British Columbia Federation of Labour

From The Vancouver Sun, November 20, 2009 

A competitive private sector needs a strong public sector to support it
 

Next week 900 union members from across BC will meet in Vancouver to discuss, debate and likely argue once or twice over the key issues of our day, how best to confront the economic crisis we are in. Our delegates are the women and men who work in all sectors of our economy, in all parts of our province.

Like all British Columbians, they have witnessed the economic collapse of the last year and are looking for solutions. They want to know how we can create and protect good jobs that support strong families and strong communities. Just as important, they want to know how this can be done in such a way that we halt and reverse the environmental damage we have done.

This is the dual challenge of our day. Answers will not come easy, but a few things are clear.

We all need a strong private sector. That is where we create most of our wealth and the majority of our jobs. Of course, we must ensure that our private sector remains competitive while keeping and creating good paying jobs. That means training skilled workers and implementing economic policies that encourage local jobs rather than exporting them.

But, we also know that the private sector and the people of BC need a strong public sector in order to succeed.

When British Columbia became a province over a century ago, the people and their elected leaders made a collective commitment to build this province. That meant investing in our public sector, building schools, colleges and universities, developing a health care system, transportation infrastructure, transit systems and power generation. And it worked. British Columbia grew, companies thrived, jobs were created and we built prosperous communities.
Our provincial government has ignored the lessons of our short history.

The Liberal's view of the manufacturing sector is built on the flawed premise that left to their own devices corporations will do what is best for the people of BC. They believe that businesses will invest here if we eliminate regulations and slash tax obligations. For eight years this philosophy has failed miserably. For example, we only have to look at ship building and the forest sector to see that instead of creating good private sector and manufacturing jobs, far too many good jobs have vanished.

Although the Campbell government claimed credit for their supposed "boom" years, there was little economic growth in BC other than real estate and consumer spending, and we now have high levels of household debt to show for it.

The other cornerstones of the Liberal dogma are tax cutting and ripping up the rights of public service workers.

Since being elected in 2001, the Campbell government has introduced 120 different tax cuts. And of course they have cut services and jobs too. BC now has the lowest expenditure per capita on public services in the country. We spend less money and employ fewer people in the public service per capita than any other province. Provincial spending on public services represented about 20 percent of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in the early 1980's. Today it represents about 15 percent. This massive drop in spending has come at a terrible cost, especially to our most vulnerable. The economic benefits that these enormous spending cuts were supposed to deliver have failed to materialize.

The Liberal's idea of labour peace with the people who provide these public services relies on ripping up legal agreements, unconstitutional gag laws and legislating contracts. The most recent example: imposing a contract on paramedics and dishonestly blaming it on H1N1, while adding to public uncertainty about the pandemic.

Another thing is clear. If we want to maintain existing public services and create the new services that we need, we must move back to a fair and sustainable tax regime. The Campbell government will have handed businesses tax breaks of $3.5 billion each and every year if the Harmonized Sales Tax (HST) is introduced next summer. Those cuts must be reversed. And people at the top end of the income tax brackets must return to paying their fair share.

The province is on the wrong course. Putting it back to where we have the public services we need and a renewed private sector based on skilled workers, decent jobs and value-added industries is no easy task. But rest assured, working people in British Columbia are willing and ready to play our part in this challenge.