Tough times indeed, cuts to early Autism intervention, cuts to Autistic adults with IQs over 70, cuts to sports, these choices must have been difficult for Gordon Campbell, SLASH...BURN....CUT.../ Imagine what 330 $million dollars could do for these programs?Two years ago I launched into a personal campaign to embarrass the BC Liberals into action on child diabetes, in particularly type 1 diabetes, just imagine young children having to jab their arm dozens of times per day to test blood sugar levels then having to inject insulin to stabilize.
These children literally had to put their lives on hold, no school outings,no overnight stays at friends, a 24/7 cruel game of of jab, test and inject, what kind of a life for a child is that? After researching the issue I found out that new technology could allow these children to live normal lives,WOW, what a breakthrough, insulin pumps that would monitor blood glucose levels and automatically inject the appropriate amount of insulin, it`s a miracle, now children could lead a normal life.
So why didn`t all diabetic children have them? Well, these pumps and supplies are very expensive, roughly 10.000.00 $ dollar outlay for the first year, that`s a lot of money, now if your rich it`s no big deal but why should rich Point Grey and West Vancouver kids have normal lives while poor kids have their lives put on hold?
I looked into what other provinces were doing and lo n behold Ontario and most provinces were funding insulin pumps for kids and adults who qualified financially but not BC, anyways I wrote to the BC government, I wrote letters to the editor in various newspapers and called radio stations, meanwhile Gordon Campbell was dragging his feet on the issue and stalled, the pressure was mounting and I wasn`t letting up...........And lo n behold the Campbell government relented and with great fanfare and a Global news photo-op at a school the government announced they were going to fund insulin pumps for kids with type 1 diabetes and my internal glow was beaming through my eyes, but as the details of the program slowly leaked out my glow faded.
You see folks it`s the same old story, the devil is in the details and Gordon Campbell refuses to do anything right, and it`s not incompetence it`s deliberate, Gordon Campbell doesn`t give a damn about anyone in need, the only one`s he cares about are his corporate party donating friends.
Lets lay out the some of the lowlights of Campbell`s generosity.
- The Campbell insulin pump program for needy kids is capped at 1.5 million$ per year or 200 kids.
- The sliding scale to qualify for this program is pathetic, because as soon as a family makes over 30.000.00 $ per year the province claws back the money.
- Even if your family expenses,mortgage,food,clothes leaves you pay cheque to pay cheque if you exceed the financial cutoff your out of luck.
- Presently in BC there is about a 1000 kids who qualify for insulin pumps but Campbell capped the program at 1.5 $million dollars per year or 200 kids.
Is it just me or do we have real problem here, who amongst you wants to tell little billy or sally that they won`t get their insulin pump this year,your number 455 so maybe next year,or maybe the year after that or maybe never!
For 1/3 of the price of the $38 million dollar hallway connecting the convention centers or 1/40 of the price of the retractable BC place roof or about the same price as what Gordon Campbell has spent (so far) on trying to bring in a gag law we could supply all the kids with insulin pumps and supplies.
How long is a year in the life of a child, there is no do-over for a childhood, it comes once, so besides Gordon Campbell being a pathetic waste of skin,a proven liar, a proven lawbreaker,he is a short-sighted buffoon, the long term implications of diabetes is a huge medical cost, keeping kids healthy and well regulated in the long run would be cheaper but that doesn`t matter to Campbell, he would rather the underclass suffer with nothing,it`s Campbell`s core belief to give NOTHING to NOBODY who isn`t his type of person.
Why cap the program? Just do it, give all the kids insulin pumps, in this country,in this province it shouldn`t be a child`s privilege it should be a child`s right to have these insulin pumps.So here Gordon Campbell has cut off funding for autistic adults, cut funding for early intervention for autistic kids, cut sports funding for kids, now even special needs kids are going to be short changed because of school cuts....(read it here)http://www.theprovince.com/School+cuts+trickle+down+special+needs+kids/2018503/story.html
Yes indeed, such tough choices premier butterfly has to make, the reason I chose 330 $million dollars in the sub-heading is that is the cost to the province for fiscal year 2009/2010 for tax cuts for the banks! That`s right, the banks are getting 330 million in tax-cuts in this years budget,they were announced last year before the recession "snuck up" on Campbell and Hansen, so those are Campbell`s priorities, no claw back from the rich banks,no claw backs of the 300 million in this years tax cuts to the oil n gas industry in BC, only claw backs from Autistic adults, Autistic children, from sports for kids,claw back of 10000 surgeries, clawbacks from the environment, I hope your happy Gordon Campbell, I hope your happy Carole Taylor in your latest job worth hundreds of thousands a year in compensation as a member of the TD bank.I hope all you BC Liberals are happy, no wonder British Columbia is "The best place on earth" ......When pigs fly!
The Straight Goods
Cheers-Eyes Wide Open
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