September 18, 2013 - 1:37 PM
VANCOUVER - The Liberal government released a two-year report on their so-called “jobs plan” on Tuesday without fanfare because the “jobs plan” has been undeniably dismal, say the New Democrats.
“In late September 2011, the premier launched her jobs plan specifically targeting the private sector,” said New Democrat jobs critic Harry Bains. “According to Statistics Canada we’re down 9,500 private sector jobs in B.C. since the premier announced her plan.
“B.C. is dead last when it comes to provincial private sector job growth. In fact, we’re the only province that has suffered a net loss in private sector jobs in the last two years since the plan was announced. It’s no wonder they’re too embarrassed to hold a press conference and instead quietly released the report online.”
New Democrat finance critic Mike Farnworth said the Liberals have publicly trumpeted the jobs plan through press conferences and expensive publicly funded advertising campaigns, but it isn’t surprising they kept this update quiet considering it would be impossible to spin this two-year report into good news.
“We’ve also seen 11,000 more people leave B.C. for other provinces in those two years than have come here,” said Farnworth. “And wages in B.C. are 15-per-cent behind Canadian wages.”
Farnworth said the proof that the Liberal jobs plan has been a failure is the fact that they continue to count an anomalous growth spike that occurred in August 2011 when measuring job growth, despite the plan not being announced until late September 2011.
“If the Liberal government had anything positive to show for their jobs plan, you can bet the premier and her jobs minister would have released the two-year plan with great fanfare,” said Farnworth. “But a net job loss in the private sector is nothing to be proud of.”
News from © iNFOnews, 2013