Not a Good Deal

"I don't believe in tearing up Collective Agreements."

-Gordon Campbell, Hospital Employees Union (HEU) Newsletter, November 2000.

Eight years later, and British Columbians are finally close to seeing how much the Premier's mishandling of the truth is going to cost him and his B.C. Lieberal administration. The government has finally reached an agreement with the HEU over Bill 29, Campbell's health care privatization law which saw many of its provisions ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Canada last year.

Unfortunately, the agreed price for the Lieberals exercise in union-busting and eroding public health care amounts to approximately $85 million. That may pay for a respectable compensation and retraining package for HEU members, but this page doesn't see that amount as much of a deterrent. For a government committed to completely destroying public infrastructure and services in British Columbia, spending that amount of taxpayer's money to rip up contracts and kneecap any Union that gets in the way of that goal may just be a price they're willing to pay.

For working families in British Columbia, the price will be the loss of quality jobs, the continuing disintegration of communities, higher taxes and user fees to pad the margins of corporate contractors, and the crippling of democracy as public institutions are no longer accountable to the public. All for just $85 million per shredded contract. A great deal for shareholders, and the shItty short end of the stick for the people.