The rich just keep getting richer.
With fuel costs on the rise, a gas tax that no one seems too happy about, B.C. Ferry fares rising and the cost of living escalating at alarming rates, the provincial government has seen fit to give its top bureaucrats raises of 22 to 43 per cent. These raises went into effect last Friday.
Didn't hear about it? It's no wonder. Premier Gordon Campbell and his cronies made the announcement well after 4 p.m. in Victoria in the dead of summer, on the first day of the Summer Olympics in Beijing - while Campbell was in China for the opening ceremonies. Media was caught off guard, and so too was the public - probably just what the Liberals wanted - little fanfare and little scrutiny. But the Liberals aren't going to get off that easy.
Here's a sampling of the compensation some of B.C.'s top civil servants will now get, thanks to Campbell: Jessica McDonald, the premier's deputy minister - $261,017; Lesley du Toit, deputy children's minister - $234,180; Greg Reimer, deputy energy minister - $233,754; Doug Konki, deputy forestry minister -$229,590; and Chris Trumpy, deputy finance minister -$228,320.
These changes in salary will cost the taxpayers of this province $4 million a year. They went into effect Aug. 1, although the news was kept quiet until Friday, Aug. 8, late in the day when the media had all but packed up their cameras and computers for the weekend. The changes, which follow double-digit increases just two years ago, will move B.C. civil servants' salaries into third place behind Alberta and Ontario, a move that Labour Market Development Minister Murray Coell said is necessary to bring B.C. more in line with the other provinces and help to recruit top-quality executives to B.C.
While we're all for fair compensation and attracting qualified people to help run this province, the levels of compensation now afforded to these civil servants are completely outlandish and irresponsible. We have no clue what planet the premier is living on. B.C. has the lowest minimum wage in the country. It's been frozen for seven years. Instead of rewarding your government bureaucrats, how about taking that $4 million and bumping up the minimum wage so average workers and families in this province could start making a decent living? This government has lost touch with its citizens and lost touch with the people who really matter - average citizens struggling to make ends meet while raising a family.
The May provincial election could not come soon enough.
