Budget is a gift to the B.C. Liberals
Re: “Spending much more than we have,” editorial, March 1.
Thank you for succinctly highlighting the folly of a government that lucked into a massive surplus and spends it like a reckless lottery winner.
This latest provincial budget does nothing to help generate wealth through supporting the growth, innovation and productivity of industry.
The NDP government has massively increased the size and cost of government since coming to power and done so on the backs of corporate tax-generated surpluses.
Given the latest economic projections, that golden egg will not be laid again anytime soon. The Liberal party now has its re-election platform presented on a platter.
Tim McGee
Victoria
How do they handle their personal finances?
I’m disappointed, but not surprised, at the latest NDP budget as it is another example of fiscal irresponsibility.
The finance minister says that the government intends to completely spend this year’s projected surplus of $5.7 billion before fiscal year end on March 31. Not one penny toward the debt unless they accidently can’t spend all of the surplus before year end.
She adds that tough times are coming and she’s anticipating deficits of $3.8 billion and $3 billion in the next two years, ballooning our debt to more than $100 billion. A tidy sum for our kids and grandkids to pay off.
It makes you wonder whether the NDP MLAs handle their personal finances like this.
I doubt it because then we’d be talking about spending their money, not ours.
Paul Lackhoff
Colwood
A senior’s reaction to the B.C. budget
How much is the B.C. government really doing to directly help tenants facing soaring rents and scarce accommodation that is affordable, safe and secure in a housing crisis?
I am a 78-year-old retiree on a $22,000 annual income who lives alone in an unsubsidized, one-bedroom apartment in Victoria that costs me $1,000 a month.
Rent alone consumes almost half my monthly income from CPP, OAS, GIS and a small monthly B.C. government housing supplement through the Shelter Aid For Renters (SAFER) program.
I don’t qualify for the federal government’s one-time 2023 top-up 91原创 Housing Benefit of $500 to renters; the cut off is $21,000.
The B.C. government announced a new tenant support program providing $400 a year to renters earning an annual income of $60,000 or less — as an income means-tested tax credit, not a cash rebate, starting in 2024.
This won’t help me as a low-income senior without a taxable income, in spite of the fact that the government says 80 per cent of renters will get some assistance, including seniors, people with disabilities and low-income British Columbians who already receive rental supports.
B.C. governments reward property owners with annual homeowner grants of $750 or more. Tenants are only eligible for a means-tested tax credit, unlike their fellow home-owning taxpayers.
This discriminatory, penny-pinching decision confirms that renters are second-class citizens.
Furthermore, it says all those in need cannot expect support from NDP social policymakers and lawmakers who reserve the majority of benefits for more deserving “middle-income” and affluent families.
Victoria Adams
Victoria
All that spending means future debt
Why isn’t anyone talking about our out-of- control spending? Have we given up on balancing our budgets?
Do you accept that we are planning multi-billion dollar deficits for years to come? Other countries balance their budgets and so can we.
How would you feel personally if 30 per cent of all you earned in a month went to pay interest on a debt that would never be paid?
Would you claim, at the same time, to be in a strong financial position? And if you found some extra money one month would you put it on a large outstanding debt, save it for emergencies, or spend it?
The so-called surplus is an illusion.
We need to find ways to cut back, and the government needs to have the courage to lead the way. We are indebting countless future generations. It is selfish and irresponsible. How will this all end, do you think?
Sandy Bell
Nanaimo
Bring Shakespeare back to our libraries
I went to the central library to find Shakespeare’s King Lear. Not one copy anywhere.
Shakespeare had been banished to the far back of the second floor. I could, of course, ask for a copy now in circulation somewhere in the suburbs and eventually they will have it on hold for me to pick up.
But what does it say about our library system that rates Shakespeare as unimportant, something that no longer matters to readers in Victoria?
Twenty years ago, in what used to be Ryerson University, I led fourth-year engineering students through King Lear, Orwell’s 1984 and Gabriel Garcia Marquez’ One Hundred Years of Solitude. Indeed, we skipped some hard parts, but they were truly excited about literature and wanted more.
They came early and stayed late to talk about the books. I know that today’s students are very different, but they are far more intelligent than most of us and I hate to see that they don’t get the very best literature.
Shakespeare didn’t write plays for a few, he wrote for everyone. and I don’t like to see his plays shuffled off to the back of the second floor — or discarded altogether.
How do other library users feel about this?
Allison Acker
94 and still kicking
Victoria
Inability to act to deal with biosolids
Esquimalt Mayor Barb Desjardins got it right by saying biosolids raise significant health and safety concerns.
Biosolids are toxic. In 2008, the Capital Regional District noted that biosolid silviculture application would mean lands become contaminated within seven to 10 years. This is why the Environment Ministry’s regulations require biosolids to be widely diluted.
It’s thus wholly inappropriate to send biosolids to Nanaimo — it’s just dumping the capital’s contamination elsewhere and CRD taxpayers will still be liable.
There is a good alternative, however. I was with Desjardins and former Metchosin mayor John Ranns in 2018, watching advanced gasification successfully process municipal waste and biosolids.
This eliminates toxins, producing clean energy, reducing greenhouse gases and landfills, sequestering carbon and creating carbon credits, producing renewable natural gas credits and clean biochar for sterile fertilizer.
These easily exceed requirements for biosolids to have a beneficial use. Esquimalt’s initial public engagement (albeit for solid waste) showed more than 86 per cent support, which is unprecedented.
A recent article said these systems take “several years” to build. This is incorrect. The systems can be guaranteed, built and operating in just four months.
The CRD allocated $50,000 for Esquimalt to expand testing to include biosolids. Once again, this has stalled.
For 17 years, the CRD has failed to progress thermal destruction as a viable solution, despite expert recommendations. The problem is not with the technology, it’s with a profound inability to act.
Greg Trevor
Victoria
Bring two-way traffic to the E&N schedule
A recent letter enquired if anyone had used the passenger service on the E&N when it operated. I did, several times, from Chemainus to Comox and return.
The main problem with the passenger service, aside from the trackage (should have been maintained by CP Rail), was the diabolical control of the service by Via.
It needs to be run from here.
When I used the service, I could not go to Victoria because the only service was in the late afternoon to the south and early in the morning to the north from Victoria.
This essentially required staying in a hotel for two nights to enjoy one day visiting Victoria.
Restore the line and get some modern efficient rail cars with cellphone collection of fares and add a few passing sidings (some exist now) to restore two-way traffic!
Barry Patchett
Chemainus
Tuning up a furnace pays a higher salary
Today, I paid $150 for a furnace tuneup, for 40 minutes work.
As a general practitioner, I make $32 per patient, spending, on average, 15 minutes with the patient, and similar time doing the unnecessarily complex coding and billing on this patient. For followup lab and specialist’s reports, zero.
Paul Brigel
Retired GP
Assistant professor, UBC Family Medicine
Victoria
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