The Crofton mill was one of the few pulp or paper mills on Vancouver Island. There is only one left, in Port Alberni.

British Columbians used to proudly produce first-class pulp and paper products, with good jobs paying a living wage. Times have changed. Most jobs in B.C. do not pay a living wage.

The management of the forestry resource appears to be complex. I don’t understand why B.C. continues to export a large volume of raw logs while mills are shutting down due to a lack of an affordable log supply.

B.C. loses large swaths of timber annually due to wildfires. Wildfires are the largest source of carbon emissions.

Why is our NDP government not making a substantial investment in quick response and suppression of wildfires? Only NDP MP Gord Johns gets the picture. Is only one politician interested in protecting our forests and environment?

I don’t understand the short-term thinking of the NDP government regarding building ferries elsewhere. Building them here would produce more living wage jobs than another pipeline.

I don’t understand why this government invests so much in the addiction industry, which has no end in sight.

No solution, just more resources dedicated to maintain the status quo. An ongoing expense that taxpayers can’t afford.

The $11 billion deficit indicates how poorly our economy is managed.

Who is steering the ship?

Phil Harrison

Comox

Michael Sabia, clerk of the Privy Council, recently sent a notice on Budget 2025 to all federal public servants.

Sabia declared that the budget proposes “a new way to invest to incent the private sector to create good jobs for Canadian workers.”

This statement deserves some reflection. It says that the Government of Canada is going to “incent” the private sector to create good jobs.

Note, it is not the Canadian taxpayer who is creating the good jobs; no, it is the private sector.

But it is the Canadian taxpayer who will foot the bill. My question is simple: How is this not to be interpreted as a form of socialism for the owners of large Canadian businesses?

Is it entrepreneurial initiative that creates the jobs? The miracle of the marketplace? No, it is a huge outlay of public money into private hands.

The Carney government calls this an investment. Fine. But where is the hedge against risk?

Suppose the jobs do not emerge. Or is it simply axiomatic that private firms will produce the jobs?

If the past four decades of economic activity are any indication, private firms seem to have had an awful time creating good jobs, to such a degree that we now must apparently “incent” them to do so.

If we put money into programs for the Canadian people, it is, the prime minister tells us, an expense; if we put the money into the hands of private corporations, it is an........

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