Clients of Community Living BC in Maple Ridge endured much aggravation and stress when they received word funding for their important programs was to be cut due to money shortages in Victoria.
Only publicity through the media forced an about-face and allowed the program to continue.
In Kamloops, a successful program in which seniors could access help with work around the house and yard met its end due to a declared lack of money at the provincial level, once federal funding ended.
There are countless other examples of worthwhile programs that have died or are on life support due to lack of funding.
Here’s the thing: There is money for these vital programs. The cash exists, only the provincial government prefers to spend it in all sorts of ridiculous ways.
That seniors program that died in Kamloops? It needed $487,000 a year to run.
That Community Living BC program in Maple Ridge that employed mentally challenged people at a recycling depot? It was going to be nixed and needed only $270,000 a year to run.
Thanks to the dogged work of Vancouver Sun reporter Jonathan Fowlie, and despite B.C. Liberal attempts to hide the information, it has been revealed the B.C. Liberals wasted $780,000 in 2010 on designing and printing pro-HST pamphlets that were to be mailed to homes across the province.
The Liberals decided against the mailout and simply destroyed the pamphlets — wasting $780,000 of your money, enough cash to fund for one year both of the above-mentioned programs.
The fact the B.C. Liberal government fought hard against releasing this information to Fowlie, tried desperately to hide the fact it blew nearly a million dollars of your money without a second thought, should prompt the question: What else has this government done in the name of wasteful spending that has yet to come to light?
The next time your local government MLA shakes his or her head and bemoans the lack of funding for Project A or Project B, remember this crass political tale of utter waste and let them know you know better — much better.