Provincial mismanagement and disrespect for childcare operators has finally hit a boiling point
“I jump through the flaming hoops of death and I’m beyond frustrated.” This is one British Columbia childcare provider’s description of the circus the government is running regarding the administration of childcare. B.C. parents looking forward to $10-a-day childcare are in for disappointment. Provincial mismanagement of childcare and disrespect for childcare operators has been going…
Living in B.C. is unaffordable for many people and carbon taxes make it worse
Drivers in Vancouver are paying record-smashing prices at the gas pump and taxes are an extra kick in the head. Prices have hit more than $2 per litre for regular gasoline in Metro Vancouver. That’s the highest gasoline price in North America, along with the highest gasoline taxes. Before chuckling at the pipeline-blocking-moon-units getting their…
Drug users are going to keep using, so a better route to saving lives is to ensure drugs are clean and safe
We’re supposed to be merry and bright as we approach the holidays and the new year. This year, there are many reasons to be less cheerful and festive. We’ve managed to make it through floods, fires and heat domes, but the pandemic persists with the Omicron mutation, inflation threatens our economy and the big, ugly…
Charging money to access this essential information is an attempt to block people from knowing what the government is up to
If democracy dies in darkness, the government of British Columbia just threw our freedom of information rights into a black hole. Victoria has slapped a brand new fee on requests for public information. Now, when journalists and government watchdogs file freedom of information requests to get government documents, they will need to pay between $5…
Emissions going up despite the province having the highest carbon taxes in North America
Carbon taxes are an expensive failure when it comes to reducing emissions Emissions in British Columbia are going up despite the province having the highest carbon taxes in North America. Think you’ve read this before? That’s because this keeps happening. If the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over again while expecting a…
Premier Horgan really needs to start getting his spending under control
The interest payments on British Columbia’s provincial debt this year could pay the salaries of 4,600 new paramedics for 10 years. But, instead of paying for first responders or providing tax relief to families, a whopping $2.8 billion is being sent to bondholders on Bay Street and Wall Street every year to pay for our…
Using taxpayers’ money for partisan purposes is wrong
If cheating taxpayers out of their money were a card game, politicians would beat the house every time. Politicians in British Columbia have taken around $30 million of your money over the past few years. They’re spending it on attack ads, lawn signs and junk mail. This money taken from taxpayers is officially called the…
It costs about $50 extra in taxes to fill up a minivan in Metro Vancouver, not including the cost of the fuel
As we see the light at the end of the COVID Tunnel of Hell, many families hope to hit the roads to explore beautiful British Columbia this summer. Safe road trips will be essential after the strain many have been under during the pandemic. But, because B.C. drivers are being burned by the highest gas…
The Horgan government says that by 2024, it’s going to be $127 billion. That’s an increase of 45 per cent in three years
The sun will come out tomorrow and we need to start acting like it. Politicians keep telling us that we need to buckle up while they overspend like there’s no future, but, when we finally emerge from the COVID Tunnel of Hell, taxpayers can’t afford for governments to keep spending our bottom dollars. Premier John…
Provincial debt is more than $75 billion, and it’s increasing by $100 per second
British Columbia’s last budget feels like something from a distant, pre-pandemic past. Now the province’s throne speech gives a little glance into the future budget. And if we’re going to get back to balanced budgets, we’re going to have to go faster than Marty McFly to fix our finances in the future. Back in the…
Think you can avoid the carbon tax by riding your bike? Think again
British Columbians are now paying even more to heat, eat and drive to work. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's most recent carbon tax hike has found a willing follower in British Columbia Premier John Horgan. When Team Trudeau was fighting against several provinces at the Supreme Court of Canada, saying he should be able to impose…
It’s time to rein in the runaway salaries instead of saying you are going to and then reneging
In gift-giving etiquette, de-gifting is the most egregious foul. It’s worse than a re-gifter. There’s all the fanfare of opening the gift and thanking the giver. But then the gift is unceremoniously repossessed. Pro tip: don’t invite TransLink to your next birthday party. TransLink made headlines last spring when executives issued a press release saying…
‘This is about the B.C. government destroying a sanctuary for dying patients who want the choice to stay in a facility where MAID is not offered’
You might think the middle of a global pandemic is less than an ideal time to disrupt the operations of a hospice where palliative care patients receive comfort as they approach death. If so, you would not share the apparent thinking of the B.C. government or its local Fraser Health Authority, which is forcing layoffs…
Absent a wholesale restructuring of the economy, meeting the 2030 goal will be an impossible task
By Jock Finlayson and Denise Mullen Business Council of B.C. Targets. We all know what they mean, or think we do. Several words convey essentially the same notion – e.g., goals, objectives, ambitions and intentions. The idea is about getting something accomplished at some point in the future. This brings us to B.C.’s greenhouse gas…
Delta Hospice Society has been locked in a lengthy fight with the health authority and the B.C. government, and has now lost its funding
Directors of a Vancouver-area hospice are considering their legal options after the B.C. government abruptly yanked its funding because it doesn’t permit medical assistance in dying (MAID) on the premises. And an Ottawa lawyer engaged by the Delta Hospice Society says B.C. Health Minister Adrian Dix is simply wrong to claim the facility’s refusal to…
“I jump through the flaming hoops of death and I’m beyond frustrated.” This is one British Columbia childcare provider’s description of the circus the government is running regarding the administration of childcare. B.C. parents looking forward to $10-a-day childcare are in for disappointment. Provincial mismanagement of childcare and disrespect for childcare operators has been going…
