In the last few months, we have watched as the global economic landscape changed. Working families in rural B.C. know that this crisis didn’t develop overnight.
Over the last three years, thousands of family-supporting jobs have disappeared from the forest industry. This came on top of job losses due to government policies and the decline of the fishing industry, which supported families for generations.
But the Campbell government sat back and said they couldn’t do anything. The finance minister even said there was nothing the government could do about the forest industry, because they were mere ‘spectators’.
Of course, there is plenty that the government could have done. Carole James put forward a five-point plan for the forest industry, but the forest minister government refused to work with us to implement that plan, calling our proposal “false hope”.
Now, with the global economic downturn, we have even more of a reason to be worried. If Gordon Campbell couldn’t do anything other than be a spectator during the forestry crisis, how do you think he will handle the coming economic changes?
Around kitchen tables and in small businesses across the north coast, people are taking a hard look at their budgets. We’re all thinking twice about where our money is going, and what our priorities are.
It’s not just families and small businesses that are feeling the pinch. As the new economic figures released November 24th show, projected government revenues have slumped by over $800 million for the coming year, and $3 billion over a three-year cycle.
With that type of news, you would hope that our provincial government would also be thinking about where public dollars are going. But unfortunately, that’s just not the case.
Gordon Campbell made a big deal during his economic statement in October by saying he would curb government waste. But since then, he’s done just the opposite.
Night after night, the B.C. Liberals are spending millions of your tax dollars on TV ads to tell us what a great job they’re doing. When Carole James called on the B.C. Liberals to show restraint and cancel these ads, they refused.
The Premier seems to be so out of touch with the priorities of B.C. families that he actually says British Columbians want to see their tax dollars spent on slick advertising campaigns. Does that sound right to you? Wouldn’t you rather see that money go towards services like health care, education and to alleviate the concerns our seniors have?
And apparently Gordon Campbell doesn’t think it’s a waste to award obscene pay raises to his top government executives while working families scrimp to get by and minimum wage workers fall further behind the poverty line.
Over the past few months, even while government revenues have been drying up, Gordon Campbell has handed out raises of up to 43 per cent to his top political aides. And he’s spent millions more on pay raises for top executives in crown corporations and government bodies.
And while families are watching their bottom line, Gordon Campbell has been spending your hard-earned money on thousands of gold-coloured medals with his name emblazoned on them. Yes, you read that right. Gordon Campbell actually spent public money buying thousands of these medals so that he could hand them out at photo-ops across the province.
In my opinion, the only gold medal that Gordon Campbell should receive is a gold medal for arrogance. If he really wanted to honour workers, he would have put their names on the medals, not his own.
And while Gordon Campbell spends millions of dollars on slick TV ads and pay raises for top executives, more and more people are falling between the cracks.
For the fifth year in a row, British Columbia has the highest rate of child poverty in the country, and more than one out of every five children now live in poverty in our province.
Tuition is climbing, and more and more families are finding that their dreams of sending their children to higher education are beyond their reach.
Families are struggling to make ends meet as the gas tax drives their already-high home heating bill through the roof.
If Gordon Campbell neglected so many people during the good times, can you really trust him to put your priorities first when times get tough?
In these economic times, families on the north coast and across B.C. deserve a government that will put their priorities first. That’s why I’m working with my colleagues for a prosperous province for everyone, especially for those of us who work and make our homes in rural and coastal BC. We need a plan to revitalize our communities that focuses on the needs of rural BC.