Workers and the Environment

Lately there has been a protest against the development at Bear Mountain, specifically the protests are against the building of the highway interchange. This is another case of where workers and enviro protesters are up against each other.

Yesterday there was a morning protest in Langford against the development and about 20 workers showed up as well. The workers were angry, very angry over having lost wages due to the protests. These workers are angry at the system and the protesters are the part of the system they can justifiably rail against.

Meanwhile the protesters are clearly more and interested in opposing the very existence of Len Barrie's Bear Mountain development. They are enviros on the margin that are more just as much poverty activists. Their anger is against high end housing that is being built, the opposition to the interchange is only a means to stop the bigger picture.

On Friday morning Julian West was at the protest and on a video you can see him in a heated debate with the workers. I raise this because the Julian, a friend of mine, is also the NDP candidate in Saanich and the Islands in the next federal election. What this raises is the internal problem in the NDP, how can you be green and support the workers?

Local NDP MLA John Horgan has come out in favour of the interchange because building it will have some part in alleviating the hell that is the commute that most of the workers that voted for him have to go through each work day.

But the worker first aspect of the NDP is getting weaker all the time.

If you watch this video, you can see your typical blue collar worker




These guys work hard, they bring home a moderate income, they have houses and cars to pay for, families to support and they like a beer after work as they watch the hockey game.

These men are the old core to the NDP. They want a fair deal for their work they do. They also have pride in the work they do.

Meanwhile the highly skilled work that they do is called rape of the land, destruction of the world. Quite rightly they look around themselves and see how much worse was done in the past and what an amazing job they do now. They are not idiots, they can see there is a need for more houses and roads in this region and they have a pride in building them. They will be able to drive past the interchange with the children and point with pride at what they had a hand in building.

I have looked at the pictures of the cutting and I can see that they did a very good job. Falling is a very difficult job and takes a highly skilled person to do. Operating the big yellow equipment takes a lot of skill as well. No one is saying "I would prefer this interchange was not built, but you guys are doing an amazing job". Instead they are treated as if they are quasi criminals.

These workers are doing a job, and doing it well, that has been approved by all the correct people and is being done in a very sensitive manner. They are fully within their rights to work but people are stopping them.

The blue collar workers look at their pay cheque and see how much money is being taken by government in the form of taxes. They then look at how they earn less than most civil servants and believe that they produce something of value, certainly much more so than most government workers.

These workers see the protesters and see a lot of people that look to them as if they are collecting welfare. They are paying taxes so that people can be on welfare and stop them from working. They also look around and see that there jobs all over the place looking for people and there are still these people on welfare. There is an anger from the workers that they are paying such high taxes to effectively pay for what they see as leeches on society.

The NDP needs to understand that the blue collar workers, the guys with pickups that drink beer and swear, are unhappy that they are not valued, that they are being made to pay for all manner of crazy things government does. The NDP lost the blue collar vote in the 1990s because the Reform party spoke them in a way the NDP did not. The commonsense revolution worked in the same in Ontario.

The NDP is in danger of losing the last of the workers if they are seen to be on the side of marginal environmentalists.

The time for protest on Bear Mountain is long over, the workers want to work, let them. There are much more important environmental issues that need to be addressed.

New Tax Free Savings Plan

I like what I heard in the budget about being able to set aside $5000 a year for savings and have the interest and capital gains not taxed. As it stands, the money that you have paid taxes on already gets taxed a second time if you save it. This really is a disincentive to saving money.

The form allows you to take money out without any taxes owing and you can repay what you took out. Also, your contribution room rolls over from year to year.

This will make possible for people to hold larger and larger tax free wealth. RRSPs have only been a tax deferral system. This truly makes a major change to the benefits of saving.

If you manage to put aside $5000 a year for 10 years, you have contributed $50 000 and should have seen another $50 000 in profits and capital gains. You now have $100 000 in the bank that could producing $8 000 a year tax free. In 20 years you could be sitting on $300 000 with a tax free income potential of about $25 000 a year. $25 000 a year from a RIF will shrink do to taxation so you might be better off building up this tax free savings account and not your RRSP.

Wear Pink on Wednesday – Stand Up to Bullies

The Provincial Government has proclaimed Wednesday, February 27 as Anti-Bullying Day and is encouraging everyone to wear pink to show they are opposed to bullying.

The idea of wearing pink comes from an incident of bullying at Central Kings Rural High School in Nova Scotia where a Grade 9 boy was bullied for wearing pink on his first day. Students David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends were disgusted by the bullying so they organized a high-school protest to wear pink in support of the bullied student. This gesture is catching on coast to coast. BCCPAC challenges all parent leaders to challenge all the parents in their school community to lead by example and take a stand against bullying by wearing pink on Wednesday, February 27.

For more information see the following websites:

February 27 is Anti-Bullying Day

http://www.cknw.com/station/anti_bullying/index.cfm

Please feel free to share this with other parents.

BC Confederation of Parent Advisory Councils

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