I wish to take issue with the column written by Gord Stewart and published in The Citizen Nov. 21.
Mr. Stewart's position was that legislation is required to control public sector wage increases because the wage bill has become unsustainable for taxpayers. However his argument was defeated in his first paragraph where he claimed municipal spending increased 21 per cent in a recent ten-year period. Using simple interest that equates to an increase of 2.1 per cent per year. More correctly, using compound interest the rate is less than 1.9%.
Economists at the Bank of Canada aspire to a rate of inflation close to two per cent and are concerned when inflation increases by much more or by much less. If Mr. Stewart's figures are correct, our city officials might have been guilty of not letting city spending rise quickly enough.
Mr Stewart's argument is a popular one with folk on the right of the political spectrum. Bringing the taxpayer into the mix is a bit of a red herring. The argument runs that public sector workers have higher wages and better pensions than folk working in the private sector and consequently their wage demands should be curtailed by legislation.
The anti-parallel argument, that private sector wages should be increased to public sector levels appears to be a non starter.
Of course it is pure nonsense to assert that public sector wages are better than all private sector wages. Unionized workers in mines and mills enjoy comparable wages and conditions. Non-organized private sector employees suffer by comparison to unionized workers as a whole.
In this country, it is almost treasonable to assert that you don't believe in democratic freedoms. What freedom is more basic than the right of a person to bargain his/her working conditions with the employer without a third party interfering in the bargaining process?
Ross Pearce
Prince George
