Massive Health cuts announced

hey, look on the bright side, all of those cuts will probably save you $20 or $30 on your annual tax return! Now you'll be able to order that one extra pizza a year that you couldn't previously afford, just don't get sick cuz they'll be nobody there to help you. Now I get what conservatives are finally talking about!

I never absolved the Liberals of anything. The Liberals can be just as conservative as the Conservatives and they have done just as much if not more to advance globalization, corporate interests and the dismantling of the Welfare state.

Tories always put blame on the liberals and vice versa. The problem with the health care system and the over budgets of hospitals in Canada is a direct reflection on immigration.. sorry but its true, there are many families immigrating and bringing elderly family members who are chronically ill and these people are not and have not contributed to the costs of health care. The families who do bring them usually work in family owned business and well we all know the problem of under the table workers.. the system is over extended and most hospitals are over managed with high payed executives who take the largest portion of the budget.... the system needs fixing for sure.. but... our health care system is still the better one...

Gotta love it when the government is forever raising your taxes, while at the same time slashing services.

mmm...I don't know if immigration really puts that much of a strain on the health system. First off, you can not immigrate to canada if you or a family member have a chronic disease or illness that will produce an "undue burden" on the state, its controversial, espeically with HIV-positive people who are refugees being persecuted in some nations but so far the gov't has stuck to its guns on that one. I have no opinion on that, I can empathize with both sides of the argument.

Turn-key businesses are a big way for "white collar" immigrants to get into canada, all you need is $40 grand deposited in a canadian bank account and a corner store or some other small business to buy and you can immigrate as an "entrepeneur" which is much easier than the other methods. Those people tend to be wealthier than average and are generally the "industrious" and "entreprenurial" kind we generally want, however, even though they are likely putting their wives and kids behind the register and paying them under the table. After a few years, they usually flip the business over to the next batch of newcomers and go on to some other enterprise, it's like a stepping stone into the economy. But I doubt they consume any statistically significant amount of public services.

The real difference has been the decline of tax revenue from business. Corporate tax cuts have been especially deep and laws have been loosened to allow business to shelter revenue offshore and legally evade taxes. The US General Accounting Office released a report last year stating that 2/3 of the largest corporations in the US pay no tax at all since the various subsidies, rebates, refunds and deductions result in a net government PAYMENT to them. In Canada the Auditor General reported that our country's largest corporations deliberately and consistently overpay their taxes because Revenue Canada refunds the overpayment with a favourable interest rate that is higher than what the comapany would earn at a bank or in low-risk investments.

Personal income and sales taxes have also been cut at the federal level consistently over the years as well.

I think this along with the HST spells the end of Gordo and he planned it that way. The more of this I see the more I am convinced he has no intent on another run. There has been some serious cuts on the horizon and BC is in for a revamping of the health system based upon the P3 system of public/private partnerships. Anything that isn't nailed down in the MoH will be run privately or severely cut back. In the same way that the HST will be reality next year so to will the changes to MoH like a band aid you pull off slowly or do it quick, Gordo is going with the quick and painful way and if your going to do it this is the way but it will cost them at the polls right or wrong.