Starting to get spicy out here. The government was busted for hiring scab labour, likely in violation of the labour relations code, and the union has filed a complaint. Now there's this:
The announcement of product quantity is to late already, most of the popular products are gone of the shelf already.
We are expecting the hearing today is going to go in our favour since the labour relations board granted us an emergency session within less than 48hrs. It is really disappointing that they were stockpiling product at a third party warehouse before strike notice was issued.
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The Government Licensed Professionals (GLP) who work for the BC public service will be issuing 72-hour strike notice at noon today. The 1,200 licensed professionals include agrologists, engineers, foresters, geoscientists, pharmacists, psychologists, veterinarians and more. No details of the planned strike action are being released at this time.
The Professional Employees Association (PEA), the union representing the GLP, entered bargaining with the Public Service Agency on April 11, and quickly reached impasse on May 16 when wage proposals failed to address the rising cost of living. Government Licensed Professionals then voted 92% in favour of a strike in June.
“These licensed professionals rebuild bridges and roads, monitor BC’s forests and agriculture, and provide care to the province’s most vulnerable youth,” said Melissa Moroz, Labour Relations Officer with the PEA. “We need their expertise more than ever to help keep the province safe.”
The decision to take job action is not something these scientific experts take lightly. But rising inflation and higher wages in the private sector have made it increasingly challenging to keep professionals in the BC public service.
“It’s time for the BC government to invest in the workers who provide the services that the province relies on,” said Moroz. “These licensed professionals are taking job action because they want to see the cost of living addressed at the bargaining table.”
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Last edited by FlamesAddiction; 08-19-2022 at 06:19 PM.
On CBC radio yesterday, I listed to an interview with a damned city counselor and CRD project lead who said they're moving back to NFLD because they can't afford to live here. I get that someone like me (essentially a laborer) is having a tough time finding affordable house but ppl who run the region? They can't live here? What. The. Actual. Hell.
I know municipal public servant money isn't great, but uhhh, if you're running water treatment plants? You should damned well be able to live comfortably.
This place is going to be full of elite and no one to serve them.
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I wouldn't be surprised to see a general strike across the province if they don't address the cost of living and housing issues soon.
This is a two-term government and not only have they done nothing, but they have made things worse.
I don't follow a lot of provincial politics, but what has the current BC government done to bear responsibility for the crisis in cost of living and housing issues? The underlying conditions here in BC were already bad, but the current emergency seems largely the product of economic issues that are well-beyond the scope of the province. Is it just the sense that they haven't done enough in response, or are they paying for the underlying issues that have been endemic before the global economic issues became severe?
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On CBC radio yesterday, I listed to an interview with a damned city counselor and CRD project lead who said they're moving back to NFLD because they can't afford to live here. I get that someone like me (essentially a laborer) is having a tough time finding affordable house but ppl who run the region? They can't live here? What. The. Actual. Hell.
I know municipal public servant money isn't great, but uhhh, if you're running water treatment plants? You should damned well be able to live comfortably.
This place is going to be full of elite and no one to serve them.
If Vancouver is basically turning into a Chinese "ghost city" where foreigners and criminals just park their cash and money laundering, the empty houses won't need running water anyhow.
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On CBC radio yesterday, I listed to an interview with a damned city counselor and CRD project lead who said they're moving back to NFLD because they can't afford to live here. I get that someone like me (essentially a laborer) is having a tough time finding affordable house but ppl who run the region? They can't live here? What. The. Actual. Hell.
I know municipal public servant money isn't great, but uhhh, if you're running water treatment plants? You should damned well be able to live comfortably.
This place is going to be full of elite and no one to serve them.
If you're earning low $100s, you can no longer afford to buy. Then, if you've got a family, you're stuck paying 3500-4000 in rent, living pay cheque to pay cheque wondering when your next eviction is. Not much of a life.
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If you're earning low $100s, you can no longer afford to buy. Then, if you've got a family, you're stuck paying 3500-4000 in rent, living pay cheque to pay cheque wondering when your next eviction is. Not much of a life.
Yep. Honestly, the only reason I can afford to live here is because I somehow scored a stupidly cheap bachelor apartment 6.5 years on the border of downtown and Fernwood.
The building is a piece of ####, but it's decent enough for me and, for $640/month, I'm not going anywhere.
I don't follow a lot of provincial politics, but what has the current BC government done to bear responsibility for the crisis in cost of living and housing issues? The underlying conditions here in BC were already bad, but the current emergency seems largely the product of economic issues that are well-beyond the scope of the province. Is it just the sense that they haven't done enough in response, or are they paying for the underlying issues that have been endemic before the global economic issues became severe?
the problem for Vancouver, like London, Melbourne and a shed load other cities is stupidly low interest rates for so long, if interest rates are at a normal 6 or 8% my house aint worth 2 mill, Vancouver is always going to be expensive but free money is the real issue
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A sweeping set of recommendations meant to address the "public safety challenges" of repeat offenders and random violence in B.C. was released Wednesday
A report and recommendations on how to tackle British Columbia’s chronic offender problem is “too little, too timid, and too late,” according to the leader of the province’s Official Opposition.
They say a collapse in support services during the pandemic, combined with climbing housing costs, are pushing Canada's poorest neighbourhood to a point never seen before — with vulnerable women and girls bearing the brunt of the resulting violence.
"People will come to neighbourhoods like the Downtown Eastside to play out some of the worst violence, possibly because they know they can get away with it," said Beyene.
"What's alarming is how many are quite violent — sometimes they include women being drugged, and detained for hours, sometimes days."
The signs of social decay and disorder can be seen in cities across B.C., but nowhere are they more acute or visible than in downtown Vancouver. Some residents no longer feel safe walking down the streets where they work and live.
Zarrabian agreed that revolving-door justice is a problem.
She cited one case in which a repeat offender one morning caused $100,000 in damage, mostly broken windows, was arrested and released in the afternoon on a promise to appear.
“Within an hour of being released, he went to a different neighbourhood in the downtown core, and he did another $25,000 worth of damage,” Zarrabian said. “That’s one day. That’s not a policing issue – that is a court issue. That is the lack of having teeth in the justice system.”
“There’s no point of giving housing to individuals that need complex care if you’re not going to give them the complex care in that housing unit,” Zarrabian said. “All you’re doing is creating a warehouse situation with individuals, and all that does is create more victimization with those units.”
Yeah, I have sadly seen some pretty hard conditions in traveling around emerging markets both urban and rural, but Vancouver is more dystopian than those places. Go around the DTES and it's the epicenter of a whirlpool of despair. You can tell that in Vancouver the wages-costs disparity among other issues has many people just circling the edges of the whirlpool and only needing one or two tough breaks to get pulled into it, at which point things can spiral quickly into brutal addiction, violence and ultimately death - all of this while surrounded by affluence and an abundance of resources. It's heartbreaking to see.
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With inflation as it is, the likelihood of deep recession ahead, and the strain already put upon support systems by the pandemic, this situation is just likely to get worse going into 2023.
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While nowhere near as bad as Vancouver, as someone who is around the East Village/Drop-in area every day, the homeless/drug-use situation in Calgary feels like it's definitely getting much more noticeable too.
It really seems like the entire west coast is slowly sliding into Hell.
Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, LA, San Francisco...
I just chatted with some clients that recently returned to Calgary from San Francisco and what they were telling me was insane.
This is a couple with an annual income of ~$1M USD and they were complaining about the outrageous cost of living in San Francisco.
Then they tell you about the Homeless camps, rampant crime, obviously open and obvious drug use. Yikes.
Obviously all those places have issues - but suspect its wildly overblown. Considering the prices of living in those places - seems likely the demand to move there is quite high.
Obviously all those places have issues - but suspect its wildly overblown. Considering the prices of living in those places - seems likely the demand to move there is quite high.
I'm actually not sure it is.
I was in Vancouver and Seattle earlier this summer and both places were pretty bad in certain areas. Locals in both areas talked about the of rise of crime and homeless population becoming a really big issue. .
Seattle especially we were warned by our hotel and some security guards at some of the shops downtown to be very careful and that theft and crime was rampant, and not to venture out too late if we didn't know where we were going.
I'm sure for people in these cities with good jobs that live in the better suburbs (we were told we should have stayed in Bellevue/Redmond in Seattle for example) it's fine, but in the actual downtown cores it can be quite bad.
We've travelled a lot and I've never really been worried about being out late at night whether it was New York (Manhattan, or Brooklyn), Rome, Prague, etc but in Seattle downtown and in Vancouver (had to just cross East Hastings) it was probably the most nervous I've been walking around at night while travelling.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 09-22-2022 at 03:15 PM.
Obviously all those places have issues - but suspect its wildly overblown. Considering the prices of living in those places - seems likely the demand to move there is quite high.
The SF second-hand story is pretty ridiculous to me. SF very obviously has problems, some of which have gotten worse, some of which have existed since I was a kid.
"Homeless camps!" yeah, literally for as long as I can remember.
"Cost of living!" COMPLETELY manageable (which is being generous: it's actually just irrelevant) for someone making $1M USD
"Drug use!" Really? In SF? No way.
I understand it's a personal issue, and I understand certain areas of SF can be shocking to people from Calgary, for example, and certain aspects of the city are getting worse for everyone. But the constant post-apocalyptic wasteland nightmare tales from yuppie 1%ers and small city tourists is exhausting to read.
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The SF second-hand story is pretty ridiculous to me. SF very obviously has problems, some of which have gotten worse, some of which have existed since I was a kid.
"Homeless camps!" yeah, literally for as long as I can remember.
"Cost of living!" COMPLETELY manageable (which is being generous: it's actually just irrelevant) for someone making $1M USD
"Drug use!" Really? In SF? No way.
I understand it's a personal issue, and I understand certain areas of SF can be shocking to people from Calgary, for example, and certain aspects of the city are getting worse for everyone. But the constant post-apocalyptic wasteland nightmare tales from yuppie 1%ers and small city tourists is exhausting to read.
The homeless problem in SF, and across the West Coast generally, is indeed getting much worse. And that's despite record numbers of overdose deaths that are an epidemic in that population.
The issue is also more front and center, as homeless people are now setting up semi-permanent camps in many streets. Historically, many cities would literally clean up the streets every morning with street sweepers, moving the problems to other areas. Parks would have enforced no loitering laws and curfews.
I'm not sure what the right answer. Those laws were totally draconian and a violation of all sorts of human rights. However, they also prevented the large scale congregation of people, which can act as a culture to draw more people in.
BC, starting January 31, 2023, will be decriminalizing personal amounts of most hard drugs. it'll be interesting to see what the effect of that is.
