Jobs program pays to burn Spilly pine

Province supports resource workers in Golden.

Ministry of Community and Rural Development.

Workers in the Golden area are benefiting from close to $350,000 through a Job Opportunities Program project that will identify and remove trees infested with the mountain pine beetle, announced Pat Bell, Minister of Forests and Range and Bill Bennett, Minister of Community and Rural Development. [Read more]

BC reaches ‘net-zero’ agreement with medical services unions

Agreement reached with health facilities employees.

Ministry of Finance / Ministry of Health Services.

The Facilities Bargaining Association, representing over 47,000 health-care workers, has reached a tentative agreement on a two-year contract with the Health Employers Association of B.C., Finance Minister Colin Hansen announced on February 8.

The agreement covers about 270 different jobs in every area of health care, including nursing, health records, information technology, logistics and supply, diagnostic testing, pharmacy, trades and maintenance, dietary, housekeeping, payroll and more. [Read more]

Canada Summer Jobs Program

“Supporting students, serving communities”.

Canada Summer Jobs is an initiative of the Government of Canada that provides funding for non-profit organizations, public-sector employers and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees to create high-quality summer job opportunities for students, aged 15 to 30, who intend to return to their studies in the next school year. The program gives valuable work experience to the students while, at the same time, it focuses on local priorities and in this way, both students and their communities are benefited. [Read more]

Cries for help beneath Olympic cheers

British Columbia Federation of Labour.

Against a backdrop of the Winter Olympics, and talk of early signs of economic recovery, the Lieutenant Governor will present a Throne Speech on February 9. Three weeks later Finance Minister Colin Hansen will present a provincial budget. [Read more]

Medical support staff cutbacks — does anyone care?

More health care dollars slashed — cuts affect us all.

Recently, the British Columbia government announced to staff at hospitals and extended care facilities across the province, that there were going to be job cuts, pay cuts and shorter hours in dietary and housekeeping departments in an effort to cut more from the health budget. In a system that has already cut costs to the bone and deeper, another cut is hard to imagine. So CVNews has done some digging and what we have discovered has raised a great many questions that don’t seem to be receiving any reasonably believable answers. [Read more]

More broken promises, neglect of elders deepens

Seniors in residential care facilities are now paying more for less.

With the increase in residential care rates for seniors and the announcement of layoffs of staff at Interior Health’s Columbia House in Invermere, residents are going to be paying more while services are going to be cut.

“When the government initially announced the increases to residential care fees they promised that the extra $54 million that would be raised would go towards improving care, but that is not what is happening in Interior Health facilities in this area,” said Columbia River – Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald. [Read more]

Paramedics ordered to work overtime, talks resume

Talks are back on between the Ambulance Paramedics of BC and the employer. The two bargaining committees will meet Tuesday in Vancouver with third-party mediator Mark Atkinson in attendance.

The development came Sunday following weekend discussions between CUPE 873, CUPE BC and the BC Ambulance Service.

At a Friday support rally for paramedics in Richmond, CUPE 873 president John Strohmaier directed members to work only their regularly scheduled shifts. In view of the government’s recognition that this dispute must be resolved at the bargaining table, that direction has been rescinded. [Read more]

BC doles out job stimulus funding

Governments of Canada and B.C. invest $14M in jobs.

An investment of more than $14 million through the Community Adjustment Fund and Job Opportunities Program will help organizations and groups throughout the province create immediate employment and help workers in all industry sectors and communities impacted by the economic downturn, announced MP Cathy McLeod, Member of Parliament for Kamloops-Thompson-Cariboo on behalf of Lynne Yelich, Minister of State for Western Economic Diversification, and Kevin Krueger, Minister of Tourism, Culture and the Arts on behalf of Bill Bennett, British Columbia’s Minister of Community and Rural Development. [Read more]

Jumbo Liberal budget

The Liberals recently unveiled the new provincial budget, it goes without saying that it fell short of our collective expectations. The NDP, never to miss an opportunity, have lobbed insults, made accusations and done everything in their power to accuse the Liberal party of full responsibility for our short comings. Why not, it’s normal political practice to lace up and kick the crud out of the party in power during a recession; FYI we are in the midst of arguably the largest GLOBAL recession in history. Is this the Liberals fault? Norm MacDonald would make you think it is! Are the NDP doing ANYTHING to drive solutions to navigate our provincial interests through these extremely difficult times? Of course not, they are far more concerned with tossing darts for their own personal and political gain than to actually do their job and attend to the insignificant matter of running our province. [Read more]

Budget ignores job losses and climbing unemployment

The provincial budget update released today by Finance Minister Colin Hansen ignores the hardships faced by tens of thousands of unemployed British Columbians and their families, focussing instead on minimizing the deficit and tax cuts.

“This budget is another spin doctor’s dream, until you walk out the door into the real world and realize that we have more than 150,000 people without jobs, forest communities in crisis, seniors without proper care and students without a chance to get a decent education or proper training,” says Jim Sinclair, President of the B.C. Federation of Labour. [Read more]