Don't forget cutbacks
Vancouver Island News Group -- Comox Valley Record
April 30, 2009
Opinion by: Gwyn Frayne, Courtenay

Dear editor:

Perhaps in the past we were more able to forget injustices.

That is, before we had computers with files and folders which can keep the historical wrongs.

The other day I went back to my folder called "Cuts" from the year 2002.

Then I made the mistake of opening many of the entries which reminded me of the following: Tax cuts led to program cuts, Legal Aid cuts, eye exams no longer paid for, delisting of many prescription medications, universal child care slated for beginning in 2002 cancelled, minimum wage in B.C. the lowest in Canada, freezing of the education budget, 59,000 jobs cut, women's centres in the province lost core funding, mean-testing for pharmacare, reduced home care, physiotherapy, chiropractic cuts, etc., user-pay for recreational parks, those aged 55 to 64 had their assistance reduced, and more.

The extreme cutbacks to welfare were severe. Waiting times for new welfare applicants were added.

Seniors who had to pay more for prescriptions, eye exams and physiotherapy sometimes had to forego the latter if they chose food as their priority.

I had to stop going through these files because I felt like the frog which jumped into the pot of cold water on the fire and didn't notice the water boiling until too late.

I have, thus, only listed some of the cut-backs of the last eight years.

Our provincial election is imminent. I wonder if we voters can wake up and remember to vote for the party which will protect our most vulnerable citizens so that we can again be proud of our province.