Dear B.C. Voter,
If you had the choice, would you rather that your public funds go toward paying for the structural upgrades of buildings owned by private corporations, or would you prefer they go toward seismic upgrades of public schools?
Your government has chosen to spend public funds on pulp mills while it puts on hold the seismic upgrading of public schools.
Would that be a choice you would make?
Now, admittedly I know very little about the way a business should be run, but I do know one of the lines in any business budget should be for expected major future costs, such as structural upgrades. Shouldn't part of the profit made from running the business go toward saving for that?
Why do you suppose the government thinks it's OK for companies who have been making massive profits from our natural resources to get public funds for their structural upgrades?
What do you suppose is going through the minds of the politicians in charge of our province's purse strings when they expect children to go to school in unsafe buildings while they provide millions to upgrade a stadium roof ?
How would you allocate our public funds?
Are these expenditures of public funds what you voted for?
If I remember correctly, during the last election campaign, we were told that our families would come first in all government decisions. I don't feel that mine has come first in the many spending decisions that have been made in my name since the election. Do you?
Some families spend an average of $1,600 per month on daycare. When the premier was asked to spend public funds on subsidizing daycare, she refused. I still can't understand why Quebec parents have subsidized daycare, paying just $7 per day for someone to look after their child. Why can't we?
Speaking about the different levels of subsidies across the country, were you as stunned as I was to discover that ferries in Atlantic Canada are subsidized by the federal government to the tune of 350 times more than what we B.C. citizens get? Lots of food for thought when I pay almost $200 dollars for my round trip to Gabriola Island this Easter.
If I had the choice, I would rather that our premier had asked for a favour regarding ferries than to have asked for that big tax break for LNG.
About LNG. Do voters know that the process of creating liquified natural gas uses up lots of ground water and then leaves that water filled with chemicals we know nothing about?
What state will our water resources be in by the time our children are adults?
They will be adults by the time the licence that was given to Nestle to sell our public water expires. Do you find it fair that we pay for one bottle of water what Nestle pays for one million litres?
While the BC Liberals choose to virtually give away our natural resources, we are told that their priority is to "balance the budget." But we know that a government does not have to balance a budget like a household does.
We know that a balanced budget is not always a good thing. We know that central banks, like the Bank of Canada, can determine the value of a dollar. We citizens can't do that to balance our household budgets.
But there are other things we can do.
While a provincial election is still two years away, voters can still express their disapproval of the choices BC Liberals have made through the recall of MLAs.
In a few weeks there will be a recall campaign in two ridings where voters have been feeling like they are "low hanging fruit. "
The MLA for Maple Ridge, Marc Dalton, is on record as saying that child poverty does not exist in B.C. The MLA for Burnaby North, Richard T. Lee, is most often absent from his riding and hardly involves himself in community events at all, according to his constituents.
If you are a voter who has been feeling like your family's needs have been ignored given the BC Liberals' choices for the past 14 years, consider joining the recall effort.
In a thriving democracy, citizens do more than cast a vote every 4 years. Sometimes they voice their dissent about the way they are being governed.
Voicing dissent is a choice all B.C. voters can make.
Or we can silently accept the choices being made in our name by this government.
Sincerely,
A. Citizen
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