Happy CanaDay! Ready for HST?
The government of BC has found a terrific new way for you to help out with provincial finances: Buy more stuff. It doesn’t matter what you buy, as long as you buy more of it and pay more taxes on many items. Oddly enough not everyone loves this plan.
Oh, and for you sneaky unpatriotic types that were thinking about driving across the border to do some shopping based on new tax loophole, it’s not going to work right now.
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July 3rd, 2010 at 4:37 pm
RP #82:
Thanks for the response. I’m still not quite sure it is coherent. I was talking about university admissions primarily and public sector wages secondarily. You partly changed the subject to foreign workers sending remittances home and the BC Liberal decision to rescind contracts.
I asked what an appropriate wage is for public sector workers in specific well-understood occupations (union in some cases, non union in my case) and what you would consider an appropriate wage for yourself. You suggested that I subscibe to the notion that public sector wages should be exhorbitant, and that all public sector employees do is wake up in the morning, check the paper and cash my gov’t cheque. I can assure you this isn’t true. If it were, how could UBC and SFU both be considered as one of the top 200 Universities worldwide? What I really wanted to know is what you would consider a fair wage for the work public sector employees do and what you would consider an acceptable wage for what you do.
I challenged the underlying libertarian theme of your posts that a system run entirely by private enterprise would be more efficient and you came back not with substance, but by saying that I was ideologically delusioned. I’m asking for substance.
Fair enough if you think that BCIT, Kwantlen Etc are not adequate for education. I respectfully disagree. I’d also point out that Langara is one of the largest single senders of students to UBC – their two year shingle is a waypoint to a four year UBC degree.
You suggest that I was talking about minimum university cutoffs. I was indeed citing competitive cutoffs and suggest that your numbers are incorrect. While business programs are the outlier, those programs have recognized that there is little differentiation using GPA at the high end. A 95% student is not significantly different than an 89% students. Given that, they have moved to broader based admissions at UBC and SFU that includes consideration of qualities beyond the GPA).
Those programs admitting on GPA alone at UBC are looking for high 80′s, not 95+ as you suggest. I am using a three year running-average, not just this year. The minimum published average is 67%, which is an average they have not admitted at in years, so I grant that your concept is correct, but your details are off.
SFU and UVic both have admissions averages at 80% and 75% respectively for most of the entrants to their university. This is a B average.
My source is the fact that I advise these students each day and work in a capacity that helps to set these averages based on supply of seats and demand by students. Don’t trust me? See:
http://students.sfu.ca/counsellors/
I’m actually quite curious, though. You mentioned you look for 110%ers when hiring. What wage do you offer them? What wage do your offer yourself? You might work in an industry that can draw a straight line between a worker and dollars of revenue, and that’s great. In the US, putting university recruiters on commission was actually outlawed because it can lead to terrible outcomes for students.
Those working in the public sector cannot usually draw a line between revenue and output. It would add administrative bloat to put a system in place that did.
What is an adequate wage to pay a nurse? (let’s say a Canadian-born and trained nurse to keep the question uncluttered) What about a teacher? What about yourself?
July 3rd, 2010 at 8:27 am
#80 JL, I suggest you get out of the union fired dribble glass mentality and get a grip on reality. The excess money we pay to foriegn workers is all exported out of the country by the people we pay it to by way of remittances. Obviously we’re paying too much for these services.
‘Getting in’ to Kwantlen and Langara is not ‘going to university’. Try to get a professional interview with a two year shingle from Langara. Yes, I have a background in business hiring and I can tell you that if I have a stack of applications from prospectives the ones that aren’t from a real university go in the garbage without consideration. I want to hire the kid who got 110% not the Langara flunky who’s work ethic didn’t cut it. Thats just the real world talking. The minimum standard for admission to UBC ( for example) are not representative of the facts. Read the commentary by real students on the Ubessey forum. The mimimum cut offs for entrance are higher than 95%.
Why should some unionized civil service worker be paid an exhorbitant wage when they do nothing other than wake up in the morning? And yes, the NDP did try to shaft the BC taxpayer with a lot of bogus costs before they gor booted out so that they could control the agenda after they left office. The HEU contracts were a glaring example of that. It was right to have them overturned. Talk to me about being informed when you stop spewing this namby pamby socialist crap. $8 an hour is a big wage for a Phillipino or a Pakistani, why insult those persons national economies. Can Canada afford to be the worlds ‘rich uncle’? Not with the poverty growing, seniors starving, lack of text books in the classroom, dying patients in the hallways, growing national debt etc etc. This is 2011 not the Trudeau Liberals ‘IdiocyDrome’ where taxpayers money is thought of as nasty unless its given to someone else.
July 2nd, 2010 at 7:23 pm
A 1 bedroom suite for $1300. Seriuosly delusional!!!!!!!
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.....04984.html
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Realpaul,
Your arguments are not particularly coherent.
I find it odd that you want people to earn so little for doing work that is needed by others. What is a reasonable wage for a teacher? Nurse? What is a reasonable wage for yourself? I suspect you are fine with others earning $8/hr but wouldn’t agree that this is for you. Sure sure, you might ‘earn’ your money through private business, but we would have a woefully inefficient and not particularly effective system if we followed libertarian ideals and privatized everything.
I am not informed in the area of health care, but I am quite informed about post-secondary education, being in that sector.
As for your thoughts on university admissions, they are woefully uninformed. Competition exists for the most sought-after programs at the most sought-after institutions, yes. Is it 95% to get in to most programs as you say? Absolutely not. A “B” student has a good chance of getting into one of BC’s top universities in a good program (although business programs are harder to get into). Anyone can get into a post-secondary institution and onto a path to take them into any program they wish to pursue. Kwantlen, Capilano, Langara etc all provide this opportunity.
Perhaps some of your ideas are sound, but you lose credibility when you go totally off topic and don’t make evidence-based statements. I look forward to more informed posts in the future.
July 2nd, 2010 at 5:47 pm
Realpaul, sure bring in workers from other countries if we don’t have enough here but pay them the going wage that Canadians receive. How is that discrimination?
What you are saying is bring foreign workers here but pay them a low wage because their countries suck. Ouch. Now if that isn’t discrimination then I don’t know what is.
I don’t begrudge those that do jobs that are vital a decent wage. I don’t lose sleep over my tax dollars being spent on decent salaries for doctors, teachers, and nurses. Obviously your priorties lie elsewhere and it seems you have real anymosity towards the public sector. Like I said, next time you end up in the hospital think about what you’ve written. I’ve been in the hospital frequently due to family illnesses in the last few years and the consequences of contracting out have been dire.
What I do begudge is the Federal Government bailing out banks via the CMHC.
Oh, and contrary to popular myth the NDP didn’t sign a bunch of last minute sweetheart union deals. Nice try though.
July 2nd, 2010 at 5:06 pm
#77 A, And we wonder why theres people dying in the halls and two year waitlists for MRI’s. If 95% of the budget is sucked off by these bloated parasite workers then what is left for health care itself? The unions answer is always the same ‘the systems underfunded’ they scream. No, the workers are overpaid and the taxpayer has hit the wall.
July 2nd, 2010 at 4:38 pm
@realpaul: In Alberta, Healthcare Managers (ex-nurses) are paid $300K a year.
July 2nd, 2010 at 3:51 pm
KWI # 75 those HEU contracts were pushed through by the union in the dying days of an unelected PC NDP dick named Ujjal Dosanj. The NDP picked Dosanj because they wanted to suck the Libs into a race fight in the upcoming election .The LiBs didn’t bite and the NDP lost anyway. The HEU contracts were especially egregious because they extended value where none was due, the contracts would have taken away from all other areas of the budget and forced higher taxes to compenstae. That was another tactic that the NDP tried and failed to saddle us with. So the last minute sweetheart deals with the unions were overturned..so what…they were tantamount to criminal misuse of power in the first place. Thats why no one coplained about the contracts being rescinded except the NDP unionista.
The workers were invited back to work at exactly the same wage as they’d received under the historic contract. If they stopped doing their jobs and cleaning properly whos fault was that. It was that same workers doing the same job for the same wage decideing to do less out of protest at the urging of the union leaders. If your relatives got C Dif, don’t blame anyone but the union workers themselves who went on a years long snit while the union tried to drum up support for the phony ‘broken contract’ complaint.
You’re sayin we can’t get qualified staff elsewhere for much less…buddy thats discriminatory..why do you say that Phillipino nurses are unqualified? Thats just nasty. Of course they will work for less. The Phillipines is a shithole, everyone wants top leave, so why should we benefit? Thats just doing the right thing for the Canadian taxpayer by way of shopping for the best price. Its not our fault that wages are lower in the Phillipines.
You must be a civic worker that gets to whine without consideration for where the money comes from. Wake up. Remember….100% is everything. Direct and indirect taxes are pushing 80% of pre tax income. Personal debt is 147% plus, national debt is 125 x’s GDP and climbing. We can no longer afford to think of the CDN taxpayer as a piggybank for the rest of the world.
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:31 pm
Realpaul in case you don’t remember but in the early days of Campbell he broke the HEU contract he promised he wouldn’t touch. He then privatized all the hospital cleaning services. All the former HEU employees were invited to reapply for their old jobs but only at a lower rate. I’ve had a family member contract C-diff at two different hospitals in the lower mainland because cleaning services have gone to hell under the low paid workers. So yes, we save money but at what cost? Our health and well being?
Food servies have been provided by private contractors in hospitals as far as I can remember. Pretty much the only hospital employees who aren’t private are the doctors, nurses, and medical staff.
Why would we pay foreign workers less just because they earn less back home? That’s discrimination.
Far more disconcerting to me is the corporate pigs sucking at the tax payer teat. Completely unnoticed to most except probably those on this board was the bank bailout the Conservative Government quietly pushed through to the tune of $75 billion all thanks to the CMHC. Now, you want to talk about Government waste let’s talk about this.
July 2nd, 2010 at 12:18 pm
The idea that a minimally paid hospital worker can wheel the food cart up the service elevator in the same fashion as these bloated parasites we have here should be explored for efficiencies. The nurses union actively supports the importation of foriegn nurses to bolster its membership, why do we need to pay them twenty times their national wage to be here? Guest worker status anyone? Or is it all about dues coming into the union coffers?
I don’t hate unions btw, but they have served to drive up the costs of services to the public without a real assessment of their worth. This idea of being held hostage to the unions for taxpayer funded services is criminal. There is only so much in tax a citizen can pay and we have overstepped that threshold, its time to rationalize and get rid of the expensive dinosaurs that represent a relic of the past with no real place in a modern economy.
Patritoz, I have never backed down from exposing waste, you point out an excellent example of politics flushing tax dollars down the toilet. An open audit of our system should be mandatory with all the fat exposed and cut by law without exception. We have balanced budget legislation in some areas and live within it ( unless your a socialist nuthouse like the VSB), why not a spending cap and clearly defined body of legislation for spending, starting with referendum for all government expenditures. Cut all the special intrests out of the spending and our schools will fill with new text books, our seniors will have higher standards, the poor will have better conditions, and the land will flow with milk and honey. As long as we have the egregious waste that gets sucked off by special intrests the taxpayer will continue to recieve a pennys worth of services for a dollar paid. Well in health care sector we get 8 cents on the dollar and in education we get less due to the union parasites skimming off the cream.
Hey talk of waste, why do we offer free English lessons, settlement allowances and service benefits to immigrants who come and buy million dollar homes, can’t they afford to pay for themselves? Should we be paying for up 20 or more family members to receive health care and school…aren’t they already rich? Isn’t that why we let them in? You mentioned prisons and illegals, there are thousands of these problems that suck the benefit from the citizen and spend it where it doesn’t make sense. Why is Canada spending tens of millions in China to promote democracy? Why did we spend 7 billion on a two week drunk when patients are dying in the hallways of hospitals that we can’t afford to staff because of union contracts? Etc etc etc.
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:38 am
Realpaul, next time you are sick and in the hospital I hope you remember what you posted here.
Why the union hatred?
July 2nd, 2010 at 8:32 am
Uh oh bears, Larry says average prices UP in June. Where is bear who crowing about $50K price drop in May and predicting imminent collapse? Back in hibernation?
No, bears are more interested in talking Olympics again. Don’t you believe?
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:38 am
@realpaul:
I wonder if Arnie has ordered proportionate cuts in payments to private prison operators in CA. My guess is he hasn’t.
BTW California spends more on prisons than on universities. Why hasn’t Arnie simply taken all the illegals in prison (who comprise a large % of inmates) and put them on buses to Mexico? You might get a hint why from this:
http://www.capitolweekly.net/a.....yoctf9d1au
True to form, Stephen Harper has caught the longer prison sentences bug, and if he gets his way it will cost the federal and provincial taxpayers billions.
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:38 am
Heres another example of unionized wrongheaded greed spun as being ‘good for health care’.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/h.....story.html
How does giving the already bloated salaries extra billions improve health care. In fact , it doesn’t. What we need is more money going into health care and fewer dollars going into the pockets of the union parasites. Cut the salaries to half of what they are, we’d still have boatloads of Phillipino and Pakistani nurses desperate to come in and fill the jobs. If the local unions have priced themselves out of the market….so be it. Why should the rest of us have to keep paying higher taxes for these parasites to flourish? Wouldn’t it be more Canadian to give the jobs to deserving immigraants rather than this local trash that simply wants to wallow in the public trough?
July 2nd, 2010 at 6:23 am
Now heres a great idea for a cash strapped province. Thx Arnold. I hope this idea takes off. Cutting the civil service wages to minimum is right where they should be for these lazy bloated parasites.
http://www.ksbw.com/money/24116516/detail.html
July 2nd, 2010 at 3:24 am
@Betamax:
Further, remember that all the Olympic-related infrastructure was built at a time of inflated construction costs due to the concurrent housing bubble. Indeed the Olympics contributed to the expectations of the RE bubble and helped to drive it – a vicious circle. Thus the projects incurred excessive costs – which IMHO should be allocated to the total bill for the Olympics – and they did not employ resources that would otherwise have been unused. Some of the infrastructure may well have been needed or useful, but it could have been built a few years later for cheaper. Now we are headed for a bigger economic bust than if the Olympics had not been held.
Contrast with both Expo and the Calgary Olympics, the infrastructure for which was built during a time of severe recession and double digit unemployment. This infrastructure became available for the economic upswing afterwards and the construction workforce moved on to private sector projects.
Now you can’t pick whether to build for the Olympics during boom times or during a recession (the bid is too far in advance), but you can pick whether to have them in the first place. And my pick was not to have them.
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:03 am
VHB: “We got assets (like a subway line and a highway) that will last for generations. You don’t think it is good accounting to expect to cover those expenses in 10 days of revenue generation do you?”
We got things we didn’t need to ensure Vancouver won the bid. I think it’s perfectly good accounting to allocate expenses according to the reasons why they were incurred. The number of days of subsequent revenue generation are irrelevant when determining cost allocation.
“You can hate on the government, the olympics and everything else as much as you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that we actually didn’t lose money on the olympics.”
That’s not a fact, it’s an opinion based on spurious accounting practices which many do not agree with.
Further, I don’t “hate on” anyone, and the fact that you would use such a cheap rhetorical device in lieu of rational argument causes me to question whether or not you are in fact the VHB who ran the website of that name. Because it’s the same idiotic claim that RE bulls used to make about you — i.e. if you disagree then it’s simply because you’re ‘a hater’ rather than having a validly reasoned albeit differing point of view. If you are one and the same, then you should be ashamed.
July 1st, 2010 at 10:34 pm
@VHB: We may not have LOST money but we WASTED a lot of it. Suspect uses of capital include:
- Expanding the Sea-Ski highway
- The “bear patrol” security budget
- Mid-air refueling of CF18s over Whistler.
Other capital projects like the Oval or RAV line should have some years of their capitalization written off as wasted but not the whole amount. They would have been built anyways but likely some years later.
To be honest most of the people I saw during the Olympics were Canadian. From that POV the Olympics was a temporary money dump that took away capital from other regions of the country. That could well result in other parts of the country receiving a larger portion of federal grants to even things out.
But as long as everyone had a good time it was money well spent.
July 1st, 2010 at 10:01 pm
@VHB: the books were rigged, hundreds of province of BC employees worked for Vanoc whilst being paid by the province – this ain’t gonna show up in the books. This goes for BC Hydro employees, as well as some other crown corps as well. Also, they had some other tricks as well that were rigged (remember the asset sale in Delta?)
Towards your point about the new sky train line and highway, yes this is probably money well spent in the long run. However, do we really need a ski jump or a skating oval in Richmond, curling rink on Ontario St? yes, nice to have but this money could have been much better spent on education, healthcare etc…
July 1st, 2010 at 9:55 pm
Either this laneway house is really really tough to rent out or the tenants keep dieing of carbon monoxide poisoning.
http://vancouver.en.craigslist.....42280.html
July 1st, 2010 at 9:48 pm
@betamax: that lumps in operating expenses with capital costs. Try again. We got assets (like a subway line and a highway) that will last for generations. You don’t think it is good accounting to expect to cover those expenses in 10 days of revenue generation do you?
Operating costs and operating revenue were pretty close to equal.
You can hate on the government, the olympics and everything else as much as you want, but that doesn’t change the fact that we actually didn’t lose money on the olympics.
July 1st, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Hogtown Hozer Says:
July 1st, 2010 at 10:31 am
For those that haven’t been here long, ’summer weather’ in Vancouver starts in middle of July.
—————————
… and lasts until the end of July.
July 1st, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Go Argentina Go
Happy Canada Day Everyone!
We have got some of the most recent collection of few saying that Canadian are gushing about the words of mouth in appreciation throught the year that makes Canada the place of action and the best place to be.
Queen Elizabeth:Canada is a model for this world.
Bill Clinton:Canada is a leader for this world.
Barack Obama:Canadian financial institutions and health care system is the best in the world and Vancouver real estate is better than New York.
Ashleigh McIvor:It’s an amazing adventure that takes Van Re kites towards moon.
Scott Niedermayer:Now more than ever, This is the best place on earth.
Denny Morrison:And for the reasons above,You gotta be here.
Go Argentina Go
Run Buddy Run
July 1st, 2010 at 6:42 pm
VHB: “But why are you, and others, so keen to make up stuff like ‘the olympics cost money’? It didn’t.”
Someone hack your account?
Here’s a 2006 quote from the Sun, even before security costs went ballistic:
“OLYMPIC COST CRUNCH
B.C.’s auditor-general’s office says the true cost of the 2010 Olympic Games to taxpayers is $2.506 billion.
Games costs $4.338 billion
Less: Games Revenues ($1.832 billion-)
Net Games cost $2.506 billion
Costs to be funded by:
Province of B.C. $1.5 billion
Local government cost $389 million
UBC property tax cost $10 million
Federal taxpayer cost $607 million
Total taxpayer cost $2.506 billion”
http://www2.canada.com/vancouv.....3f&p=1
July 1st, 2010 at 5:50 pm
Spot The Speculator #3
“Their fortune is held up by the present real estate market. It is a thin thread on which to hang their financial lives.”
A couple of Westcoast speculators are up to their eye-balls in RE. Twelve properties. A relatively modest 147% of their net worth in RE.
http://wp.me/pcq1o-13V
July 1st, 2010 at 5:30 pm
Hogtown Hoser:
“You obviously haven’t lived in Vancouver very long”
***************************************************
61 years long enough for you?
As for (coming home cold and wet more times than you can remember from ill-fated CD camping trips), rumor has it that memory loss is not uncommon for slow learners.
July 1st, 2010 at 5:12 pm
@domus:
Vancouver would have to come down by about 40% just to bring it to the current (over)valuation of Toronto (the Vancouver market is about 70% higher priced). Upcountry BC is even more overpriced compared to upcountry Ontario.
I don’t see governments even acknowledging a problem until Toronto falls more than 20%. Alberta fell that much in 2007-2008 without so much as a peep from the Alberta or Federal governments.
And the Toronto bust of the early 90′s (the worst since the 30′s) took off about 30% nominal without any action from the various governments in office over that period. Note particularly that in the 1993 election neither the PC’s nor Liberals acknowledged the bust. Yes the feds could quietly start loosening lending requirements but they would have to watch out for the bond markets, which by that point would be getting antsy.
I think we’re more likely to hear the Liberals promise to “do something” (which would amount to window dressing should they take office) than the Cons, who in admitting a bust would also be admitting the blame for it.
And in any case, by the time Toronto drops even as much as 20% this province will be a smoking ruin.
July 1st, 2010 at 5:06 pm
@VHB: Oh common… What the Silver Gopher (Glen Beck) is doing “is wildly important”
July 1st, 2010 at 4:46 pm
@patriotz:
1. It is a condition of the mortgage insurance contract that the banks must make all reasonable efforts to sell the property for the highest price. They also have an obligation to the borrower to do this because they have recourse against the borrower for any deficit. If CMHC can prove the bank did not, they can hold back part of the payout.
Non-enforceable contracts: if there was a large number of repossession, as in the scenario we frequently consider, the administrative burden to go after the bank would be rohibitive for the CMHC. They would be better off selling homes in bulk, than go after the banks on a case-by-case basis. When the time will come, they will probably work something out and the CMHC will be on the hook for most of the losses.
2. If CMHC simply paid off the banks prior to foreclosure, that would create an incentive for the banks to go straight to CMHC for payout after the first payment is missed, rather than trying to work things out with the borrower. So it would increase the number of defaults and costs to CMHC.
Correct. And i would not rule it out. Banks could cite deteriorating market conditions to cover up their reluctance to spend time and effort selling foreclosures. After all, in a falling market, it is a nightmare to get decent prices unless you want to wait. One more reason why the CMHC, as a residential lender of last resort, will carry the main load of losses.
3. And this is the real biggie – absolutely the LAST thing Harper or Flaherty want is for CMHC, i.e. the government, to be foreclosing and then owning and flogging a bunch of RE when the bust comes. IMHO their strategy will be to do everything possible to avoid taking blame and deny any systemic bubble or bust to the bitter end. Much better to have the banks be seen as the bad guys.
They will change their opinions in due time, after we start hearing a few sob stories and complaints that we need a back-stop to halt the crash and save ‘innocent homeowners’. They are politicians, they will do whatever serves their short-term re-election needs. And trust me, when the s%$t hits the fan, there will be unbearable pressure from homeowners for a backstop — especially if Ontario goes down as well. Again, the CMHC will be the natural way to keep things off-the-book and pump liquidity in a crashing RE market. BC is doomed anyway, but the losses won’t be carried by Canadian banks.
The CMHC has to be abolished, and only then some semblance of rationality will appear in this overleveraged RE market.
July 1st, 2010 at 4:39 pm
Poor Victoria. June sales and inventory stats look abysmal. Not as many rich Asians you see.
July 1st, 2010 at 4:27 pm
@chip: oh, so FICA taxes don’t give people a sense that government costs money to run? That was the basis of your argument, right?
Me, I figure that as dollar in FICA taxes is worth about as much as a dollar in income taxes.
Next time, don’t get your talking points from Glen Beck.
July 1st, 2010 at 4:24 pm
@chip:
>>>About 47-50% of Americans pay NO income tax. That’s awfully close to a majority that feel no direct pain as the government sinks the country under an ocean of debt.<<<
Between those without jobs, retirees on small fixed incomes, students racking up huge loans, the underemployed and those working for peanuts I could easily see that amounting to 47%-50%.
And believe me, all of them are feeling direct pain.
Nobody should be paying taxes on the first 20K of their income anyway, that money is needed for food, shelter and clothing.
July 1st, 2010 at 4:20 pm
patriotz
That’s 47% of US households.
VHB
I said “no income tax,” not “don’t pay tax.”