consultation
here's a story from the CBC:
N.B. report calls for public insurance system
Here's a Chomsky quote about what happened in Ontario ~10yrs ago:
"In the Province of Ontario, you know there is a so-called free-trade agreement between Canada & the United States, in the Province of Ontario, legislation was proposed to institute a no-fault, publicly-funded insurance plan for auto insurance. That would be much cheaper & much more efficient than the current privately-supported plan. The situation is analogous to the health system - it would be a system like the health system - you cut back a ton of bureaucracy & administrative costs, it becomes more efficient, it's also tax-based rather than individually-funded so it's not so regressive & so on. Well that didn't get very far. It was challenged by US insurance companies who claimed that it was in illegal interference with free trade because it interfered with their abilities to operate profitably in Canada. The Province of Ontario could have proceeded with litigation on this matter but they dropped it; it would have been much too expensive and the insurance companies have all the money & all the time & the fancy lawyers & so on, the public doesn't. So Ontario dropped it. If it had gone through the procedures specified by the free-trade agreement, it would have worked its way up to an adjudication panel, which operates in secret & is made up of corporate lawyers and trade representatives & you can guess what the outcome of that will be, and that's typical."
Note: consultation
N.B. report calls for ...
Stumble It!
Kevin
the Chomsky quote too!
We have a riled-up populace here in the city of stately apathy...
Fredericton, and throughout the province for that matter. There's
tremendous pressure on Bernard Lord's conservative government
to adopt those recommendations. Doesn't one of the prairie
provinces have public auto insurance? As for the American
insurance companies filing suit, as George Bush would say... Bring
'em on!!!
In a totally unrelated story, they've just announced cuts to NB civil
service to the tune of approximately 750 full-time positions, <insert
sarcastic tone> but have managed to retain a 2.5% increase for
members of the legislature. The arrogance, ingnorance, and
cynicism of most of our elected representatives is truly staggering.
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"So many right-wing Christians, so few lions." - t-shirt I saw @ school
In four years of driving with a clean record my auto insurance increased (as a secondary driver mind you) from $800 a year to $1200 a year on a car that decreased in value over the same time. A fifty percent increase!
Many stories a the same kind are abundant in Ontario (and I guess other prov's with private systems) and I think is one of the best ways of showing citizens that corporate interests are in control and not to be trusted.
Case: during the last Ontario provincial election (where the NDP made a committment to public auto insurance) I was eating at pizza pizza. The young italian guy manning the stove told me he always sees me reading the paper, and wanted to ask me a couple questions about Canadian politics. 'Sure!' says I and here's the first questions he asked.
1) How does Canadian government work? Is it corrupt?
2) Who is going to fix auto insurance?
Canadians know that there is something wrong with the way government works. They just don't know what they can do about it with so much misinformation and confusion surrounding politics. The quickest way to help citizens understand politics is not to wade into NAFTA and Chapter 11 (unless they ask for it
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If we are standing still we are moving backwards.
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Dave Ruston