About

The strength of British Colum­bia is our peo­ple.  We each con­tribute in unique and dif­fer­ent ways, through our tal­ents, ideas and hard work to build a bet­ter BC. Build­ing com­mu­ni­ties where every woman, man and child is treated with fair­ness and dig­nity, and respect is a shared responsibility.

When gov­ern­ment sin­gles out groups of indi­vid­u­als – by cut­ting ser­vices they depend on, rais­ing fees inequitably, and unfairly shift­ing taxes – it dimin­ishes all of us.  It doesn’t bring us together.  It divides us.

The pur­pose of the Coali­tion to Build a Bet­ter BC is to bring us together.

The pub­lic, com­mu­nity and cul­tural ser­vices that we have built together over the years con­tribute greatly to a vibrant and diverse BC.  They help to ensure that every British Columbian can par­tic­i­pate and share in a qual­ity of life that is rec­og­nized around the world.

Pub­lic, com­mu­nity and cul­tural ser­vices are essen­tial cor­ner­stones of a civil soci­ety.  They are a crit­i­cal com­po­nent of our eco­nomic well-being, espe­cially in dif­fi­cult eco­nomic times.  A strong pub­lic sec­tor to sup­port, build and reg­u­late the pri­vate sec­tor is vital to the social, envi­ron­men­tal and eco­nomic health of the province.

Due to dras­tic fund­ing cuts, chronic under­fund­ing and mis­aligned polit­i­cal pri­or­i­ties many of these ser­vices are at risk of dis­ap­pear­ing, and putting our way of life and the envi­ron­ment at risk.

Many of the cuts affect the most vul­ner­a­ble peo­ple in our com­mu­ni­ties, par­tic­u­larly women, chil­dren, iso­lated seniors, and those with the low­est incomes.  It is unac­cept­able for gov­ern­ment to take more from those who have the least, in order to give more to those who have the most.

We call on the provin­cial gov­ern­ment to:

  • Imme­di­ately stop elim­i­nat­ing pub­lic and com­mu­nity services;
  • Ful­fill their leg­isla­tive respon­si­bil­ity to pro­vide ade­quate, fair and con­sis­tent fund­ing to sup­port pub­lic ser­vices and com­mu­nity groups; and
  • Work in sub­stan­tive con­sul­ta­tion with groups and indi­vid­u­als to build pub­lic and com­mu­nity ser­vices that give every indi­vid­ual the demo­c­ra­tic oppor­tu­nity to par­tic­i­pate in build­ing a bet­ter BC.

We, the under­signed, are join­ing our voices together.  We will work with com­mu­nity part­ners, from every back­ground and region, to build a bet­ter British Columbia.