Editor:
Re: “Net zero for union rhetoric,” Letters, March 8
I could understand and sympathize with the dilemma faced by B.C.’s government over its public sector workers’ contracts’ non-negotiable “net-zero” and “me-too” aspects/clauses – give just one union but a single percentage point wage/benefit increase, and all the other unions’ who’ve already signed “net-zero” contracts have the contractual right to say "our workers want an increase, too." And, the government claims, every single percentage increase would result in another $2 billion increase to the budget deficit.
However, where the government loses my sympathy is in regards to the corporate tax cuts (some say by about a half) that its MLAs were tripping over themselves once elected in 2001 to implement, post haste. And then there are also the huge subsidies given to (some already profitable) big businesses. Where was the unrelenting “net-zero” then and there?
But they create jobs? According to statistics (where available), there have been little, if any, notable increase in jobs created here in B.C., Canada; although, yes, many very-low paying jobs.
No, considering the tens, perhaps hundreds, of billions of taxpayer dollars our provincial government has flagrantly granted to wealthy businesses and corporations over the past decade, it has no moral grounds on which to stand regarding this major fiscal issue.
Frank G. Sterle, Jr., White Rock