Editor:
The recent B.C. Liberal government budget was unable to make provision for the necessary seismic upgrades to a number of B.C. schools.
This would have to wait for another 10 years.
Nor did the budget have any undertaking to initiate a plan to reduce child poverty.
B.C. is the only province in Canada that does not have a poverty reduction plan.
The budget did, however, grant $230 million dollars in tax relief to the wealthiest two per cent of the B.C. population. Only an economist could understand that.
More recently the provincial government raised the minimum wage by 20 cents an hour to $10.45 to take effect in September.
That means $1.60 for an eight-hour shift. Not much help for the workers who are below the poverty line every day.
And many of them are not kids living with their parents. About 10,000 of them are over age 55.
The City of Seattle has a plan to raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour over the next two years.
The business community is behind the move because they recognize that worker pay goes directly into the local economy.
B.C. workers will have to wait until 2034 to reach $15. By then the oldest among them will be dead. Only an economist can appreciate that prospect.
To show another perspective, the B.C. government has pegged the price of a million litres of Hope spring water at $2.25 for Nestle corporation.
How much does Nestle charge for a litre of that same water? Depends on where.
There have been 1,838 water advisories in B.C. in the last year.
Water is priceless in the places where it is urgently needed. Again only an economist could understand why the provincial government has named that price.
Money should serve our society, not be its master.
John Dressler
Williams Lake
