Tag Archives: cutbacks

Mayor warns Detroit is going broke, so are states and other cities

Detroit Mayor Dave Bing photo:mlive.com

10% pay cut needed to avoid receivership in 70 days

Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, August 12, 2009 with story from

Dave Bing the Mayor of Detroit is warning city unions that unless they take a 10% hair cut Detroit will run out of money in 70 days. The unions are pushing back telling the mayor to borrow on future revenues.

The same story is being played out across the United States as municipal and state governments run out of cash. The recession has hit sales and income tax revenues hard. Ever harder hit have been property tax revenues which have plummeted from falling property valuations and the millions of abandoned homes with no owners to pay tax.

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CBC cuts 800 jobs to save $171-million

cbc logo 1940 19582 CBC cuts 800 jobs to save $171 million photo Story from the Globe and Mail

JAMES BRADSHAW, From Thursday’s Globe and Mail March 25, 2009 at 8:31 PM EDT

The CBC told employees Wednesday it will cut about 800 jobs in an effort to save $171-million amid a flagging economy that has seen advertising revenues plummet.

The cuts needed to balance the public broadcaster’s budget for 2009-10 are expected to hit CBC Television hardest, but both television and radio audiences will notice a reduction in news content as well as programming of current affairs, drama, music and special events. Repeats will become more frequent to fill the void.
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PEI civil servants headed for dose of reality

No room for N.B.-style cuts to civil service on P.E.I., warns union

By Stephen Pate, NJN Network, Charlottetown, PEI, Canada, March 19, 2009
with CBC story

While PEI has cut back it’s civil service employment, the cuts haven’t taken the Province far enough. The current economic crisis means PEI is headed into a financial hat trick with lowered income from tax revenues and transfers from Ottawa, rising service costs and mushrooming civil service pensions. There is no easy answer but continuing the current spending won’t work for long. There is a faint hope the recession ends next week or next month, the Ontario auto industry comes back like a lion and oil goes to $100 a barrel putting Alberta back in the pink. Failing that, PEI is headed down a long road to financial disaster. We have a bloated government lazy with decades of hand outs from Ottawa. The patronage runs thick and deep on PEI with waste over $100 million a year. Successive PEI governments have been spenders not savers. There is not only zero money in the bank, our debts will soon be unmanageable. In our situation, we can hardly avoid more cutbacks. How will we pay the salaries of civil servants let alone their pensions? The union should get ahead of the problem and start proposing solutions not crying the blues.
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Microsoft cuts 5000 as usual during downturn

January 21, 2009 – TechRadar Microsoft announced it will cut it’s payroll by 5,000 with 1,400 going immediately. Despite a profit increase of 11% to $4 billion in the quarter, yes three months, this is pure Microsoft. Microsoft is one of the most profitable companies on the planet earth and take any chance they can to cut costs. They have done this going into each and every recession and come out with billions more in the bank account. Smart money hides during a downturn. “Cuts at the Redmond giant have been mooted for some time, but the confirmation has finally been made, with Microsoft’s Chief Financial Officer Chris Liddell announcing the news. “Economic activity slowed beyond our expectations in the quarter, and we acted quickly to reduce our cost structure and mitigate its impact,” said Liddell.”
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The weak and powerless just have to wait

The Guardian
COMMENTARY
STEPHEN PATE

Is P.E.I. a democracy or is it ruled by the rich and powerful, an oligarchy? The preferential treatment of P.E.I.’s richest by the government compared to the treatment of its weak and poor is astounding.

Oligarchies have existed since ancient Grecian democracy whenever power was held tightly by a few powerful and rich people despite actual changes in government leaders.

The rich and powerful people in an oligarchy are not seen as governing. They are the power behind the throne. They rarely come out into public scrutiny since they know the population will be agitated by their obvious power.

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Tour of Hope in Montague

Stephen Pate, Campaign of Hope outside Kaylee Hall Poole's Corner PEI

Monday April 16th, 2007 – They were predicting heavy rain but it didn’t come. Instead we had raw cold wind last night in Poole’s Corner outside of Montague. We are on the second leg of our Tour of Hope.

In the afternoon we visited Montague businesses along Main Street. We talked to people and put up notices. I bored Michael with my stories of “This is where the St. Mary’s Hall blew up and burned down.”

Michael handed out Disability on PEI Quick Facts, our one pager, at the door to the Kaylee Hall as the PC delegates went into the building. The same man with the Tim Horton’s cup was there trying to get us to leave. Does he live in Tignish and Montague? Or does he just travel around with us?

I stayed off the shoulder of the road greeting people and generally drawing attention to our sign “Stop Taking Money from People in Wheelchairs.” As it got colder, I wheeled around on the shoulder to keep warm.

Two women gave us donations. People are kind. One man asked “What’s it about?”

“The government took money away from disability supports,” I replied “Did you know that a person at 65 can’t get a wheelchair from the DSP?”

“Don’t they have another department?” he asked.

“No, there is no other department that supplies wheelchairs.”

He shook his head and went inside.

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Advocate says boost to DSP not enough

BUDGET DIGEST

An 11 per cent increase in the budget for the Disability Support Program is not enough, says a local advocate.

Stephen Pate, director of PEI Disability Alert, says the increase brings the program to $9.1 million. He said that’s a help but falls short of the $10 million his group wanted to see in the budget.

Pate said the Island’s most vulnerable, including seniors, those with learning disabilities and the mentally challenged, will still be left out of the program.

Last year, the program was cut back by $1 million.

“To redress the cutback, we expected to see the $1 million restored plus the normal four to five per cent in spending increase that the department gets.”