Pre-election budget offers little for struggling British Columbians
On the eve of a provincial election, Christy Clark is doing anything she can to distract from the fact that she has turned British Columbia into a province where people can’t afford to live and build a future.
Half of British Columbians are living paycheck to paycheck, while hydro rates, car insurance, and medical services premiums have skyrocketed year after year. (Since Clark was elected the average family is paying more than $1,000 more for Hydro, MSP and ICBC fees alone.)
Clark has spent the last six years cutting and neglecting needed services, while millionaires have gotten more than a billion dollars in tax breaks. Now, she wants us to forget she hit us with endless hikes to Medical Services Plan premiums, rising hydro bills, skyrocketing housing costs, 15 years of cuts to our kids’ classrooms, a crisis in child care affordability, and the worst wage growth in Canada.
Whether it’s unaffordable housing, leaving seniors to suffer in understaffed care homes, long waits for basic healthcare, or the lack of family doctors, ordinary British Columbians have paid the price for the premier’s tax cuts to the rich.
We need an economy that works for everyone, not just the wealthy and the well-connected.
We need a long term plan that puts people and the services they need at the center, not budgets based on buying people with their own money at election time.
Read Clark’s pre-election budget at
http://bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2017/default.htm
Standing against hate and fear
I know that many of you are concerned about the increasingly concerning political climate in the United States.
Over the past few weeks, I have attended marches and rallies in solidarity with
women and people impacted by U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban on nationals from seven Islamic countries.
I will lend my voice whenever possible to strengthen and defend the values and principles Canada is built on, and ensure that we support those who are being put at risk by oppression and hatred. We must not allow the politics of fear to divide us.
As former federal NDP opposition leader Jack Layton once reminded us: “Love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair. So let us be loving, hopeful and optimistic.”
Thank you for your generosity: 2016 holiday food drive a success
Thank you to everyone who stopped by my office in December with donations for my annual holiday food drive.
We collected several boxes of staples, such as peanut butter, tuna, and whole wheat pasta, which I delivered to the Greater Vancouver Food Bank depot on Raymur Avenue just before Christmas.
As always, I am humbled by the generosity
of our community. Thank you for helping to make sure our neighbours are able to access healthy food when needed.
The food bank needs donations throughout the year, especially cash donations (every $1 raised purchases $3 of local, fresh, and healthy food for families and individuals in need).
Visit
http://bit.ly/1mSal0E
to make a cash donation online, or to find out how to start a virtual food bank drive online.
YEAR OF THE ROOSTER
Wishing you peace and prosperity in the Year of the Rooster from a wet Lunar New Year parade!
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