EMBRACE AN AG FUTURE PAGE A11
TURN DOWN THE HEAT PAGE A13
rough start to playoffs PAGE A14
OBSERVER QUESNEL - CARIBOO
SINCE 1908
Wednesday, January 29, 2014
VOL. 100 NO. 43
www.quesnelobserver.com
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Mushing the huskies Participants in the annual Sled Dog Mail Run were treated to a beautiful day for the event. For more photos See PAGE A3.
Karen Powell photo
CCPA alleges B.C. Jobs Plan a failure AUTUMN MacDONALD Observer Reporter
After releasing a report on the “failure” of the BC Jobs Plan, The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is calling for a more diversified and sustainable approach to job creation. “The jobs recovery after the 2008-09 recession has been weak across Canada, but B.C.’s is even weaker, and the Jobs Plan hasn’t helped,” economist and report author Iglika Ivanova said. “In fact, we were third to last in terms of job
creation in 2013, actually losing jobs while most other provinces saw job growth.” The report, titled BC Jobs Plan Reality Check, The First Two Years examined a number of indicators of labour market performance and compares the pace of recovery in the two years since the Jobs Plan was announced with the two years of recovery that preceded it. The report alleges key findings including: • Many rural areas, including the Cariboo, have not seen job growth since the Jobs Plan. Outside
QUESNEL KANGAROOS PLAYOFF Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014 @ 7:30 pm
KANGAROOS VS HOUSTON LUCKIES Should it go to game 3 it will be in Quesnel Sunday, Feb. 2, 2014
Tickets on sale at Fraser River GM Tickets available at Fraser River GM up to game time. Season ticket holders can get there tickets there until Friday and then they will be released
the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island, only the Kootenay and Northeast regions have experienced net job creation since the Jobs Plan was launched. Despite the resource focus of the plan, which was supposed to breathe life into rural areas, ThompsonOkanagan, the Cariboo, and the North Coast and Nechako have fewer jobs than before the plan and have yet to recover the jobs lost during the recession. • Two thirds of jobs created since the Jobs Plan are seasonal or casual positions. B.C. has fewer per-
manent jobs today than before the recession. • Only 71 per cent of working-age British Columbians have jobs today, effectively unchanged since the start of the BC Jobs Plan and barely improved since the low point of the recession. • B.C. needs 94,000 more jobs just to return to the province’s pre-recession employment rate (the proportion of working age British Columbians who have jobs). That’s equivalent to the number of jobs created in 2010, 2011 and 2012 combined. • Temporary foreign
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workers have filled almost a third of the new jobs created since the recession. The increase in temporary foreign workers has been concentrated in areas outside urban centres. Ivanova said British Columbia needs a number of programs in the wake of the pine beetle devastation, including large-scale forestry and accessible, quality child care. But Cariboo North MLA Oakes said spending money and raising taxes is risky with a fragile economy. “Last May, we made a commitment to British Columbians to create jobs,
keep taxes low, and balance the budget,” Oakes said. “This most recent CCPA report recommends that the government take the opposite approach by significantly increasing public spending and raising taxes on B.C. families. “The economy right now is fragile and we expect fluctuations to occur on a monthly basis, but our government is focusing on the long-term trends of reducing unemployment and attracting new investments to B.C. businesses.”
Quesnel Winter Carnival Saturday, February 1 st West Fraser Timber Park 1 pm - 5:30 pm