New BC Government Expected to Address Years of Neglect
Premier-designate John Horgan leaves Government House Thursday night after being asked to form government by Lieutenant Governor Judith Guichon.
Prince George, B.C. – The head of an organization representing 500,000 British Columbians is looking forward to concrete action by Premier-designate John Horgan’s New Democrats on a number of files they say were long neglected by the BC Liberal government.
B.C. Federation of Labour President Irene Lanzinger says it was clear the now-defeated Liberals were finished. “Absolutely”, she says. “First of all they were a government that did a lot of damage. They didn’t raise welfare rates, they were slow at raising the minimum wage, they attacked unions a number of times. They had that sixteen-year battle with teachers that they eventually lost in the Supreme Court of Canada and then pretended that they favoured what they were forced to do by the Supreme Court. So there were a lot of problems with that government and I look forward to a new one.”
Lanzinger says the removal of the Clark government “was what British Columbians wanted, and it’s certainly what we wanted as a labour movement. We think the Clark government was not good for working people and the NDP government will be if they do the things they said they were going to do in their (election) platform, and I have faith in them in that regard.”
The Federation head says there are some files that need immediate attention: softwood lumber “which John Horgan addressed immediately when he walked out of Government House Thursday night.” Other files include the $15.00 an hour minimum wage, “lifting 500,000 people out of poverty”, child care and housing. “We live in a very expensive province and people are really struggling to make ends meet.”
On the Site C workforce, specifically claims that the dam project is employing mainly BC workers, Lanzinger says “my information from the building trades in that area is that many of them are not British Columbians. Some of them certainly come from Alberta, so that’s not too far away, but I’m not convinced that those jobs are going to people locally.”
“The other problem with what’s happening at Site C is that the vast majority of that work is non-union, so the wages are lower and the benefits are not there for the workers. We should have project labour agreements so that we can ensure that the people hired are British Columbians, that we’re giving apprenticeship opportunities to young people, First Nations, women, under-represented groups in the trades.”
She welcomes Horgan’s commitment to having a BC Utilities Commission review of the massive project and says “if that review shows that Site C should be built, the contracts will mean jobs for local people, better wages, better benefits and will be used for apprenticeship training.”
In the wake of the failed Liberal throne speech in which they abruptly, after years of opposition, adopted a long list of NDP and Green Party policies, we asked Lanzinger if she thinks the Liberals will vote to support those same polices when presented as legislation by the NDP government.
“How can you predict what a party’s going to do,” she says “when they have one set of principles one day and a different set the next day? Those principles could be different again tomorrow. And I thought it was a rather disturbing deathbed conversion to so many of the things that the NDP and Greens ran on. I don’t know. If they have any integrity at all they will support those things, but I find that political group difficult to predict.”
Premier Horgan is expected to recall the legislature in early September.
Comments
Bend over BC, it’s going to be an expensive ride.
He never won the election, i wonder how long it will take before we are in as bad of shape as Alberta is? The last time they where in it was an economic disaster, 20 dollar an hour jobs replaced by minimum wage jobs that where not even jobs, just paychecks.
Damn straight, he won it by a weird technicality! I have no idea how he can strut like a peacock and feel comfortable knowing that he had to do a chicken%#*t move to put himself in this position. Probably a criminal lawyer by trade! LOL
Naw, all he’s got is a masters degree in history which he’ll probably become part of soon.
I hear the ambulance chasers are lining up at YVR to help Trump refugees or border crossers, hope they take a flight, LOL!
Lol. Alberta doing pretty good, oil sector using new tec to process oil, new business investing, energy companies on board, hospitals and schools built lots of infrastructure work happening with joint Fed funding, not doing bad at all
You are kidding right?
Credit rating has fallen twice, $$$$.
Carbon Tax at the worst possible time.
Approval rating is lower than Redford.
Head offices moving out of the province.
Yea, Alberta is doing really good!!!!!
We have a good economy and overall a good standard of living. The Liberals did alot of good. Everyone blunders on some things and I am sure NDB will make alot more blunders. Mind you, Rasing the minimum wage is something is something that I totally agree with.
dpj. Perhaps you could be more specific when you talk about the **good** the Liberals have done. Tks.
Alberta is doing great alright, thousands of high paying jobs gone, 10.8 billion dollar deficit for the year, credit rating falling to AA and then down to A+…BC now has AAA credit rating.
The NDP told the govt to halt Site C after the election so why is Lanzinger praising the NDP. Does’t she represent the union workers on that job?
She is criticizing the Liberals for adopting policies that they did not support prior to the election (I had issues with that too) but isn’t that exactly what the NDP and Green did to form their alliance? ( I didn’t agree with that either)
what will happen and is happening in Seattle, is employers will pay good workers $18-$20/hr to do the work of 2 minimum wage earners. Thereby saving 30-40% and creating less employment!
As reported by CBC earlier this week!
Pretty soon all the construction jobs we see underway all over the Province today, will have to become predominately UNION ONLY, if you want to bid on them, just like they had to be when the Island Highway was rerouted back in the ’90’s, and when the Fast Ferry debacle was launched, both under the then NDP government.
What a union orgy that was.
There are a lot of us still around who remember how it was back in those days. None of us are looking forward to a repeat of those days, believe me.
Only for a short duration! Then the union jobs dry up too
I worked on the Island Highway, it was my first foray into a union environment. 10 hours pay per day for maybe 5 hours of work and I was never so bored in my life. I can only sit around doing nothing for so long.
X-it
So when your credit rating drops, your rate on financing debt goes up(interest)! That money is either made up through higher taxes or less government spending or bigger deficits which keeps the whole downward spiral going. In business we call that bankrupt.
A dose of reality re Alberta: it’s not all bad, and a lot of what was/is bad can be attributed to the worldwide slump in oil prices. The Conference Board of Canada says in its spring provincial outlook that Alberta will have the fastest growing economy this year after two years of contractions. Real GDP is forecast to increase by 3.3 per cent, thanks to the startup of a new oilsands refinery near Edmonton and efforts to rebuild Fort McMurray after the 2016 wildfire. (BC & Sask tied for second.
CL
Careful wolfie , reality doesn’t fit the righties meme . Green ,orange bad . Bluecon good regardless of reality .
canislupus, so Alberta has a wildfire disaster to thank for their increase in GDP? Where would they be if Ft. Mac hadn’t burned to the ground?
Fastest growing economy after 2 years of contractions! Hooray! So when they spiral downwards for 2 years and then bounce up a little bit off of the bottom, you sing the NDP praises?
You should move to Alberta and take over the job of Finance Minister. You can’t do much worse than the one that they have now!
I’m a retired union worker. The union has done much to improve the working conditions of employees, both wage wise and benefits. My father worked in heavy industry in the twenties and thirties and forties (I had an older dad). He told me stories of what it was like before the birth of unions. Working 10 hour days with a little break for lunch, having one day off, poor working conditions etc. etc.. But I just don’t understand how raising the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour will lift 500,000 people from poverty. I for one would not want to run a household and raise a family on $15.00 per hour and as one of the above comments made, when it is raised to the amount, stores restaurants etc will just lay off staff and expect others to do more. I wish the NDP/Green alliance well, but don’t settle on the $15.00 per hour, but rather starting from our school age children, work with them to have skills that will allow them to make a good wage. Plus get rid of the MSP Premiums, it’s shameful that the Liberals allowed that to get out of hand, $150.00 per month for a couple is ridiculous especially for people on pension and other fixed incomes.
Pigs get slaughtered . All the corperate money in BC and from abroad couldn’t buy the pigs a majority . Even the use of donor fraud couldn’t buy them a majority . I’m so proud of BCers standing against the viciousness of the Nocreds champaign of fear and lies . I too spent my working life in a union and listened to the generations that came before me . It wasn’t pretty . That’s why the righties are working so hard to destroy unions . Now the Greens and NDP don’t owe the corps foriegn or domestic anything but scrutiny .
Pigs get slaughtered? Have you ever seen pigs feeding at the trough? It reminds me of Horgan and Weaver, neither of whom had a majority, joining forces to keep the rest of us away from the trough!
Ataloss, Horgan did not have a majority but he sure found a way to buy one! Oops, wait a minute, he still doesn’t have a majority, what he has is an agreement with a bunch of blind, deaf and dumb “Greenies”!
Sad day for News250 when an article such as this,from the headline to the period at the end, is passed off as news. I had to double check to ensure that was indeed in the “news” column and not in “views”
Is it possible that Don Hawkins is the nom de plume of Irene Lanzinger?
By publishing submitted articles by the likes of Peter Ewart and Dermod Travis is is clear that editorial content here leans heavily left but please don’t try to pass things like the above article as “news” unless a return to Opinion250 is in the offing.
It’s perspective . When one is so clearly rightie in viewing the world , everything including small c to the middle to the left appears to be left in the extreme . In reality there is the radical rightie veiw which is marginal in numbers and radical left which is also marginal . Then there is the vast majority of us in the middle . this is why there are so few extremists in our country . Even the blue school is lightening up since they got rid of Flanagan .
Nothing to do with perspective and everything to do with basic journalistic standards or in this case a complete lack thereof.
The whole article is utterly devoid of facts while full of opinion without even basic proof that these opinions are backed up with even a modicum of proof or fact to back them up.
Union only for site C – and they complain about the costs now?
We hear much about left wing and ring wing, it’s like we are talking about fried chicken. If you be pro NDP, or pro Liberal or pro Green, why stereotype people? I have always been interested in politics and throughout my voting age have voted for NDP or Liberal or Conservative, it depends on the candidate running and whether or not they have a good policy and appear to understand what they stand for. The precursory to the NDP was the CCF = Co-operative Commonwealth Federation, which contributed greatly to our current medical service insurance. So every political stripe can have a good idea. Now is the site C dam a good idea? Maybe not, google UBC and Site C it’s a very interesting study/read.
Wonder if Horgan will investigate the very expensive 65 billion in IPP CONTRACTS, oh wait he loves enviromental bird slicers no matter the cost. Site C costs 8 billion, IPP power 65 billion, he ignores the 65 billion, Horgan you are a fake politician. Site C is required to back up IPP power when all that is required is the much cheaper site c.
The Hesquiaht First Nation band put forth a proposal for a $7-million micro hydro project it hopes will improve environmental and financial sustainability while also providing relief from the 24/7 noise and pollution of diesel generators.
It comes down to dollars . If the noise and stink were the criteria only , they would still want to burn diesel even though it is the most inificient of the choices avalible . But it’s not cheaper any more . Good on them ! They are tip of a very large iceberg . It’s a shame that cities are seldom looking at energy independence . Perhaps the villages will lead the way .
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