BC’s cold new direction
Paying attention
Tuesday, October 13, 2009The Liberals take B.C. in a new, colder direction
Things have been changing in B.C. since the election, for the worse.
The cuts in services and community supports and the tax breaks for businesses represent a big shift in the kind of province we're handing on to our children.
These aren't just the usual post-election initiatives, but changes that reflect a dramatic change in values.
The recession would inevitably have forced some changes on any government. But increasingly, it looks like what's really underway is a search and destroy mission aimed at programs and services that had been considered important.
These programs had all survived the Liberals' first term core review to strip government down to its essential roles.
The cuts are brutal and poorly thought out. Solicitor General Kash Heed said he didn't know that cutting $440,000 from frontline support for victims of domestic violence would be a problem. Premier Gordon Campbell didn't understand gaming grant cuts reneged on three-year commitments to charities. Both were reversed as a result of public pressure.
Hundreds of others are going ahead. Less help for autistic children, halving of support for school parent advisory committees, longer waits for health care, no repairs to leaky schools, cuts to kids sports, reduced treatment for drug addicts. The list is long.
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Liberals consider deep cuts to wide range of youth services
Minister says many of the proposed cuts are 'disturbing' and may not proceedMichael Smyth
Province Political ColumnistSunday, June 15, 2003
VICTORIA -- The Gordon Campbell government is considering $222 million worth of cuts to programs for abused and disabled children and adults next year -- cuts that could create widespread "health and safety risks" for B.C.'s most vulnerable citizens.
That's the blunt bottom line in an internal government document prepared for the provincial Treasury Board and obtained exclusively by The Province.
The seven-page document details dozens of proposed program cuts -- and their ramifications -- across the Ministry of Children and Family Development, including:
- Cutting family support programs by $3.7 million. "This is high-risk strategy as could result in increase in CIC [children in care] caseload when supports are withdrawn from families who need them," the document states.
- Closing the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre for mentally handicapped youth in Burnaby to save $3 million. The move carries "health and safety risks."
- Eliminating the Behavioural Support for Children with Autism program to save $3.2 million, also said to involve such risks.
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