Talks between teachers and the government have broken down; a government spokesperson said that ‘they just could not afford to meet the teacher’s requirements.’
Of course they can’t — B.C. debt exceeds $60 billion, and grows by about 10 per cent a year from the borrowed deficits, which are virtually unavoidable since we have to pay $4.6 billion a year in unproductive debt interest. Governments protest that the budgeted interest figure is only $2.6 billion — but say nothing about another $2 billion due to various P3s and the like which appear in no budget.
So the nurses, teachers and other lesser mortals must take what they are given after these secretive private deals have been struck. Un-discussed at any official level is the fact that many debt-free nations fund themselves wholly or substantially from their own state banks at truly minute cost — China, Norway, Germany, North Dakota on our doorstep, and many more, take your pick. In fact like we used to do, from the late 1930s to the early 1970s, when rabid privatization took over.
But it is more apparent every day that those nations wholly dependent on private finance are all in continuous fiscal crisis; while those that fund themselves from their own state Banks have little or no debt, low inflation, and decently functioning economies. How difficult can it be to find out first hand, when North Dakota for instance is only a phone call away?
When will our privately-funded parties take their heads out of the sand, and look around? We really do need to feel that a properly elected government is working for the province — and the nation — not for some foreign consortium of bankers with its own aims and purposes.
Russ Vinden
Errington