MSP income threshold
Once again MSP (medical services plan) premiums have gone up, January 1, but it has been five years since the income threshold has been raised. It was raised January 1, 2010, from $28,000 to $30,000 with no increase for inflation since “Gap between wealth and health,” December 30, 2014].
As a senior couple who have had modest increases in our Old Age Security pension and Canada Pension Plan over those five years, we have been pushed into paying higher premiums with no increase in the income thresholds.
I am sure this is happening to a lot of lower income families as well. It is time for seniors to contact their local MLAs and put pressure on the Liberal government about the income threshold for MSP.
Sean Barry
Mowat Avenue
A legacy to leave?
2014 was a busy year for the Stephen Harper Conservatives who were quietly dismantling Canada’s environmental protections to serve international oil, gas, mining and aquaculture interests.
Weakened laws include granting broad power to the ministers of fisheries and oceans and environment to authorize destruction of Canada’s native fish in favour of foreign industrial development, along with lifting restrictions on large scale dumping of aquatic drugs, pesticides and farm-fish waste into the ocean [“Islanders occupy channel,” October 8, 2014].
At the end of the year, the Harper Conservatives handed federal ports the licence to operate without environmental reviews and the power to destroy terrestrial species at risk of extinction. And if you want to peacefully protest the projects these actions will allow, they have just proposed new provisions to the criminal code that could result in 10 years in jail and big fines.
Once it’s gone, it’s gone. Instead of Canada’s iconic natural areas, we will have poor air quality and industrial landscapes with coal, oil barges and pipelines replacing our fisheries, tourism and hospitality jobs.
In 2015 do we want to continue this authorized, corporate control to destroy Canada’s natural areas, climate and democracy?
Let’s leave a different legacy, and choose to conserve habitat, stop the fossil fuel expansion, and further the solar, wind and water energy businesses with viable, clean jobs.
Sheila Harrington
Lasqueti Island
No need to move
It has come to our attention that some of our loyal customers are concerned that Powell River Fabricators is going to have to move shop due to excessive noise complaints about a welding shop south of town. This concern has arisen since the publication of your article “Loud industrial sounds cause for complaint,” on December 10, 2014.
We just want to set the record straight, that this article is not referring to our welding shop. Powell River Fabricators will remain open and we will continue to serve our customers from our current location at 2812 McCausland Road.
John Cato
Powell River Fabricators
