TheTrueCostOf
ObfuscationVille
Sure.
It might seem like nothing.
After all, how much could a rolling five year 'smoothening' (a.k.a. get out of dealing with inflation free card) of the City of Vancouver's living wage initiative really hurt.
Well, for workers at the low end of the scale it means plenty.
Dan Fumano had the numbers in his Vancouver Sun opinion piece over the weekend:
...If the city had continued its commitment this year, a full-time worker earning a living wage at 35 hours a week would make about $43,825, she said, but that worker earning the five-year rolling average would earn about $38,038...
As Anastasia French, manager of Living Wage for Families B.C., pointed out, that's like a loss of two months rent in this city.
Meanwhile, the new mayor, Ken Sim, whose super-majority council made the smoothening decision, in secret, over a month ago, wants to have his cake....errrr...cut and eat it too:
...“We remain hopeful,” Sim said, that Living Wage for Families B.C. will continue to engage with the city and “take variations in rate implementation into consideration in its annual calculations to allow organizations that use this more practicable approach to continue to be certified.”...
'Variations in rent implementation'?
That sure is some high-falutin' obfuscatory phrase in-extremis.
Unfortunately, given their $5,000 loss, it's not something that CoV workers can use to pay their rent or buy their groceries.
OK?
.
4 comments:
Ah yes, “Variations In Rate Control” is the type of phrase Mr. Orwell would readily recognize! Sorta like… to maintain peace, we must go to war.
Oooops, “implementation”*
I believe you coined the phrase, "the ABC party of convenience" and that is what it is.
The city of Vancouver has gone from the fake socialist, fake Green regime to a fake politcal party that is in the pocket of developers and land speculators, with mayor Sim being just another useful idiot.
A livable wage is just a lefty cliche about gaining the union vote and not much more. Wages paid are basically the value of work done and when a city has far more paper pushers than real workers, the paper pusher wages are more invention than anything else.
In Europe, major cities buy housing for its workers and the workers pay a reasonable rent or lease to the city to live within the city.
Sim, unfortunately is way out of his league in politics and seems to be a slow learner, except for cliche's and other sort of politcal bric-a-brac.
The sad thing about the c0v is the money paid in grants for politcal supporters in guise of the bicycle lobby, the SkyTrain lobby, the development/land speculation lobby and all other politically correct groups that take taxpayer's monies to support City Hall.
The very sad fact is the taxpayer has been taken out of the equation with all things financial and that has lead to massive tax hikes by politicians who just cannot say no.
Foot Note:
What the mainstream media do not tell us, many tour operators in the USA have quietly taken Vancouver off their list of cities to visit. As a tourist agent friend of mine told me, "Vancouver has turned from a rare gem to old news in a matter of two decades" and she added "Vancouver is more than No- fun city to Vancouver, where crime pays".
Picking my jaw off the floor, we, the great unwashed, have let our elected officials turn Vancouver into a DUMP is just 20 years!
If Sims is trying to have us think the $5K a year isn't much, perhaps he ought to start by giving up $5K of his salary each year and donate to a school lunch program, along with all those who voted in favour of the resolution.
The evening news has been covering the increase in the number of clients at food banks and now Sims and his political allies want to make the situation worse. when you deduct $5K a year from some one's salry you impoverish them. $5K a year buys a lot of food. Sims obviously doesn't care about children and adults going hungry, loosing their homes, not being able to afford medication, the list goes on.
The news also reports food will continue in increase in price. Does Sims have a plan to feed those who loose $5K a year in income? Sims and co. need to understand there are real impacts when they make decisions such as this.
Wonder what voters would have done had they known in advance what Sims was going to do,.
It never ceases to amaze me, there is always money for some vanity project, i.e. stadiums, sky trains, tunnels, etc. but not for feeding children, or ensuring they live a life with dignity.
Poverty doesn't just impact the children who live it but those around them.
Vancouver may have gone from a great place to visit to what it is today, like I'm not going there in the past 20 years with people living on the streets, mass camps, drugs, crime, all sorts of stuff we wouldn't have thought would happen in Vancouver, at one time. some wonder: how did this happen? Have a look at child poverty in this province in the past 30 years, the lack of suupport for children with mental health issues, over crowded classes, etc.
If people want to "fix" the problem in vancouver the best way to start is to ensure children in this province grow up adequately fed, housed, with the necessary medical supports, etc.
The city built an entire industry around poverty, spending hundreds of millions in the past 40 years with no positive results, because here we are today, just turn on the news and now sims is ensuring there will be more poverty and all that goes with it.
Recently the news reported on the lack of a working elevator in an SRO, St. Helens. I could not believe the city had put money in that dump. It was a dump back in the 1980s. People who drank in the Austin and Blackstone usually refused to drink in the St. Helen's except for one person, who went there because the bar opened at around 9 a.,m.
people don't get better or well or anything when they live in SROs. Yes, it gets themn off the street and they may not freeze to death, but it doesn't' improve their lives nor do I think it extends their lives.
Saw an article and picture of a prison cell in Denmark. Private rooms with private bathrooms, looks much like a nice hotel room. Furniture, book cases, etc. Looked bigger than a dorm room. We put the disabled in SROs which do not meet their needs nor enable them to live with dignity.
Sims and his ABC crew
ought to try living on the "new" wage for a month in an SRO
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