Dear Editor:
Re: Fassbender: Wage demands must be cut, Sept. 5
If anyone had any doubts which party is blocking progress in the teacher's labour dispute, that became glaringly clear yesterday. Despite the fact that workers and employers universally dislike binding arbitration, the BCTF is willing to risk binding arbitration to settle the dispute, while the government stubbornly refuses to budge.
The B.C. Liberals' stubborn refusal to budge on any monetary issues shows us where their priorities lay. Despite the fact that B.C. teachers earn the lowest overall pay (according to the Vancouver Sun), and hundreds of millions of dollars were taken out of the education system by the Liberals in 2002, the government says there is no money.
This is simply not true. The B.C. Liberals simply have other priorities and public education is not one of them. When the B.C. Liberals took power in 2001, they immediately gave a $1.8-billion tax break, most of which went to a few thousand taxpayers. What about the decision to spend $500-plus-million on the new (and still not working properly) roof for B.C. Place?
Then there were the corporate tax cuts, which have saved billions of dollars for corporations and have shown little in return for the residents of B.C. There was also the millions spent by fighting the BCTF and health sectors in losing court cases that could have been put into the general revenues, as well as spin for the government's position. I could give dozens of more examples, but the B.C. Liberal record on spending and tax breaks clearly demonstrates that public education in B.C. is not a priority for them.
There is clearly only one party blocking any resolution to the teacher's labour dispute, and it is not the teachers.
Murray Martin, Burnaby
