Multi-lingual phone line improves accessibility
Victoria: For speakers of Hausa, Cebuano or one of over 100 other languages, real-time access to information about B.C.’S employment standards, in their native tongue, is now just a phone call away.
“With this new toll-free phone service, people will find it easier to obtain information about their employment rights and obligations,” said Harry Bains, Minister of Labour. “Everyone should be able to have their questions answered. This is especially important for people who experience language barriers.”
The toll-free number provided Regina: Conservative Leader Andrew Scheer welcomed 2019 with a warning that if Canadians reelect Justin Trudeau this year, the federal carbon tax that’s going to take effect will only climb. “Canadians know what Justin Trudeau is going to do. Now that his carbon tax is here, it’s only going to go up. And if he gets re-elected in 10 months, it will go up even more,” Scheer said during a New Year’s Day news conference in a Giant Tiger store in Regina.
“This time next year I plan on being able to tell Canadians that Justin Trudeau’s carbon tax is a thing of the past.” through the Employment Standards Branch, which is partnering with Service BC to pilot the program, The federal government’s new carbon pricing system comes into effect in 2019 in provinces that don’t have carbon pricing mechanisms of their own. The carbon price outlined by Ottawa starts at a minimum of $20 a tonne and rises $10 annually until 2022.
But Scheer told reporters that government officials are saying the tax would need to rise to $100 per tonne for it to be effective at reducing carbon emissions, and he says the federal environment department is planning for a carbon tax of $300 per tonne.
“So we know Justin Trudeau will raise the carbon tax higher. His experts are telling him to. His own government departments are telling him to,” Scheer said. “At that price home heating bills will rise by more than $1,000 a year and gas prices would go up by more than 60 cents a litre.” When asked by a reporter about his own plan to fight climate change, Scheer responded that the Conservatives’ plan will help reduce global emissions by capitalizing on Canada’s clean technology and cleaner energy, which he said will also keep manufacturing jobs in Canada instead of moving to countries without those things.