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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR - October 11, 2005
Dear Editor:
On December 18, 2002 the BC Liberal government decided that their program of privatization should extend to apprenticeship training.
So, in keeping with their less government agenda, they dismantled a trades training system that had taken 50 years to fine tune.
Their mantra was, of course, that government should stay out of the workplace and that no one can perform better than the private sector.
What they had not counted on was that the bottom line is private industry's goal.
In keeping with that ideology, companies found it cheaper to hire minimum wage helpers for the existing trades and look to other provinces and foreign jurisdictions for cheap labour. Result; few people were being trained for the skilled work force.
Well, what do you do if your best-laid ideological plans backfire?
If you're Gordon Campbell, you hire spin doctors to tell the people the economy is so hot that we have to look elsewhere for skilled trades.
Well, it worked, didn't it? The spin got us re-elected, eh? Here are the latest unemployment figures from Statscan.
People on UI in British Columbia by region: Abbotsford 7.1%, Vancouver 6.8%, Victoria 6.2%, South Coast 10.1%, Northern BC 13%, Northeast oil belt, 4.1%. All prairie province statistics are under 5%. So much for Gordon's economic boom!
This is not meant to be a political document---just the facts ma'am.
Sincerely,
HPToews, Princeton
George;
I wrote to you about the deplorable conditions of the Princeton-Summerland Road a couple of weeks ago.
I have since travelled over the road and have noticed a 100% improvement.
The Princeton 'portion' to the Trout Creek Ranch is excellent, while the Summerland 'portion' has been upgraded considerably.
I therefore thank the maintenance crews for the good repair work and hope the upgrading of the last twenty kilometres to Summerland will continue.
- John Akerley, Princeton
