British Columbians Keep Getting Squeezed Complains NDP Leader
NDP Leader John Horgan prepares to throw out the first pitch at last night’s gold medal World Baseball Challenge game at Citizen Field – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – “Affordability, affordability and more affordability.”
The words of NDP leader John Horgan when asked about the common theme of his camping trip from Prince Rupert to Prince George this week.
“Hydro rates, medical services premiums, ICBC rates – wherever we went people were saying we love British Columbia and when you’re in a campground, you’ve got your feet up and people wanted to talk about how great it is to be in this spectacular province. The big problem – wages have stayed flat and costs keep going up.”
Horgan travelled Highway 16 in a camper championing himself as a man of the people remarking “No private jets for me, just a Winnebago.”
So what does he have planned the next couple of days while in Prince George?
“The BC Official Opposition caucus will be meeting on Monday,” says Horgan. “We’re going to be gathering to prepare for the fall session and we’re going to talk about the issues that we’ve been hearing in communities right across British Columbia.”
He says they also plan to meet with some potential candidates for next year’s election.
“We will be doing some of that. I’ve got some meetings scheduled to talk to people – prominent people in the community that when the election is held we’ll have very good candidates here in Prince George and in Nechako Lakes.”
Does he feel the road to the premier’s office must be paved by winning a seat or two here?
“That’s the tradition, if you can’t win Prince George you’re not going to form government but since that tradition started a number of seats have been added – we’ll be up to 87 next spring,” says Horgan.
“So it’s not as critical, there are more seats in the population rich Lower Mainland now and I think this will be the first time that you could actually win an election in B.C. without holding a good number of rural seats.”
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“So it’s not as critical, there are more seats in the population rich Lower Mainland now and I think this will be the first time that you could actually win an election in B.C. without holding a good number of rural seats.” .. translation – watch the lower mainland get plenty of gifts from the govt leading up to election time.
There are many translations for that.
One is, “we do not give a rat’s ass about BC outside the lower mainland.”
The buck stops at HOPE.The rest of the province is beyond HOPE.
Ice actually Kelowna and area is an “in” place.
We keep getting squeezed because the money for our over bloated public service positions doesn’t grow on trees. Municipal, Provincial and Federal government is just way too big and unsustainable.
Bloated public service – read the latest from Norman Farrell at Insights for an example of bloated public service positions. The real bloat is not at the service counter level.
This is back to the same argument that raged when Bill Bennett was Premier in the early 1980’s and launched us into an “austerity program” to try to contain the rising costs of government in the face of a severe recession. To put it shortly, it really didn’t work. Those at the top were rewarded for making cuts at the bottom, and nothing was ‘saved’ whatsoever. Shortly there had to be a reversal, or this would’ve become so glaringly evident Bennett’s government would’ve fallen. And there was. We got Expo 86, et al. Surely we should learn from past mistakes.
It would be exceedingly difficult, and very quickly socially unacceptable to try to roll back public sector wages. Mainly because those wage increases have allowed the recipients to go further into debt, and a roll back would mean those debts could not then be repaid. The increase in defaults would tend to choke off the credit tap, and it is upon that tap remaining open that the current economic system survives.
The ‘big problem’ alluded to by Horgan is MUCH bigger than he realises. And it’s not going to be solved by further wage increases anymore than it will be solved by imposing austerity. The problem is with the ACCOUNTING itself, and how it relates, or increasingly DOESN’T, to what we call ‘money’.
Frontline hourly wages are not the problem. They have not even kept up with the cost of living! The problem is with the enormously bloated SALARIES plus Benefits at the levels above hourly. Nobody needs to make 250k, 350k or even 500k of taxpayers money annually! Nobody. Period.
axman states; “We keep getting squeezed because the money for our over bloated public service positions…”
Hilariously wrong, but consistent with out-of-touch right wing ideology, here read this so we can welcome you to reality!
.policyalternatives.ca/newsroom/news-releases/bc’s-public-sector-smallest-canada-public-services-short-staffed
The public sector is hardly short staffed. A lot of them are just plain useless and have learned how to milk the system.
Horgan:-““Hydro rates, medical services premiums, ICBC rates – wherever we went people were saying we love British Columbia and when you’re in a campground, you’ve got your feet up and people wanted to talk about how great it is to be in this spectacular province. The big problem – wages have stayed flat and costs keep going up.”
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Ask him how he’s going to increase wages without further increasing all the cost of those rates he’s mentioning above and everything else. Does he have an answer?
Or is he just going to launch into that same old tirade the NDP always uses that it’s ‘corporate profits’ that are to blame?
Note that the three things he mentions above that are increasing their rates are all rates that are being charged by GOVERNMENT owned organisations, and each of them has a virtual monopoly in the services they provide. They can, therefore, do something other privately owned corporations can’t do ~ set their prices as high as they want.
You’d never get permission en masse if EVERYONE tried to generate ALL their own electric power using a backyard windmill, or banks of solar panels, etc., even if these things were advanced enough to work. Similarly, you can’t operate a BC registered vehicle without ICBC insurance coverage. Nor are you allowed to opt out of the Medical Services Plan.
So what, exactly, is Horgan’s solution? I do give him credit for identifying the “big problem”, but what’s his answer to solving it?
Championing himself as a man of the people? What man of the people can sells $500.00 ticket to a summer reception with him?
“No private jets for me, just a Winnebago”
What’s wrong with a motorcycle and a tent? That would create a much better talking point about the plight of the people he is trying to win over.
Nice to see someone who can afford a Winnebago. Then again, if it is his, the party likely pays for its use for him to travel around the province.
its cheaper then air fair and he can rub shoulders with the voters. And this talk about bloated Government. Check it out and see where the bloating is. I worked for the government for many years and many years went by that we didn’t get an increase in pay.
And a minimum wage dose not much for the economy that the bloated business community rapes.
Cheers
Not much cheaper, ever try taking a motorhome on a trip? Maybe 8 miles per gallon if you are lucky with a gas pusher
Anyone ask Horgan about his parties stance on the Leap Manifesto.
Anyone ask Christy Clark how her LNG “pipe dream” is coming along?
If you aren’t big business the liberals hate you..they look at seniors as a huge headache… They keep raising the costs on them, if not by taxes than by service charges..constantly changing prescription drug rules. The food they serve at the seniors housing is disgusting..they also expect the seniors to suffer in the hot weather while all the people working for northern health have nice air conditioned offices.
They hate children and anyone who want any type of education..they keep cutting costs,..closing schools, chopping all the supplies so parents have to pay more out of pocket for this “free” education. Keep closing schools so kids have to live on the bus they travel so far now.. Fees also are a monthly cost we get from the school as well. Clark hates teachers so much she vpbroke the law while education minister.
I am not saying ndp is the answer…but the liberals are definitely not the answer.
A very important question in my opinion is why do we pay MSP premiums in BC? We are the only province to do so. I read that John Horgan says an NDP government will get rid of those. A flat tax like the MSP premiums harms those who make less like seniors.
Under 22,000 adjusted net income you pay zero MSP premiums, 22-24,000 you pay 12.80, 24-26,000 you pay 25.60, 26-28,000 you pay 38.40, 28-30,000 you pay 51.20 and over 30,000 you pay 75.00 MSP premiums per year. A spouse and and children are 3,000.00 less net income and anyone over 65 is a further 3,000.00 off.
A senior (over 65 yrs) couple can earn a net income of 31,000 per year and still pay zero MSP premiums (22,000 adjusted net + 3,000 for spouse + 6,000 for both being senior). If either is disabled there is an additional 3,000.00 per to total net income.
The same applies to single or married partners with children. Each child or person with disability adds 3,000 to the net income for purposes of the reduced MSP premium.
If it is in your income tax there is no reduced amount everyone pays the same in terms of a higher basic exemption.
Here is some more info…if your spouse needs to be in a seniors home the home takes approx %80 of their income as charge to stay there…but they still have to pay for medication, hearing, vision etc…but if you have been on welfare you get to live there for free.. Screwing the working person again.
The present government will tell you they have to charge MSP premiums as they do not receive enough money from the federal government. What they don’t tell you is that when BC started charging the federal government took the amount of MSP premiums they were charging BC citizens and removed that amount from the transfer payments.
Another thing they do not tell us is that BC MSP does not cover things that the other prov’s MSP pay. We have a two tier system in BC; those that are only on MSP and those that have extended benefits through the employers and union pensions.
The way to solve the MSP mess is for all Government workers to receive the same benefits as seniors and others that do not receive extended benefits. I think then you would see the MSP covering things that it use to when it first came into play.
Every year since the libtards have been in power in BC, we have been getting closer to being taxed for the air we breath.
The Liberal and NDP parties in BC are an embarrassment and the citizens of BC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing the situation to get to this point. We now have the same old BS. Vote Liberals or the NDP will get elected, or Vote NDP, or you will be stuck with the Liberals. Hmmm Great choices.
My suggestion is that we vote for the Greens, Conservatives, or Independents, at least by doing that we would send a strong message to the Liberals and NDP, that they need to clean up their act, or they will be gone.
If people want change they have to take the action that will create change. Doing the same thing over and over, is hardly a solution to anything.
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