Freeland’s departure makes things worse
Monday’s resignation of Chrystia Freeland as minister of finance after being ousted by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is shocking.
It was presaged by front page headlines last week chronicling the dispute between Freeland and Trudeau’s office. It focused on the recently announced changes to pause the GST tax on certain products and send $250 cheques to eligible Canadians.
The flaws in this program are obvious. It is available only to those who worked in this past year, thereby excluding those like retired seniors, some of whom have a desperate need for financial relief.
Eligible workers are those who earn up to $150,000 annually, much too high a limit. A genuinely progressive tax should be focussed on the lower strata of income earners.
One of the products on which the GST is paused is alcohol — is this a genuine social need? The labyrinth of specifications of what products are included or not will cause serious problems for retailers.
The payouts will add significantly to the deficit and the accumulated debt, likely a major source of Freeland’s disagreement.
Controlling the deficit should be a significant element in the Team sa国际传媒 strategy to oppose U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s 25% tariff. All in all, this policy so misses the mark it defies reason.
And the dismissal of Freeland will cause increased disarray in the federal government at a critical time.
Bo Hansen
Victoria
Canadians should talk about federal taxes
Now that the GST holiday is underway, it’s time for a deeper conversation about regressive taxes. The Mulroney government won a record 211 seats in 1984 and by 1993 won only two seats.
One of their unpopular decisions during that collapse was that they brought in the GST. The Chrétien government broke its campaign promise to repeal the GST. Then the Harper government reduced the GST to five per cent from seven per cent.
Harper’s decision meant that the overall system of taxation became a little less regressive. Harper made no attempt to replace $13 billion/year in lost revenue. That’s also the problem with Trudeau’s GST holiday. No attempt is being made to replace a one-time loss of $26 billion in revenue.
Understanding the 33-year history of the GST is important. The Mulroney government knew that tax cuts for the rich were expensive so they brought in the regressive GST.
The Chrétien government decided that breaking a campaign promise was easier than taxing the rich. And the Harper government decided to undermine confidence in the federal government by reducing all taxes.
The promises for 2025 should be: Cancel the GST, tax the rich, fund the programs that Canadians desperately need, and rebuild trust in government.
Kip Wood
Nanaimo
Too much debt, too much faith in Greens
Premier David Eby has always taken the easy way out in conducting the affairs of the province.
Over the past few years the public service has grown by more than 60%, leaving the private sector to twist in the wind. The added cost is phenomenal.
The federal deficit has increased to some $60 billion, and sa国际传媒 is heading in the same direction.
We have massive and record deficits and debt in sa国际传媒 to deal with, and no promises of balanced budgets. That gives us little or no flexibility in order to deal with possible financial catastrophes, such as the 25% tariff increases being suggested by incoming U.S. president Donald Trump.
Now we have Eby signing an accord with a party in which 92% of voters did not support in the last provincial election.
The Greens put forth an unrealistic election platform, filled with massive tax increases and government spending. They included an outrageous downturn in some critical resource sectors, including tree cut restrictions in our already desperate forest industry. They would turn off our LNG industry, and close the Indigenous supported Squamish wood fibre plant employing hundreds of employees and having already spent more than $1 billion in construction costs.
The Green economic plan would have been a financial disaster, and yet the Eby has given two Green MLAs control over provincial financial matters. sa国际传媒 citizens did not vote for such a financial calamity, and that is not what we deserve.
The sa国际传媒 economy happens to be energy.
H.J. Rice
Saanich
Your ballot was wasted? Never!
Re: “New system would make every ballot count,” commentary, Dec. 14.
No vote is ever wasted! Our system of government is based on voters selecting the candidate that would best represent them at government.
Voting is a duty of citizenship and the more votes that are cast, the more credible the outcome regardless of the system of voting. Party affiliation is secondary to the process.
The provided example of New Zealand emphasizes that party affiliation as secondary to voting for the most capable candidate.
In British Columbia every vote is counted. No votes are thrown out or discarded. All votes matter.
The outcome is simple and understood. The person with the most votes is chosen to govern.
The writer correctly points out that referendums to change the voting process have failed several times in British Columbia. Voters did not waste their vote. They chose not change how those are chosen to govern.
The writer suggests that voters are the problem that by voting for other than the most popular candidate they are wasting their vote. How would they know that before the votes are counted?
Gerald Pash
Victoria
First past the post is not the best system
Re: “Proportional representation gives parties power,” letter, Dec. 16.
The letter has the facts slightly wrong. In the 2005 referendum a 57.3% majority voted in favour of election reform.
It was only due to an undemocratic rule allowing a 40% minority to block change that we still use first past the post.
As for parties having more power under proportional representation that also seems unlikely. All important votes today are whipped requiring MLAs to put party ahead of constituents wishes.
PR would reduce party power since there would be the possibility of disaffected MLAs deciding to form a new party if the old party runs roughshod over their members.
Today under FPTP, in most elections, the majority of voters are represented by an MLA they did not vote for.
Add to that the fact most “majority” governments have less than 40% voter support and you can see why FPTP in not the height of “democracy”.
S.I. Petersen
Nanaimo
Health care in sa国际传媒 is appalling
Am I the only person in British Columbia who is appalled that while Premier David Eby grants increases in salaries to himself and his MLAs, there are paramedics, working alone, who are taking patients in minivans to care?
Our health care is in dire need of a serious government, not the Band-Aid solutions of an inefficient government that does not meet the needs of its citizens.
My son-in-law waited eight-and-a-half hours to get medical attention at the Victoria General Hospital. How long do government MLAs wait?
Would they sit for eight-and-a-half hours or do they get pushed to the front of the line because they are so much more important?
Meanwhile poor seniors who have worked hard all their lives and contributed greatly to our province are waiting and waiting for long-term care under this government.
Seniors advocate Dan Levitt told the sa国际传媒 legislature and said that the services for seniors are “getting worse” year over year. He also said that there is a 47 per cent increase over the past five years of seniors waiting for a long-term care bed, which is an average of 151 days!
It is past time that Eby’s government got down to the business of running an efficient government and making sure that municipalities do the same.
Taking pay raises, automatic or not, is not something that I can respect from a government which is managing our province this poorly.
Carol Money
Duncan
Educational reform needed in sa国际传媒
As one who has been involved in the public education system in a variety of capacities for more than 60 years, and continue to be interested in and care about what happens to kids and those working in the system to support them, I feel compelled to comment on recent articles in the sa国际传媒.
As Geoff Johnson wrote in a recent column, the appointment of Lisa Beare as minister of education and child care is a “breath of fresh air” which is badly needed.
The Dec. 13 commentary “Pinballing children means they don’t get help” by Dr. Jennifer Balfour, a local pediatrician, is a timely prescription where to start on educational reform in sa国际传媒
The state of governance in public education K-12 is impacting the health and well-being of children and youth, as well as those who are employed to serve them.
A close relative, who has been a learning support teacher in the Lower Mainland, is so fed up she is considering taking early retirement.
She loves teaching, loves her students, but is so stressed about the political climate when learner resource teachers are routinely pulled from service to special needs students when the district hasn’t a teacher on call to cover regular teacher’s absences, along with many other issues; that the pressure is impacting her health.
It seems to me rather tragic that a gifted, skilled teacher is leaving the system prematurely due to faulty/inadequate administrative decision making. There has to be a better way.
I hope the minister of education will start educational reform by consulting with those on the ground, who are working with children in a variety of capacities to better address the needs of children and youth.
Balfour’s last paragraph, in which she recommends “a review of educational governance, accountability, collaboration, with data informed change ideas, and true energy for change,” sums it up nicely what needs to be done and I could not agree more.
The stakes are too high to ignore her wisdom.
Donna Miller
North Saanich
Cars versus public transport
Regarding the best use of available road space, there are valid arguments on both sides regarding the merits of car, bus and bike lanes. To simplify this complicated issue we could ask ourselves one simple question.
Should we make public transport better than driving, or should we make driving worse than public transport?
You are welcome.
Martin Hill
Sooke
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