holidays and sick days

>Parking and maintenance terminal at each end with people required to clean and maintain the fleet.

>There are other areas in the province such as Bella Coola, Dease Lake, Tsay Keh Dene and Fort Ware that are even more isolated and will be clamoring for equal service.

One alternative would be to have a volunteer safe ride program that drivers would register with and designated safe pick up zones in each community that is monitored 24/7 by multiple high def cameras.

Better here then back East, Ontario 6 Billion Deficit but they have Toronto and who knows what else!
This Bus on HWY16 will never be a go ,ever, can you calculate the Cost of an Hourly Bus Service from PG to Rupert and how about all the other Roads and Hwy with no Service right now, are they supposed to take 2nd or last to get the same ?

pay off the deficit.

How about get a job and then buy a bus ticket like everyone in this world instead of leaching off the people who actually work to solve there problems. If you are hitchhiking you have no set schedule so that is not an excuse. It’s hard to help someone when they do not want to help themselves.

I wish they wouldn’t use the word surplus. It sounds nice, but all it really means is we paid by 265 million on our line of credit. Too many people read that to a vault full of cash with Scrooge McDuck rolling in it. We’re still deep in debt, we still can’t do everything everybody wants done – without raising taxes.

Pay off the debt, which is the accumulation of all previous deficits and borrowing. Fat chance of that though. Interest rates are low at present, so the real problem will arise when interest rates go up. By that time most of the politicians who piled up the debt will have retired with gold plated pensions.

Smoke and mirrors

I only have one word for this

“BULL”

“S EYE

Harper said we had a surplus too.

When B.C.’s 2015/2016 budget came out last February the estimate for the total provincial debt for the 2015/16 fiscal year was $65.9 billion.

The estimate for the total provincial debt for the 2016/17 fiscal year was $68.2 billion.

The estimate for the total provincial debt for the 2017/18 fiscal year was $70.4 billion.

https://web.archive.org/web/20150509180847/http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/PT/dmb/ref/debtSummary.pdf

In the first quarterly update which came out on Sept. 15, 2015:

The updated forecast for the total provincial debt for the fiscal year 2015/16 was $64.7 billion.

The updated forecast for the total provincial debt for the fiscal year 2016/17 was $66.8 billion.

The updated forecast for the total provincial debt for the fiscal year 2017/18 was $69.0 billion.

http://www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/british-columbians-and-our-governments/about-the-bc-government/bc-budget/quarterly-reports/2015-q1-report.pdf

bcracer—I will 2nd that.

Child poverty affects 1 in 5 B.C. children, report says

“It’s neglect to allow thousands of children to languish in poverty in this province.

I guess there is a surplus, there was not 1 conservation officer seen by me or anyone I know in the bush this fall.
Cutbacks, cost us!

It’s not governments job to look after our children! Anyone who thinks that is part of the problem!

Prince George:-“Pay off the debt, which is the accumulation of all previous deficits and borrowing. Fat chance of that though. Interest rates are low at present, so the real problem will arise when interest rates go up. By that time most of the politicians who piled up the debt will have retired with gold plated pensions.”
=======================================================================================
Fully indexed to inflation, too, no doubt.

Be that as it may, there would be a great problem to “pay off the debt” under the current financial set-up. It could only be done if there was a constant surplus of exports over imports, which simply isn’t going to happen; or if the amount of government debt that was supposedly “paid off” was matched by an equivalent amount of new private debt. And that’s not going to happen either. Otherwise we would not be able to sell all the goods and services already on the market for a price sufficient enough to fully recover the costs that went into them. This problem could be rectified, but none of the current Parties offering themselves for election, or who have been elected, are willing to even look at it. So we are fated to be ground down between the two financial grindstones of ‘inflation’ and ‘taxation’ ~ just as the Communists set out to do to the middle class in Soviet Russia.

ski51:-“We’re still deep in debt, we still can’t do everything everybody wants done – without raising taxes.”
=======================================================================================

Actually, what you’re describing is the common perception of how it works. Only thing is, the raised taxes still aren’t really funding very much of “everything everyone wants done”, but are imposed as an attempt to check the effects of rising inflation when a government puts itself deeper in debt to do whatever that is. This results in our paying for “everything everyone wants done” a few times over, when once should’ve been enough.

Cougs79, not sure you have a made a more heartless statement.. Tell that to the parents of the kids in care that killed themselves.. They were supposed to be taken care of…but the government cut back on the money going to mental health and it cost lives.. But you don’t care, I just hope your kids or any family member ever needs to rely on this government for mental health issues.. Because they don’t care..

I agree the northern bus route called for by the missing persons group will never happen. How would it be implemented province wide and how much would it cost? Everyone knows it wouldn’t solve a thing, and the massive cost for a few users based on a future hypothetical event is not sustainable.

I think we could solve the problem with only a few million and provide better security for all women or people that feel they could be at danger… not just women that hitch hike on a single highway.

Why not invest in cheep cell phones that just have text, phone, and gps location. Sell them as a loss leader if we are going to subsidize the service, make them small, and make them available at corner stores everywhere for $50.

Each phone would require a detailed profile for its user. Phone call service would require a subscription with a service provider, but emergency text and GPS would always work regardless of cell phone subscription.

Here is the kicker. We know GPS on cell phones works anywhere there is a tower. Set up a person that runs parallel to the 911 operators that monitors a big screen map that monitors geo-fence alerts.

A person signs up (your daughters, wives, sisters, ect ect), and builds a profile of safe areas, alert areas, and high alert no go areas… hide the phone and forget about it. When out and about if there is possibility of danger carry the phone discreetly.

Each profile would have geofenced areas where it does not track, geofenced areas where it comes up as on the move in a alert area, and close monitoring of phones that go into high risk areas or moving towards off grid and known high risk areas. Have a policy if they are in these areas they text a license plate number as added security… but if they go to a high risk area or do not respond within a time frame then an automatic emergency call goes out to the RCMP for a check up.

How many killers like that last one caught onthe highway to Fort St James would be caught before they are able to inflict harm?

How many killers could be later tracked from such gps data so as to confirm identity through any number of private security camera’s on the route that was taken by the last known route of a potential victim?

Cheep phones for at risk with GPS tracking and geo fences could go a lot further for a lot more potential victims then getting a shinny new ride ever will.

Then if we need more coverage area then we have another reason for more cell phone towers that benefit everyone.