What’s fair is fair — and that’s exactly the message a Canada-wide campaign is trying to impart and get Canadians talking about.
The Fairness Bus Tour is part of the National Union of Public and General Employees (NUPGE) All Together Now! campaign, where tour members travel around the provinces, talking to Canadians in order to build trust and common cause.
They’ve been visiting with Canadians via their fairness express buses, and one pulled in to Merritt for stops at three teacher picket lines on Tuesday.
Allen Peters, X-ray technician at the Nicola Valley Hospital is the Health Sciences Association of B.C. representative on the fairness express bus. Peters told the Herald the bus is travelling around the province to talk with Canadians about income inequality across the country and to gauge how people feel about tax fairness in Canada.
Peters pointed to a report recently released by the Broadbent Institute, which examined data from Statistics Canada and found that the richest 10 per cent of Canadians own about half of all the wealth assets in this country.
“We’re coming out and saying, ‘Is that fair?’ Peters said.
That particular report also stated the concentration of wealth for the richest 10 per cent is even higher in B.C. Across Canada, the richest 10 per cent own 47.9 per cent of the wealth, while in B.C. that number rises to 56.2 per cent.
Peters said part of the message surrounds fair labour rights, and striking teachers in B.C. are an example of unfairness in that area. The BC Teachers’ Federation and the provincial government, however, managed to reach a tentative deal on Tuesday.
“What we want is all Canadians to start talking about this stuff [and know] that we can change it, if we want,” express bus organizer Leila Lolua said.
“We want fairness for all,” Peters said.
“We’re talking about things like good public services. In other words, access to schools, access to hospitals, access to health care in general,” Peters said.
Peters said he wants the public to realize that people pay taxes for a reason, and that while not all taxes are bad, everyone needs to pay his or her fair share.
On Monday the bus stopped in at teacher picket lines at Collettville Elementary School, Central Elementary School and Merritt Secondary School.
As the B.C. bus tour ends, the fairness express bus in Saskatchewan has just started its tour, Peters said.
Peters said he sometimes hears the average Canadian is disengaged or isn’t involved in the decisions of the country.
“What we’re saying is that you need to be aware of what’s happening to your country,” Peters said.
In B.C., the bus is sponsored by the Health Sciences Association of British Columbia and the B.C. Government Employees Union.
The bus is in its fifth week of operation and after Merritt made its way back to Vancouver where it started its provincial tour.
