All those community groups, social service agencies and service providers who have been getting the runaround about their provincial funding for this year should now know why.
As Sean Holman reports here, the government is looking to cut those grants to save money. Everything is on the block, from drug prevention to programs to women's shelters to literacy efforts to support for seniors. Provincial grants make up their core budget; cuts - or elimination - would be devastating.
The government's plan has been to stall the groups. Some are more likely to make their concerns public now that they know what's going on.
This is what happens when you have a recession…..maybe some newspapers will start cutting your columns and you will understand how the real world works….
ReplyDeletea couple of very nasty anonymous posts critisizing Mr. Willcocks.
ReplyDeletePlease Paul keep up the great work.
Anon might want to read economist Paul Krugman, who offers a nice lay explanation of the "paradox of thrift" and why we - and especially government - end up shooting ourselves in the foot by tightening belts in a recession. (http://tinyurl.com/lcp2pc)
ReplyDeleteAll the world is talking about the crucial role of fiscal stimulus to work our way through the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression - the IMF, World Bank, leaders from the left and from the right (Merkel, Harper, Berlusconi, Sarkozy, even Stelmach) are all united on this.
BC, with the highest child poverty rate and the worst unemployment rate west of Windsor, is talking instead about budget cuts.
No wonder the rest of Canada makes fun of us! We can only hope that all those business interests who are struggling and who depend more than ever now on British Columbians to keep getting and spending paycheques will knock some sense into these people, before we spark a vicious downward spiral that makes the downturn of the 1990s look like a cakewalk.