March, 2009 - Bill Bennett’s MLA Column

The Political Question of Wages March 19, 2009

Carole James used her weekend provincial council to once again promote her
policies on minimum wage. The problem is that she continues to only tell
half the story.

* The fact is, our plan based on low taxes, high job creation and programs
to help our most vulnerable has actually created nearly 375,000 new jobs and
record-low unemployment rates for everyone including youth. Meanwhile, her
scheme would put tens of thousands of people out of work and crush small
business under new costs. Here are the facts:

* The average wage in B.C. today is over $22 an hour — the third highest in
Canada and two-and-a-half times the minimum wage. The average youth wage is
over $13 an hour, one-and-a-half times the minimum wage.

* According to StatsCan, the number of people earning minimum wage is
actually decreasing — from 6% in 2001 to 2.7% in 2008, the second lowest
proportion in Canada. Nearly two-thirds of those individuals today are under
the age of 25, and a very large number of those individuals attend school as
well as work.

* Recent research suggests a 25% increase to minimum wage as Carole James
suggests could cost small business $450 million a year and result in the
loss of up to 50,000 jobs at a time when our workers need more jobs, not
less.

* Finally, Carole James conveniently forgets that she voted against tax
relief and new programs that actually give money BACK to our lowest income
families, including:

– Multiple reductions to personal income taxes, making them the lowest in
B.C. for everyone earning up to $116,000, with 250,000 of the lowest income
earners now paying no income taxes at all. For a family of four earning
$30,000 a year, that’s nearly $1,000 a year in savings.

– Changes to MSP premiums now means that 215,000 families have their
premiums reduced from 2001 levels, and Fair Pharmacare lowered costs for
280,000 people, saving lower-income families hundreds of dollars a year.

– The new Rental Supplement Program is giving rental subsidies to over 7,700
families of up to $765 a month for a lower-income family of four (nearly
$9,200 a year) — a program that the NDP rejected as “a gift to landlords.”

– Enhancements to programs such as the childcare subsidy, where a single
parent of two kids under age 6 earning up to $38,000 a year will see their
annual subsidy double to over $14,200 a year (a nearly $7,000 a year
increase)

The bottom line — Carole James’s plan will undo all of our progress that
has actually put MORE money into people’s pockets, while also putting
unsustainable new costs on small business that will kill jobs. That’s simply
reckless and irresponsible.

K-12 Education March 10, 2009

Let me make one thing clear: “I like and respect teachers!” I have a brother and sister-in law who are teachers. I was a substitute teacher during university and enrolled in McArthur Teachers College before choosing to work in the fishing lodge industry full time. My comments here are not critical of good teachers who are worth their weight in gold, but of their militant, partisan union.
The BCTF has been shovelling its member’s money off the back of a truck for several weeks now, saying we don’t care about children or education. They hope to influence the provincial election in May and frankly they seem to subscribe to the old saying that if you repeat a lie often enough, some people will believe it. So, with no disrespect to hard working teachers, here are some facts:
•    B.C. has the highest budget ever [$5.68 billion].
•    K – 12 education budget has increased by nearly $1.2 billion – 23%.
•    We’ve invested $3.1 billion in renovations, maintenance and new schools.
•    Our legislation states that the maximum class size for kindergarten is 22 students; for Grades 1-3 is 24 students; Grades 4-7 classes with more than 30 students require the consent of the teacher; and Grades 8-12 classes with more than 30 students require consultation with the teacher.
•    All 60 school districts in B.C. have complied with class size legislation and government will continue to monitor class sizes throughout the province and work with parents, students, teachers and school districts to ensure balanced class size and composition.
•    95% of B.C. classrooms have 30 or fewer students.
•    99% of B.C. classrooms have 32 or fewer students.
•    The number of classes in B.C. with more than 30 students has decreased by nearly 64%.
•    Enrolment has declined by about 50,000 students.
•    Yes, some schools have closed because it makes more sense to spend education dollars on students in the classroom than on keeping half empty schools open.
•    I helped get the Sparwood high school replaced and I will help get Mount Baker in Cranbrook replaced.
The system is not perfect and will always need improvement. We are making progress, but the continued partisan, biased propaganda of the BCTF does not help students