“Most of these statements, if not all, people once thought of as principles the BC Liberal Party supported”

For those who stop by on a regular basis to read my blog, you’ll have noted yesterday’s post, which was entitled “Under Premier Clark's leadership we've seen increased costs to businesses in BC, and to middle class families, who continue to fall farther and farther behind".

In part of the post I noted that:

 … many British Columbians, including business owners, are asking if this government truly represents free-enterprise, and the workers it employs?

I went on to say that:
If you ask people in the Kamloops area, to define this government's claim to representing so-called 'free enterprise', you’ll be met with varying responses. Whether business owners, or their employees trying to raise a family and keep a roof over their head, neither can see how this BC Liberal Government has helped them keep a few more dollars in their pockets.

BC businesses have faced not only the increase in corporate tax rates, but also user fees which penalize their business growth.

That led my nephew, a fellow blogger to respond by saying:
Earlier today - BC Conservative Kamloops Regional Director (and Kamloops blogger) Alan Forseth took the BC Liberals' to task over its' fiscal policies including a possible corporate tax hike schedule to take place in 2013.

For BC Conservatives' to continually 'squawk off' about BC Liberal fiscal policies is really getting old because if they truly want to become government in 2013 and want to rid this province of the fiscal deficit (caused by external forces), then they need to say how they'll make up ditching the carbon tax and which provincial services (healthcare, education, social services, transportation, etc) they'll dump in order to bring the provincial books to balance.  Sound bites won't do.  Actual list of services that BC Conservatives' will dump is now needed as the voters' of this province need to know how each political party will serve the best interests of this province from 2013-2018.

Well Steve ... as much as I appreciate your comments, you'll note that the basis for my blog post was ultimately the comments of the BC business community, which I happen to agree with.  Just to be clear, the comments I included, I believe, made a strong case for what I had to say:

… BC food producers have said the carbon tax hurts their bottom line

… the Business Council of BC has described the carbon tax as unfair because BC based businesses pay the tax, but their competitors from outside of the province do not.

…  Shachi Kurl, director of provincial affairs for BC and Yukon for the Canadian Federation of Independent Business said … “The costs of doing business are starting to become unsustainable.”  Kurl added that rising hydro and other utility costs, as well as the carbon tax, are other increases businesses have faced in recent years.  “All of this is coming out of the same till.”

… the Cariboo Cattlemen’s Association says the carbon tax continues to put ranchers at a competitive disadvantage ... “we’re paying the tax and there’s no investment coming back... into the sector to reduce our carbon footprint ... either exempt us from the tax or get a program in place to provide some benefits back to us.”

And the Fraser Institute stated that:

… competitive personal income tax rates enable the province to better retain and attract high-skilled professionals as well as promote entrepreneurship and innovation in BC.

Again, those comments make sense to me --- they are things I have been saying, and commenting on now, for a year and a half.

This government has a problem keeping taxes, fees, and utility rates under control … both for business, and BC’s middle-class.  I know it … the people of BC know it … and now even the business community is speaking out on it.

So Steve, what I fail to understand is why you would shoot the messenger?

Taxes and more taxes … fees and more fees. Someone’s not telling the truth!

The Carbon Tax is an unfair tax that applies unevenly to people across the province. 

BUT ... it also negatively impacts schools, hospitals, universities and other services we rely on, by taking money from their budgets, rather than being used to provide services

This video with Canadian Taxpayers Federation Director Jordan Bateman is from several months ago, but it clearly identifies the issues, and problems, with Carbon taxes and the Pacific Carbon Trust.

Here’s another video that shows overburdened taxpayers in BC pay the highest gas taxes in North America.

And finally, on today’s tax kick, comes further confirmation that we pay higher fees and taxes ... more than any other province (with the exception of Ontario)  ... as this Global News story from December 29, 2011 tells us.

As Shakespeare stated in Romeo and Juliet … “A plague on both of your houses”

We need less studies,and more action, towards job creation

Today the CBC came out with the story … “BC income gap getting worse”.  In it, they stated:

The first measurement looks at household income and found that BC is second only to Alberta as having the greatest inequality of any province.

In the second measurement, BC ranked dead last, having the biggest gap between the top and bottom 20 per cent of income earners.

The report notes that the gap has increased since the early 1990s and that other provinces have had more success redistributing income through taxes and benefits.

Ouch … redistribution of wealth!!!  Redistribution of wealth is not the answer! 

YES … we do need to have social programs that help those individuals, and families, who are in need and are unable to provide the necessities they require (food and shelter).  Redistribution of wealth however should not be taking from one group to give to another.

To reduce the necessity to provide what is needed for those on low or no incomes, we need a vigorous and aggressive plan to get BC moving forward with good quality high pay jobs in traditional areas that have always provided them … as well as in the new technologies.

Those of us in the middle class are getting squeezed tighter and tighter with higher fees and taxes --- and no resulting / corresponding increases in wages to meet these increased costs.

Misleading the public isn't the same as lying … but it sure comes close

BC New Democratic Party leader Adrian Dix

"I'm going to be bold," he (Adrian Dix) told the NDP convention in Vancouver.  "But I'm going to be modest in my agenda, recognizing that we cannot accomplish everything in the first term of government."

Vancouver Province opinion writer, Michael Smyth, called that ...  “confident, or overconfident”.   

Smyth then went on to say that, “… before Dix starts campaigning for a second term in office, he's under increasing pressure to say what he would do in the first one, and how he would pay for it. How much would that cost? He didn't say, though he repeated a promise to hike corporate taxes to help pay for it.”

My warm and fuzzy 'feel good because I'm saving the environment' is just not happening

Here we go again ...  yesterday I blogged another story on the Carbon Tax and Pacific Carbon Trust.

Today in the Victoria Times Colonist newspaper we have more on the insanity of this scheme, perpetrated on the public by the BC Liberal government.   The story, “Public-sector tax pays private-sector benefits -- Industry must fund its share if the carbon tax is to really pay its way” is by Independent MLA Bob Simpson

We were told --- promised actually -- that this tax would help us to reduce our carbon footprint.  Well it’s not working.  The only thing it’s reducing is the amount of money going into budgets for health care and our children’s education.

My warm and fuzzy 'feel good because I'm saving the environment' is just not happening.

Where are you David Suzuki??  I need you to restore my sense (not real or actual) belief that the taxes and fees, imposed on me, are actually helping to save the environment. 

I’m Alan Forseth in Kamloops; today with the brief thoughts of one conservative on this round ball we call planet earth.