I find some of the letters to the editor amusing when they start with not voting NDP and then refer to the '90s and B.C. ferries as the reason. Many of us went through more than just the '90s and in comparison to the last 12 years they were a cake walk.
CBC election reality reported that no government can control economic growth. World markets and commodity prices are the main factors that drive the economy. Proof is in the B.C. Business Council report on the economy over the past 30 years.
The real question is, did the liberals manage our province in the best interests of the people? The facts speak for themselves. In 2001 they changed the forest act and turned control of our forest management to forest corporations and eliminated any connection between our forest and community stability while giving forest corporations a billion dollars in incentives.
The result, more than 70 manufacturing plants closed and thousands of good, family-supporting jobs lost. In the North more than 2,500 forest jobs disappeared and with the Price Waterhouse equation of indirect and induced jobs that's 6,500, great so far.
Now we look at the sale of B.C. Rail. They said they would not sell it but did and paid $6 million to shut down the investigation.
B.C. ferries and the liberal's lack of support and investment in our own ship building capacity on the coast of B.C. begs the question. Why were three new ferries not built in B.C. but in European shipyards for $542 million, plus we have to buy all the parts from them.
The reason they gave for this award, it was the best deal for the taxpayer, really? I guess all the ship workers don't qualify as taxpayers or those benefiting from the spin off jobs, well their not taxpayers ether? Just think about the benefit to the province when all the money earned is spent in B.C. not in Europe. So how is the $16 million spent on ads for the B.C. jobs plan working for you? Before you answer add $11 million of taxpayer money for a Bollywood film awards in Vancouver in April this year. It's an endless list of colossal mismanagement of our money. Our debt is now doubled to over $60 billion and they want to put our hopes in more of the same for the next four years, oh yes great money managers aren't they welcome to today's BC Liberals.
Brian Croy
Prince George
