Keeping Carole James to advise is a mistake
Premier John Horgan has announced that he has hired Carole James on at a $1 per year rate for the position of special advisor to the premier.
Carole James does not know the difference between a debit and a credit in regards to the accounting cycle. Why? For two years, Carole James froze ferry fares, gave a 15 per cent discount on the smaller ferry routes and allowed senior citizen passengers free fares from Monday to Thursday. What Carole does not understand is that there is two sides to the ledger. She froze the revenue side, but failed to freeze the other side known as expenses. She should have frozen all wages at the same time to balance the ledger.
At the same time she gave all B.C. ferry employees a two per cent wage increase on April 1 of both years. In the past ferry fares were always raised on April 1 of each year to cover the cost of wage increases on April 1. This is balancing the ledger.
Carole James also cancelled B.C. Medical premium billings and replaced the billings with a employer health care tax to recoup revenue lost by elimination of the B.C. medical premium billings. She stated that it will save everyone money including employers. Nonsense.
Her new employer health care tax is 1.95 per cent of total payroll. ICBC paid out $42,000 under the B.C. medical billing and paid out $82,424 under the new employer health care tax. An increase of 96.2 per cent.
The City of Vancouver paid out $4,841,035 under the B.C. medical billing and paid out $9,742,998 under the new employer health care tax. A increase of 101.1 per cent.
Under the old system, these B.C. medical payments were added on to employee wages as a taxable benefit.
This employer health care tax is nothing but a cash grab system costing all taxpayers and employers more money in taxes.
Higher car insurance premiums and higher property tax increases. We the taxpayers, once again pay more.
In summary, the cash grab could have been eliminated by keeping the B.C. medical billing as is and just lowering the income tax, taxpayers have to pay. Plain old commonsense, facts, and reality, which NDP governments turn away from.
Carole James told us that B.C. was the last province to eliminate medical services billings. Wrong again. B.C. is the 8th province to eliminate medical services billings. Ontario and Quebec both have the employer health care tax, but still taxpayers in both provinces still have to pay a very small portion themselves.
In summary, keeping Carole James on as a special advisor is a mistake with the above two boondoggles she has made. Carole James, now retired, is receiving a taxpayer funded MLA pension of $82,000 per year out of her $2 million lifetime MLA pension. Carole is very happy camper now.
Unbelievable!
Joe Sawchuk
Duncan