British Columbia Federation of Labour

Published today in The Province: 

Now that the Olympics are over our collective attention must refocus on BC's troubled economy.

This afternoon Finance Minister Colin Hansen will tell us how his government plans to deal with the deepest economic recession since the Great Depression.

The Olympics can leave a true legacy if the same imagination, commitment, energy and investment that went into Games are now turned towards building a better province.

With an unemployment rate of more than eight percent, and youth unemployment double that, the Liberal government must accept that unemployed workers can't wait until this jobless recovery finally begins to create jobs.

It means balancing the books later in the economic cycle and investing in infrastructure now.

The Campbell government responded to the economic collapse last year with a half-hearted stimulus plan, preferring tax cuts over deficit spending. This despite a consensus among economists that whereas a billion dollars in tax cuts creates about 6,000 jobs, the same amount of money spent on physical infrastructure creates about 16,000 jobs and 20,000 jobs if that billion dollars is invested in public services such as health care and education.

Given the tax cutting and budget slashing by government over the last decade, investing in public spending means jobs are created and overdue projects finally get started.

The last thing our provincial government should be doing is adding fuel to the fire by slashing public services and adding to the unemployment rolls. We also know that public sector layoffs have a ripple effect in the private sector and lead to even more job losses.

We need to be confident the economy will recover and anticipate the skills we will need. This means investing in education and skills training.

We desperately need to hear the government say it has a plan to bring back good paying jobs in manufacturing, forestry and other resource sectors through a plan that includes a moratorium on log exports, investment in training and help for ailing industries.

A long overdue discussion on taxes is key to building the kind of province we all want.