Little attention paid to B.C.’s struggling forestry workers
I’m a contractor in the forest sector in B.C. Like thousands of forestry workers in this province, my job has been lost due to a combination of over regulation by the government and a strike.
My reason for writing isn’t to inform, but rather to question.
I keep fairly current with the news, and I have seen much regarding the effect of the transit strikes in Vancouver, but relatively nothing about the devastating impact NDP regulatory changes and a Steelworkers’ strike has had on many communities in this province.
Do you know of the impacts? You need only look. I’ve heard nothing in the news of the foreclosures and repossessions that are becoming more and more common. Do you know that hard-working families on the North Island are being forced into dependence on food banks?
What about the fact that Claire Trevena, the MLA for North Island (who has been completely absent on this matter until very recently) is focused more on transit strikes in Vancouver (as the minister of transportation) than she has been on families slipping into poverty in her own riding.
What should her priority be? What should any of our priorities (MLAs included) be?
Unions striking over wanting more, or hard-working families just wanting enough?
We don’t want pity and handouts, we want our jobs and our livelihoods. We want our friends to have their jobs and livelihoods. We see some biased reporting (or lack thereof) on this subject, and I am sure if this sixmonth strike was affecting transit in Vancouver, or city workers in Victoria, it would have garnered much more coverage.
We want only to see the same treatment and rights in the media given to our hard-working forestry workers and their families, as those in the transit, teachers’ and city workers’ unions.
Ryan Swanson, Port Alberni
Private investment needed
I look at the NDP budget through a different lens than the politicians do. I believe the way to stimulate the economy is through private infrastructure investments, rather than taxpayer-funded infrastructure spending.
Although it’s a priority to build SkyTrain and replace the Pattullo Bridge and Massey Tunnel, it’s also important to create an incentive for private-sector investment.
Notably, condo development has been stifled by the regime of real estate constraints. It’s at the point where developers are having problems getting financing, as presales are below the requirements they need for financing construction of new developments.
These are government-imposed restraints that are having a negative impact on the economy.
Ron Faust, Burnaby
Fund health care system
Our public health care system is broken because of underfunding. The solution is not allowing private care to fill in the gaps, but rather to fully fund our current system.
Our politicians can’t serve two masters: the public and the private sector. The private sector wants to extract as much profit as possible, but if there’s a problem, it’s the taxpayers who bail them out. Privatization intends to capitalize the profits and socialize the losses.
Shelley Bevandick, Delta