Friday Thought over Coffee
Friday has always been my favourite day of the week, and this morning’s coffee is particularly good.
This week has been eventful. British Columbians were treated to a Throne Speech that, like most Throne Speeches was long on promises and vague on the details of things to come. A few items caught my attention.
The first was the promise of “new accountability and transparency” for the B.C. Ferry Corporation. That will be linked to the government’s promise to “take a fresh look” at regulatory authorities such the B.C. Ferry Commission and B.C. Utilities Commission. Hmmm, that’s going to be interesting.
This is the government who tanked the public Crown Corp in favour or a quasi-independent and “private system”. We have seen ferry service decline, and the cost to the user rise dramatically ever since. Somehow, I doubt that this “fresh look” is going to take into consideration those who live within ferry dependent communities, with a view to making their lives better. The Campbell government just doesn’t seem to understand that the ferry is a natural extension of the highway and needs to be run that way.
We will have to see what is in store for the B.C. Utilities Commission. My guess is that the government will weaken its authority. The whole issue of run-of-river power generation has caused a great deal of concern and debate within this province, and the Commission hasn’t exactly embraced this new idea for power generation the way the government would have liked them to.
Campbell is all about selling off public assets, and de-regulating public authorities so that the “private” sector corporations can do their business with less hassle. And it is becoming increasingly a “private” sector economy, and a private pay-as-you-go society, rather than a free enterprise economy where people can take advantage of an open market. More proof of this was heard when the Throne Speech outlined the government’s commitment to providing for more private daycare spaces closer to where people live. That is going to be expensive.
Perhaps to help those with young children afford the cost of private child care, the government is going to let those families defer their property taxes until a future date. The program, it seems, will be modelled after a similar program for seniors, who can defer property tax to give them some extra money to help them live their remaining lives more comfortably.
Works well for seniors because the money recovered from this deferral comes out of their children’s inheritance. Is it really wise to offer deferral of taxes to young families? Surely that will encourage the very issue that is crippling Canadians today; increased unavoidable debt.
What is being offered is not a grant, it is a deferral and sooner or later the amount that has been deferred will have to be repaid with interest. I am not sure how the Premier thinks that this will, in the long term, help those British Columbians who are struggling.
If the Campbell government is serious about helping struggling British Columbians, then it should scrap the plan to introduce a HST. But then, the tax deferral isn’t really a break is it. It will simply provide short term relief for those who find themselves in the growing line of unemployed British Columbians who have lost high paying employment and are staring at a prospect of work opportunities at only slightly above minimum wage.
How about our Prime Minister making that historic address to the British Columbia Legislature? First time it’s been done. I guess he missed the legislative halls since he prorogued Parliament and has been governing pretty much by fiat, and I am not talking about the car.
Ah, and let’s not forget the Flame. I see Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Flaminator, is running through Stanley Park this morning. Maybe he is up here scouting for a new movie. Or, perhaps he is going to immigrate and want to be seen as the best of Canadians. After all that is who we were promised would run the last day of the relay. Why would he do that you ask?
Well in Canada an immigrant who becomes a citizen can become Prime Minister, the top political office in the land, something he cannot do in the U.S. That is until the Republicans change the law so that muscles can be President. But then… would the Republican’s change the law…? I mean Arnold is one thing, but what if the immigrant was from Mexico?
Ah yes, Friday, time for another cup of coffee and to give thanks that I live in such a wonderful and colourful place that I do.
