Dear Editor:
The Government of B.C. is spending millions of dollars of taxpayers' money on recent excessive television ads which supposedly support the premise that British Columbia is forging ahead with job creation.
One must be very skeptical of this misleading statement. Whereas our provincial government proclaims such ads to be factual, in reality Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec are, according to statistics, ahead of B.C.
B.C. is not mentioned in such statistics. The ads are quite frequent, and sometimes repeated in a very short space of time. They are, in fact, excessive, irritating and distorted. B.C. pays the highest gasoline tax in North America, the highest housing costs in Canada and amongst the highest transit fares and utilities costs for Canada. We are taxed to the extreme.
Putting British Columbian's to work is the biggest fallacy of all with reference to these ads.
The B.C. government is hiring a great many workers from China for our mining and shipbuilding industries. Are we to think these workers are more skilled that our own men and women who need these jobs?
Talk about leading us (the people of B.C.) down the proverbial garden path!
The government is concerned with whittling away at our union structure, and cutting out worker benefits by often hiring temporary workers who cannot receive benefits such as medical plans which help to better the workers and their families.
The B.C. government is utilizing as many "cash and grab" schemes as possible to bring dollars in the provincial treasury.
It is not the fault of average British Columbians that the government that they elected in good faith has exercised such poor fiscal management. It is difficult to believe anything the provincial government says, given it's previous record. Fee hikes, bridge tolls - we are being bled dry, especially by Crown corporations. Balanced budget? Inconceivable!
Jean Norris, by email
