TheInexplicableVille
Vancouver councillor Christine Boyle and Canuckistanian labour economics guy Jim Stanford recently wrote an OpEd in which they made the case that the City of Vancouver's decision to abandon its liveable wage commitment is going to have a negative impact on all Lotuslandians because:
"...The City will soon find that its penny-pinching is stymied by the realities of labour market competition. We won’t be able to hire the people we need. And City services will suffer..."
They make quite a persuasive case, and I was right with Boyle and Stanford until the end of their piece when they wrote the following:
...City Council’s decision to abandon living wages (for both City employees and contractors) is impossible to comprehend. The fiscal savings are likely to be outweighed by new costs associated with employee turnover, labour shortages, and contract flipping...
Why am I making a fuss about this passage?
Well, as I've argued before, the (still newish) City Council's decision is actually very easy to comprehend if you consider the possibility that the impetus for that decision had little or nothing to do with City employees and everything to do with City contractors.
OK?
.
1 comment:
Oh, yes I do remember when you wrote on the subject the first time. Lets not forget a number of city services could be contracted out. i.e. garbage, life guards, community center staff--all of them. cleaners, health services--if they have any, information officers, police, fire, yes all of the work currently done by City staff could be contracted out. Vancouver has its own works department which cleans snow off the streets, paves streets, builds side walks, just send it out on a contract and the contractor can pay whatever they want and pocket the extra profit. Now if these were the American model, the "extra" profit could be shared with members of council, well at least donations to their caimpaigns.
It might be in tax payers' interest to ensure council does not go down the road of contracting out and doing away with "a living wage". Its the start of a race to the bottom and can and in some cases does lead to corruption and favoritism, just look at large American cities.
Post a Comment