Public services and privatization
Inside this issue:
Time to Raise BC’s Minimum Wage
BC Hydro Deals Mean Higher Energy Prices in BC’s Future
First Nations Forestry Accords: Not a Partnership of Equals
BC Budget 2007: The Housing Budget That Wasn’t
TILMA’s Attack on Public Interest Regulation
Many people were recently outraged when the Auditor-General told us about the money and perks bestowed on those managing Ontario’s two major public electricity companies—Hydro One and Ontario Power Generation. What most people don’t know, however, is that the money and the perks are “small potatoes” when compared to the multi-million-dollar compensation packages and perks that Premier Dalton McGuinty plans to include in Ontarians’ future electricity bills.
Inside this special health care edition:
We expect governments to make decisions as to what programs have outlived their purpose or are deemed a waste of resources. We also expect governments to provide clear justification and to consult with us when it undertakes significant program cuts and policy shifts.
Governments will inevitably face resistance from the various interests that have benefited from the programs being cut – all the more reason to provide a clear rational for program cuts if governments are to maintain pubic support.
Imagine you are buying a new house that is so expensive your kids will get stuck with paying off the mortgage; so modern the design has only been used for a decade; and so risky that all previous construction attempts were unsuccessful. You are to sign the purchase contract without checking out what went wrong with the previous failures. In addition, the contract contains a clause that states you can never sell, trade, or otherwise get rid of the house.
This is pretty much the electricity deal the McGuinty government is signing on behalf of the citizens of Ontario.