VANCOUVER Liberal Finance Minister Gary Collins seems willing to sacrifice up to 40 per cent of our public services to beat a deficit that he created through massive corporate tax cuts.
If Collins were running a corporation, said Barry ONeill, president of CUPE BC, the stockholders would have fired him for incompetence.
The Campbell Liberals bragged that their corporate tax cuts would generate the
$6 billion needed to avoid a deficit. But even the right-wing Fraser Institute says this wont happen.
The Liberals say that to sustain health care and education they may need to slash other services. Yet, their policies are creating an even greater need for social, community and environmental services.
Public service cuts of this magnitude will devastate our communities, ONeill said. Anyone suggesting that this is a wise way to proceed has to be insane because it would deny jobs and services to thousands of British Columbians.
Such cuts could lead to more forced school board mergers. Smaller municipalities could be pushed to privatize public services, a move that might please the Liberals but further destroy communities.
Municipal infrastructure, such as water and sewage lines, could be left to rot, ONeill said. This could make our communities more vulnerable to a Walkerton-style disaster.
The Liberals, through a secretive core services review, are intent on imposing hardships on our communities without any mandate or any public consultation.
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Contact: Barry ONeill, CUPE BC President, 604-916-8444.