Re: "A reasonable outcome," Sept. 29.
The editorial commends the B.C. Government and Services Employees' Union for not seeking "increases the public purse couldn't afford." This reinforces the notion that the "public purse" is filled only by taxes from you and me, mostly from that increasingly threatened group, middle-income earners, or low-income working people struggling to make ends meet.
B.C.'s corporate income tax rate, 16.5 per cent before 2001, is now 10 per cent or less. By the end of 2012, the corporate tax rate will be at 9.1 per cent. In 2013, the public purse will be allocated even less of corporate profits - 7.9 per cent. The loss of tax revenue between 2000 and 2010 has been $3.4 billion annually. So blaming "the economy," as if it were some entity outside human decisions and policies for creating the "net zero mandate," is disingenuous at best.
To characterize being forced to give up one thing to avoid another thing being taken away as "co-operative gains" by the B.C. Liberals is simply the latest iteration of an ongoing attack on working people in B.C. Co-operative gains is another term for treading water, a struggle not to go under. The B.C. Liberal bargaining strategy is obvious: Set up an external threat (privatization, in the BCGEU case) and divert the focus from a discussion of wage increases and benefits that would even keep up with the cost of living, let alone create any gains for working people.
Diane McNally
Victoria
