Pieces are begining to be written about our inability to care for those most in need since the spending spree of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver/ Whistler.

The School Board in my area is forced to close 14 schools in this district alone.
The provincial budget brings further cuts to the social safety net while the finance minister introduces a bill that shifts $4 BILLION in taxes from the business and corporate side onto the heads of private citizens. (HST = Harmonized Sales Tax)

Here's an article from today's Vancouver Sun::::

After the pricey 2010 party, the poor take it in the teeth
By Pete McMartin, Vancouver SunApril 3, 2010 This news arrived earlier in the week:

We now live in a province where the government is so cash-strapped that the trimming of its budget includes downgrading the frequency with which we clean the teeth of poor children. The tykes will now only be required to be tortured by their dentists once a year rather than twice, as was previously allowed. Out of the mouths of babes, presumably, will come fiscal prudence. And, possibly, teeth.

And this:

Where once the poor and afflicted could qualify for the province's monthly nutritional supplement program by exhibiting just one of the symptoms in a list that included malnutrition, significant weight loss or significant neurological degeneration, they must now exhibit two of the symptoms to qualify. It's a new world out there, folks. Coming down with pneumonia just doesn't cut it any more. It has to be double pneumonia.

I kid, but shouldn't. These are but two among a list of cuts the provincial government made to its income assistance programs earlier this week, and reading that list is not just sobering, it's dispiriting.

This is a diminished government rummaging behind the sofa cushions looking for chump change.

The Liberals intend to trim about $25 million from those programs over the next two years. The government argues that most of these savings will come from the elimination of overlapping services and the more efficient procurement of medical equipment and supplies. To be fair to the government, this may be the case, though it is too early to tell. Even advocates for those affected, as alarmed as they are, are largely taking a wait-and-see approach.

What was immediately alarming, however, was the reasoning behind the cuts, and what it said of our priorities. Despite the much-proclaimed economic recovery underway -- the benefits of which are uneven, if not illusory -- the number of people now getting income assistance has increased by 15 per cent over the last year, to a total of just over 177,000 people. That is huge. That is an increase that cannot be put down to an influx of "welfare bums." That is an additional $20 million in payments per month.

"The budget is very tight because of the increase in the number of people on social assistance," said Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman.

"It's a reality of life that you've got to balance your services to what you can pay for."

How undeniably true that is. It is also true that on the same day that Sun reporter Jonathan Fowlie's front-page story about the income assistance cuts ran, below it, at the bottom of the page, was a column written by my colleague Miro Cernetig on how the provincial government was building a $7-million wooden apartment building in Beijing, in a nation with the largest cash reserves ever amassed, to promote B.C.'s lumber industry.

And some weeks before that, business columnist Don Cayo wrote about the fabulously generous government subsidies the fabulously well-paying film industry enjoys in B.C. Tell me: Business and industry types are always telling government to get out of their way so they can do their job. Does that job include standing on their on two feet, or do they consider the government crutches of "subsidies" and "tax credits" different from poor kids visiting the dentist all of twice a year?

I know the argument. Government is helping business create jobs. But isn't it the business of business to create jobs?

And shouldn't it be the priority of government to first help those who have lost their jobs, or help those who can't help themselves?

These aren't just questions we should ask of the government: We should ask them of ourselves. I hate to bring this up, again, but we have just finished throwing the largest and most expensive party in our province's history. It cost billions.

Most people felt it was money well spent or, at the very least, great fun. Many have since waxed poetic about the intangibles it inspired -- a new sense of patriotism, the rekindling of fun in the city, the love of sport. The idea for that party -- no lie -- started when some guy thought, "Let's throw a party," and he told another guy, and that guy told another guy, and a committee was formed, and the committee lobbied the government, and billions of dollars and years later the Olympics arrived.

It was all so extemporaneous as to pose the question: Is there anyone really in charge out there any more? Is anyone planning for the rainy days? Or have we been lurching from one eventuality to another?

And what does it say about our government, and us, that on the "balance" Rich Coleman so sternly and pragmatically philosophizes about, the care of poor children's teeth tip the scales so lightly?

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

The comfort of the poor, depend on the abundance of the rich.

iStack 'em

I am sure your Government will find something new to tax...they do here all the time. Really sucks being dependant on the Government for everything.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Really sucks being dependant on the Government for everything.

No doubt it would. But it beats the alternative of having no safety net at all. Where do people go and what can they do if they're unable to meet their own needs, either by being disabled in some way or because of a job loss that wasn't their choice?

A healthy, caring society takes steps to ensure people aren't allowed to fall by the wayside.
It seems that a healthy, caring society isn't in the right wing game plan.

They spent money like a sailor on leave during the Olympics and now there's nothing left.
Who ends up paying for that spending spree? The people who can afford it the least.
These cut backs in social spending don't hurt wealthy people because they never access those services.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Really sucks being dependant on the Government for everything.

No doubt it would. But it beats the alternative of having no safety net at all. Where do people go and what can they do if they're unable to meet their own needs, either by being disabled in some way or because of a job loss that wasn't their choice?

A healthy, caring society takes steps to ensure people aren't allowed to fall by the wayside.
It seems that a healthy, caring society isn't in the right wing game plan.

They spent money like a sailor on leave during the Olympics and now there's nothing left.
Who ends up paying for that spending spree? The people who can afford it the least.
These cut backs in social spending don't hurt wealthy people because they never access those services.

Can't argue with you there...It is sad how little families take care of their own here. When people get old they just ship them off to an old folks home and barely visit. If families were more involved and cared a bit more there wouldn't be as much need on the services. My mother is getting old and we have decided we will do whatever it takes to keep her home and work within our means to keep her happy and well. My neighbors across the street are all doing well but even though their mother wanted to stay home they shipped her out and sold her house, too much bother.

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Official Abuser of Boinc Buttons...
And no good credit hound!

Therein lies the difference between members of a society and members of the consumer culture.

One looks after their own while the other sees no value or return on investment in caring for their own.
They never seem to think about how their parents cared for them when they were young and absolutely helpless.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

/off topic is it really necessary to quote the person you are replying to when they are the previous person in the thread. Quoting just makes the thread spread out pointlessly. /end offtopic

I think my little town of Arlington texas is figuring out how bad it got screwed over by Jerry Jones and his Dallas Cowboys Deathstar. Between the lowball payoff(rent) that Jones pays to the massive overtime that is required by the city Police force. The excessive arrests associated with events that occur there and the massive road work required to make the stadium accessible has a cost of nearly $1 billion. So he built a $1 billion stadium and well you get the picture. Everyone but Jerry Jones is paying to make his stadium a working operation. The city council and Mayor need to be ridden out of town on a rail.

I feel for you my neighbor to the North

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

They spent money like a sailor on leave during the Olympics and now there's nothing left.

There is the value, for whatever it might be perceived, and many a common working stiff earned a good living from the build-out of the Olympics that they would not have had otherwise.

Recall an enormous economic meltdown nearly seized-up the construction industry. Those working stiffs paid taxes because they had jobs they wouldn't have otherwise had.

Those taxes went to pay social service workers who delivered services.

Those social service workers paid taxes...you get the picture.

Just saying it is a more complex picture (and by way of disclaimer the closest I ever got to the construction industry was renovating my home; I work in IT, and in Ontario).

Regards,

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Yeah right....even the Canada Pavilion was built by an American construction company.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Yeah right....even the Canada Pavilion was built by an American construction company.

By Americans too? Nothing, no money at all flowed to tax any paying Canadians?

You do realize that social services only exist because of the excess of taxation available to serve them right?

No taxes, no social services.

Not enough taxs and it goes first to keeping the streets safe and the water clean. Again no social services for those who can't take care of themselves, or won't.

You need people earning money first. Not the other way 'round. I would think a socially responsible Canadian would want a thumping robust economy so that there was plenty of excess taxation to afford the very best social services imaginable.

Regards,

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Thanks for the civics lesson.

I guess I'm imagining all of the social cutbacks. The Olympics may have brought a few short term jobs for regular old working people but the overwhelming amount of capital spent by the conservative/reformer/right wingers, who hijacked the Liberal party in order to steal the name, went into the already overflowing investment portfolios of those who needed it least.

Now, in order to pay the piper, the conservative/reformer/right wingers are cutting back on the services they themselves never use. The social safety net services that care for the needs of the people at the bottom of the monetary piramid.

I notice that the conservative/reformer/right wingers haven't introduced a progressive taxation system which would place more emphasis on the very wealthy contributing slightly more.
I notice they can still deduct martinis consumed while talking business.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

And what of all those who don't declare their taxes, taking their pay in cash? Who's chasing those lost tax dollars with the same indignation?

What about those who pay no tax because of the numerous and overlapping deductions that leave others who have no access to them to pay more than their fair share (read the working stiffs in the middle class here)? Is there any indignation left over for where the majority of the inequity in the tax system falls?

What about all the native "tax havens" marketing cigarettes and the like into the general economy and dodging taxation that would have gone to help fund our cherished socialized medicine (of which I am very very grateful to have available to me and my family).

If you are upset that the wealthiest are, well weathly (come now, this IS Canada after all - they get it in the neck well and truly) what of all the frauds on the tax system, as above? They're the real source for why the government is choking for the funds it should have.

Ramp up the taxes to the sky on the wealthy. Take away every single dollar they earn! I'm sure they will continue to work diligently to earn more to be taken away next year.

And since they've managed to become wealthy - each and every one of them isn't in any way a productive citizen creating jobs and jobs and jobs for the working stiffs. They're wealthy! They CAN'T have done sometime positive for society to have earned it.

Patterson and his car dealerships should never have been allowed! All those employees would have been much better off unemployed and getting their cheques from mother government, instead of having to hault their asses into work everyday.

I hope you enjoyed my scarcasm as much as the civics lesson.

In the end it wouldn't put a dent into the harm done by the real tax leaks if we took everything from those who have the most. There's just not enough of them.

Get indignant about the real tax frauds and leaks and you'll have my support.

Regards,

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"Homeless on Vancouver's streets drops 47 per cent"

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2010/04/08/bc-vancouver-homeless-count-results.html#ixzz0kY9SZYnn

According to the article,

"The preliminary results of Vancouver's recent homeless count appear to suggest that the number of people living on the streets has dropped by nearly 50 per cent in the past two years."

That would seem to suggest that social services are reaching the very worst off in society I think and rather successfully. At least for the last two years and thank goodness too - I was in Vancouver in the summer of '08 and was shocked to see the social problems in the city that was once my home in the mid '60s.

Regards,

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I'm betting that the homeless were given tickets on the bus to any number of Cities that the local constabulatory from Vancouver chose to send them.

For the record I do know this happens in Rockford Illinois. they usually get them a ticket to Omaha Nebraska.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Robert is right to be concerned about cuts to social programs. As the rest of the article goes on to say "the report also warned the number of homeless on the streets could nearly double, if funding for the shelters is not extended at the end of the month."

From the jist of it, it doesn't sound like they're just shipping them off but, if cuts are made, two years of improvements disappear. Perhaps Robert knows what they've been doing to get the improvements they have thus far.

Regards,

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Many were shipped out of Vancouver to places like this...

http://www.baldyhughes.com/Welcome.html

It's just outside of my town in the middle of the province.
While the services offered are all agreeable to me, the place was also a very convenient dumping ground during the Olympics.
Notice the last item they offer treatment for.

I'm sure anyone wishing to spend the time could easily fing many more sites like this all over the province.

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I do not fight fascists because I think I can win.
I fight them because they are fascists.
Chris Hedges

A riot is the language of the unheard. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

I didn't realize that chronic homelessness was a disease... or is it an adicition. Now I'm scared.

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In a rich man's house there is no place to spit but his face.
Diogenes Of Sinope

Many were shipped out of Vancouver to places like this...

Interesting. Better than just a bus ticket out of town but the problem is, what about when the money dries up, incoming and outgoing? Not good.

Regards,

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