HOLY MOLY! Where to start? First, the whole Liberal Government sucks balls. i'm so full of rage i'm not really coherent, but below is a list of the things that are ridiculous. R I D I C U L O U S ! ! ! The general feeling of the whole shebang is 1. olympics = good and 2. let's make something better and more successful by taking money away from it! good job! NOTE: when I show budget cuts below I'm not ignoring any new programs/increases, there's a few there, but the cuts OUTWEIGH them by lightyears.
1. Min of Education hopes to raise the percentage of adults who can read successfully (literacy) from 66% to 67% within this fiscal. BUT: public libraries are seeing a funding decrease of 2.5M within this fiscal. I'm not sure if this includes the 1.6M cut of the adult literacy programs??
2. Education programs are being cut a total of 54.8M dollars in this fiscal. (Min of Ed document)
3. Culture and the Arts in BC are being cut (new stories). The Min of Tourism, Culture and the Arts sees arts/culture as restricted to the Olympics with this budget: "There are clear opportunities to boost the standing of arts and culture in the province, including the
2010 Cultural Olympiad, the final in a series of three multi-disciplinary cultural festivals that form the cultural pillar of the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games."
4. There is actually a DECLINE in tourism revenues in the Ministry's Budget: 13.8B this fiscal to 13.3B next fiscal (you know, the one with the OLYMPICS??) (Min of Tourism document).
Other funding declines with their "Strategy":
>Arts and Culture 19.5M 08/09 fiscal >> 3.67M 09/10 fiscal
>Funding Transfers to other agencies 298M 08/09 fiscal >> 75.3M 09/10 fiscal
>BC Arts and Culture Endowment 8.3M 08/09 fiscal >> 1.5M 09/10 fiscal
5. Ministry of Healthy Living and Sport: Their "strategy" is here.
There is so much to report on in this one, so just read it! but, there's a total loss of 67.5M from their budgets with the highest cut at just under 50% to Population and Public Health Nurses. Here's a story about how it's affecting people in my community, both jobs and services.
6. There's an 82M reduction in payments to municipalities! Fuck!
7. Ministry of Housing and Social Development? An 80.2M increase in Community Living BC. A 1.5B increase in income assistance. A 4.1M decrease in Employment Insurance. A 66.3M decrease in Housing supports. So, more welfare, but less help with EI and getting stable housing so people can work to get off of welfare? Also an increase in the amount for # of people receiving disability, which is awesome, but perhaps they're just restructuring it and those on disability who received housing supports won't get it anymore? Read more rhetoric here.
OBVIOUSLY, i could go on and on and on about the cuts, but i'll leave you with some tidbits of the Minister's throne speech. and, if any of this pisses you off: call, visit, and write your MLA! speak out publically against them in student papers, city-based papers, staff meetings, etc. THIS ISN'T GOOD ENOUGH! WE NEED CHANGE!
> "Mr. Speaker. This government has always been committed to prudent fiscal management."
> "Of course, we have another great opportunity on the horizon as well. In less than six months’
time, B.C. will host the world at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
With 7,000 athletes and coaches; a quarter-million visitors; and three billion television viewers… we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to showcase our strengths, our talents, our advantages.
Look what happened with Expo 86.
During the lead-up, we witnessed the same kinds of protests and doom-and-gloom predictions
we’ve seen in recent months from Olympic detractors. But today it’s crystal clear that Expo was a
critical turning point in B.C.’s history — supporting us to take our place on the world stage, and
serving as a catalyst for growth and prosperity. Hosting the Olympics will provide an even greater boost — just as the world economy is emerging from recession. "
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