VICTORIA— In this year’s B.C. Budget, Christy Clark increased disability rates for the first time in nine years, then clawed back most of the increase by cancelling free bus passes for people with disabilities. Christy Clark is simply giving with one hand, and taking with the other.
Christy Clark and her supporters are the only ones who seem to think they didn’t cancel the free bus pass program.
She praises herself by calling it “a rate increase that will benefit everyone, including people who will continue to use a bus pass and people who never had a bus pass. All of those individuals are going to benefit from this.”
And despite the fact that her government kept rates flat for nine years, Premier Clark boasted: “every year since I’ve become premier life has gotten a little bit easier for people who are living with disabilities in British Columbia.”
You don’t have to look far to find the real story:
- “What they gave on the one hand, they took almost all of it back with the other… It’s callous and it’s mean-spirited – and if you’re going to give an increase, give an increase.” – Faith Bodnar, Inclusion BC (Globe and Mail, Feb. 19, 2016):
- “It’s a mean-spirited move. The province should acknowledge its error and restore the bus-pass program.” – Editorial (Times Colonist, Feb. 23, 2016)
- “A government with compassion would have given disabled people the increased benefits they deserve and left their bus passes alone.” – Michael Smyth (The Province, Feb. 23, 2016)
- “This clawback of the bus pass, people are uniformly seeing it a mean-spirited and very unkind measure.” – Jane Dyson, Disability Alliance BC (Vancouver Sun, Feb. 19, 2016)
- “Give them back the damn bus pass … it looks mean.” – Vaughn Palmer (Inside the Ledge, VancouverSun.com), Feb. 19, 2016)