Originally Posted by taylor192 (Post 7069774)

We need to encourage small business, and the best way to do that is ease their tax burden. I support this more than the government subsidies other provinces have tried in the past,

Originally Posted by johny (Post 7069783)

my understanding is the company I work for buys most of it's products from wholesalers and we have acounts with PST / GST numbers so we never paid tax on anything in the first place. only when we bought the odd parts from reg stores would he eat the PST (but still get back the GST at year end). so he'll save a few bucks on tax when he buys the odd thing. (maybe a few hundred a year) but now we have to charge everyone 7% more on our bills. (as it's mainly labour)

this small business will be harmed, not helped by HST.

Originally Posted by hung_low (Post 7069529)

it's not just the employees in the civic sector, unions are the main cause reason for driving prices up. ie bus drivers, we all bitch about how expensive transit fees are, but the bus drivers get pay increases every year for doing the same shit, that $$ has to come from somehwere.

Originally Posted by twitchyzero (Post 7069905)

i thought the average bus driver makes 60k..which sounds about right for the work they do

Originally Posted by freakshow (Post 7069614)

Let's not get ahead of ourselves here. Yes, some of them DO work, and they work hard. However, I'll venture to say that MOST of them do NOT work hard.
Everyone I know that works for the government (RCMP or CBSA) says themselves that it's easy, with great pay, and have no problem telling me about all the different ways that they (and most of their coworkers) slack off.
Then there are my friends who work for pseudo-crown corps, like Worksafe BC. They tell me how much they make with the experience they have, and it is truly sickening. More than that, most of their work stories involve how they love to email each other and watch youtube videos. They only take a break from youtube when their manager comes around -- to show them his newest iphone app..

Originally Posted by City-bear (Post 7070203)

I think it has more to do with unions than working for the government. The higher up you get, the more you get paid, the harder it is to fire you. Unions reward loyalty and not hard work, and sadly, that is what I see at my workplace. So many people doing the bare minimum just so they can claim their government pension.

Originally Posted by Tapioca (Post 7070290)

My take is that the grass is always greener on the other side. If you're simply a clerk or an administrative person, life in the public service is a pretty sweet deal. However, if you're a professional of some sort (engineer, lawyer, etc.), you might actually take a pay cut. Check out job postings on the BC Public Service website (https://search.employment.gov.bc.ca/...jobs_quick.cgi) or the federal government's website (www.jobs.gc.ca) to see what public servants are actually getting paid.

Originally Posted by taylor192 (Post 7070661)

Remember to add 12-20% to those public salaries to account for the pension contributions. So those clerks become very overpaid, and the engineers salary is within reason.