Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Declare war on municipal workers/managers wages?

In his column today - Vancouver Province political columnist Mike Smyth looks at a suggestion from Phil Hochstein, president of the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association of B.C. who is calling for the adoption of a "A Public-Private Compensation Equity Act,” which would see wages for government workers, indexed — provincial and municipal — at private-sector rates.

You can read Mr. Smyth's column here

For myself, and with teachers' on strike and BC Government workers' threatening to strike any day now, this could be another battle that the BC Liberals' may wish to avoid invoking... on the other hand, with the BC Liberals' so low in the polls, they may feel that have nothing to lose at this point and could score them big points with tax-weary municipal taxpayers.  Remember, it was this provincial government that brought in the Muncipal Auditor-General, against the initial complaints from local governments', and there was little general public pushback when the legislation was all said and done....

Finally - the issue of municipal wages/benefits has primarily an issue in the bigger urban centres in BC (Metro Van, Prince George, Kamloops, etc) but it really hasn't been a thorn in taxpayers' sides, here in the Cariboo-Chilcotin....  at least right now, but that too could change...

SBF

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