From newswire at news.bc.ndp.ca  Thu Sep  7 23:21:08 2006
From: newswire at news.bc.ndp.ca (BC NDP Newswire)
Date: Thu, 7 Sep 2006 22:21:08 -0800
Subject: [LabComm] Carole speaks out on cancellation of Fall Legislative
	Session
Message-ID: <j59578.rxb5vn@>



Carole speaks out on cancellation of Fall Legislative Session



NDP Leader Carole James today released the following statement calling on Premier Gordon Campbell to reverse his decision to cancel the work of the Legislature this fall:

----------

"I want to begin by quoting Premier Gordon Campbell: 

'The comfortable course of complacency is not a path for long-term prosperity.  It is the dead-end route of inevitable decline.' Those were the premier's words when his government delivered its Throne Speech last February. But complacency appears to be the Premier's new order of the day.

While our province faces challenges of growing homelessness and child poverty; an uncertain future in forest communities; a skills training shortage; and a research and development deficit, the Gordon Campbell government appears content to rest. 

The Premier won't even call the Legislature back to work.  He's says there's nothing for elected politicians to do. That debating issues in the Legislature is nothing but 'busy work'.

British Columbians expect more from the government they pay for. They expect their leaders to look ahead. To plan for our community's future. 

The People's House doesn't sit to engage in busy work. The legislature sits to fulfill promises made by the government. And it's the democratic way the government is held accountable to the people who pay for it.

Just yesterday, we learned that a private, for-profit MRI clinic in Vancouver is charging patients $1300 to jump the public queue for diagnostic treatment while patients at St. Paul's Hospital wait months to use the same equipment bought and paid for by B.C. taxpayers.

It's exactly the sort of issue that the government should answer for in the Legislature. Today, I call on Premier Campbell to reverse his decision to cancel the work of the Legislature this Fall."

To read the rest of Carole's statement, <a href="http://nid-16238.newsdetail.bcndp.ca/">click here</a>.

-------------------

To unsubscribe or change your settings go to: http://www.e-2ve6y.signup2.bcndp.ca/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bcfed.net/pipermail/labcomm/attachments/20060907/0c116f25/attachment.html>

From newswire at news.bc.ndp.ca  Thu Sep 14 22:58:15 2006
From: newswire at news.bc.ndp.ca (Carole James)
Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2006 21:58:15 -0800
Subject: [LabComm] We need answers to these questions
Message-ID: <j5m2t3.t1x9i@>



We need answers to these questions



Dear friend,

A week ago, the Gordon Campbell government decided to cancel the work of the Legislature this Fall.

According to the B.C. Liberals, they have nothing to answer for, and nothing to do.

But Gordon Campbell has a lot to answer for.

Just last week, the NDP revealed that the Campbell government is allowing private companies to sell access to our public health care facilities.

That's right. Instead of working to reduce the number of patients suffering on lengthy waiting lists, the Campbell government is selling access to health care services that should be free and timely.

That means patients are waiting longer and longer. <strong>And it's against the law.</strong>

British Columbians sent us to Victoria to hold Gordon Campbell accountable on important issues like this. <strong>Even though he's cancelled the Legislature, that's exactly what we're going to do -- with your help.</strong>

<a href="https://bcndp.ca/index.php?page_id=64&">Please click here to make a contribution.</a>

Since our Health Care Critic Adrian Dix discovered the first example last week at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, several more patients have come forward outlining how they paid a private operator for MRI services at a public facility.

The Liberals admitted this violates the Canada Health Act and B.C.'s Medicare Protection Act. But the Liberals claim they knew nothing about the illegal activity.

Gordon Campbell promised there would be no user fees for health care in B.C.  
Now we know he broke that promise.

Mr. Campbell promised better health care.

Instead, he cut over 1279 acute care beds in our hospitals and now Emergency Rooms are severely overcrowded. 

British Columbians deserve an answer from the Campbell government on this and much more.

Today, the Auditor General released a report that supports what the NDP has said all along: the Liberals haven't told British Columbians the truth about how much the 2010 Olympic Games is really going to cost B.C. taxpayers.

Gordon Campbell's claim that B.C. taxpayers will pay $600 million and not a penny more is ridiculous.

<strong>We now know that taxpayers are already on the hook for nearly $2 billion! </strong>

British Columbians deserve to know the truth about the real costs for 2010. And they deserve answers to so many other questions:
<ul>
<li>Why won't the Liberals bring in laws to better protect workers who work alone at night?</li>
<li>How many more workers will die in our forests before the Liberals will act to protect them? </li> 
<li>How will families in forest-dependant communities be affected by the softwood lumber agreement?</li>
<li>What steps is this government taking to reduce child poverty -- now higher in B.C. than anywhere in Canada?</li>
<li>Why does B.C. have the biggest gap between low income and high income earners in the country?</li>
<li>Why does the Campbell government keep trying to mislead the public on Olympic expenditures?</li></ul>
With your assistance, we can force the Campbell government to answer to the public. <strong>Just because they cancel the Legislation session doesn't mean they can get away with ignoring the concerns of ordinary British Columbians. </strong>

<a href="https://bcndp.ca/index.php?page_id=64&">Please click here to make a contribution.</a>

Sincerely,

<strong>Carole James<br />
Leader, B.C. NDP</strong>

To unsubscribe or change your settings go to: http://www.e-2ve6y.signup2.bcndp.ca/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bcfed.net/pipermail/labcomm/attachments/20060914/09b7b1ab/attachment.html>

From newswire at news.bc.ndp.ca  Mon Sep 25 04:24:20 2006
From: newswire at news.bc.ndp.ca (BC NDP Newswire)
Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2006 3:24:20 -0800
Subject: [LabComm] Carole James addresses NDP Provincial Council
Message-ID: <j650kk.e40onz@>



Carole James addresses NDP Provincial Council



Opposition Leader Carole James addressed the Provincial Council of the B.C. New Democratic Party Saturday in Vancouver.

Following is the full text of her remarks.

--

It's great to be here.

As you all know, I had quite a summer.

I faced a personal challenge.

And I faced it doing what we do best as New Democrats.

We don't shrink from a challenge. We stand up. We face it.

We don't give in to it. We beat it.

And that's exactly what I did this summer.

I want to thank each and every one of you for your support and your kind words.

I'm energized by my fight with cancer.

More determined than ever.

I'm ready to tackle the challenges we face together as British Columbians.

Challenges that the Gordon Campbell government has chosen to ignore.

In the face of child poverty and homelessness; an uncertain future in forest
communities; a skills training shortage and a research and development deficit...

The Campbell government appears content to sit back.

To rest.

Gordon Campbell won't even call the Legislature back to work.  

He says there's nothing for elected politicians to do.

That debating issues in the Legislature is nothing but "busy work".

Well, British Columbians expect more from the government they pay for.

They expect their leaders to look ahead, to plan for our community's future.

The People's House doesn't sit to engage in busy work.

The legislature sits to fulfill promises made by the government.

And it's the democratic way the government is held accountable to the people who
pay for it.

What kind of government can so undermine public health care,

Can engineer the highest child poverty rate,

the highest number of families living in poverty,

the largest gap between rich and poor,

the fastest rising tuition fee rates in the country,

What sort of government can look at all that and say, job well done?

Mission accomplished?

Patients are being handed $1300 bills to jump the public queue for
medically-necessary treatment bought and paid for by BC taxpayers...

But the government won't be around this fall to answer for it.


While the streets of our neighbourhoods increasingly become the only home for the growing number of citizens Mr. Campbell has decided to leave behind...

Friends of the BC Liberal Party are being handed millions in taxpayer dollars.

>From lucrative advertising contracts for Liberal-friendly firms, to Liberal insiders pocketing money meant to help BC's most needy.

And the bill to BC's taxpayers for the 2010 Olympics soars to nearly $2 Billion.

There's a lot Mr. Campbell must answer for:

He's failing patients.

He's failing the most vulnerable.

And he's failing ordinary working people.

Under Gordon Campbell our province is failing future generations.

We have an enormous skills training shortage.

We have the country's fastest rising tuition fees.

Gordon Campbell is putting opportunity beyond reach for thousands of young British Columbians.

BC is the gateway to the Asian Pacific economy, yet we're falling far behind
Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario when it comes to reaching out to those markets.

Mr. Campbell and his government appear to be adrift.

He appears to have run out of ideas.

There's no real plan for health care beyond user fees and further privatization.

There's still no business plan for the Olympics, yet the bill for 2010 goes higher and higher.

There's no plan for our future economic prosperity beyond riding a short-term,
commodity-driven boom.

The Campbell government should answer for all of this.

But instead of answering to British Columbians, Mr. Campbell shut down the work of the Legislature.

Rather than debate the future of public health care in BC, Mr. Campbell is busy
working to make our province the for-profit medicine mecca of Canada.

That's right. According to private health care providers, BC is hands down the
best place in the country to make a buck selling medical care to those who can
afford it.

It is an old story, one we all hoped we'd never see again in Canada:

If you have the money, you get better health care.

If you can't afford it, you go to the back of the line;

And after years of undermining patient access to timely public health care, it's a very long line.

A health care system in chaos is what happens when you don't have a plan.

Because after more than five years in power,

After making promise after promise to provide better health care,

Premier Campbell finally unveiled his big health care idea last Spring.

He's going to have a conversation with British Columbians.

But ordinary people waiting for necessary treatment don't need another
"dialogue"??.

Patients waiting months for medical services don't need political gimmicks.

They want, and they deserve, the health care they were promised.

Friends,

We're not letting Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberal party get away with making BC the privatized health care capital of Canada.

We're holding their feet to the fire.

Maybe that's why Mr. Campbell decided not to come to work this Fall.

After promising his government would be at work in the Legislature,

And after promising accountability,

He turned his back on the citizens of this province.

That's why I've called on Premier Campbell to reverse his decision to cancel the
work of the Legislature this Fall.

A reminder to the Premier that his government has some work to do.

Promises he made that he hasn't honoured.

Last Spring, Mr. Campbell promised to fight the scourge of Crystal Meth.

His government has done little to fulfill that promise.

If he wants, the NDP has bill that can do that.

He promised amendments this year to strengthen and expand requirements for
criminal-record checks to better protect children at risk.

Call the Legislature back and I pledge my Party's support to do exactly that.

We need a Mental Health Advocate so the people suffering from mental illness have a voice.

We need a debate on the future of forest-dependent communities.

We need a debate on the future of our universal, public health care.

And we need a plan, a debate on the government's failure to manage our economy for the future, beyond riding out the wave of a global commodity boom.

The NDP is ready and determined to serve British Columbians.

I'm committed to doing what the people of this province sent us here to do.

We've put forward a number of positive solutions to the issues holding our
province back.

If the Premier has run out of ideas, I'll lend him some of mine.

Gordon Campbell says there is nothing to do.

I disagree.

Now is not the time to drift.

Now is the time to fulfill the promise of this province, to expand opportunity for all its citizens.

And now is the time to prepare for our province's future.

Thank you.

To unsubscribe or change your settings go to: http://www.e-2ve6y.signup2.bcndp.ca/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://bcfed.net/pipermail/labcomm/attachments/20060925/2ecbb66f/attachment.html>