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Vancouver Off-Topic / Current EventsThe off-topic forum for Vancouver, funnies, non-auto centered discussions, WORK SAFE. While the rules are more relaxed here, there are still rules. Please refer to sticky thread in this forum.
I don't like the attack ads that the liberals are using - but honestly, I don't see anything else they can really do but to compare themselves to the NDP of the 90's. Dix and the NDP haven't said a word about their actual plan, so it's not like the Liberals can actually debate against that.
That said, I don't like Christy Clark much - but there are a few of the party members whom I really like. I live in Dix's riding, I would very much love for him to come knocking on my door so he might actually answer some questions, but that's never going to happen.
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I have quite a few friends who are teachers - and not all of them are for the NDP. But god-forbid they try to say anything good about the liberals, they would be so ostracized by their peers and their union.
Honestly, I can't believe that there is the actual off-chance that the NDP might get rid of the secret ballot for union votes.
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I have quite a few friends who are teachers - and not all of them are for the NDP. But god-forbid they try to say anything good about the liberals, they would be so ostracized by their peers and their union.
Honestly, I can't believe that there is the actual off-chance that the NDP might get rid of the secret ballot for union votes.
With all the abuse that teachers have received from the BC Liberals, even if the teachers are more conservative, they would have to be completely out of their minds to cast their vote for a Liberal candidate again.
I'm a huge supporter of teachers. I think, and its obvious, that educating kids isn't an expense, its an investment. Why do we pay for public education? Because we want everyone to have access to it.
I also think, as a group they can be the most difficult to deal with. I disagree with a lot of their stances and positions. I for one support essential service legislation. Take strikes off the board-not because I dislike teachers, but because I view education as an investment. An important one.
It's obvious that the teachers are looking forward to an NDP government. They signed a 1 year contract to that effect. Effectively saying, "fuck it, we'll deal with your replacement"
So what will the NDP do?
We all know that a lot of public sector jobs have pay scales that are not matched privately, on average. That offends me. You have jobs that are unmatched in terms of security(relatively). I think the pay scales should be slightly lower than private sector, with great benefit packages and the security should be worth something. That's me.
So, what will appease the teachers? 1%? 2%? If the NDP says no, they have the problem of working against their base. Then, when all the other contracts roll through...you gave the teachers 1%...so obviously you can give 1% to them all.
Right now, we don't have money. We can do one of two things: go much much worse, or ride it out. I don't think we're going to hit a solid budget, with an actual surplus for a few more years. If we start acting like that is not our reality, then we can easily be in the $1 billion deficit area.
I am not intimately familiar with the BCTF situation either, but the BC Liberals have been stuffing a lot of shxt down their throats over their 3 term reign. Some of the biggest sticking points that the BCTF has been fuming about was the major reduction (or near complete elimination) of special needs teachers and class size increases. The massive reduction of special needs teachers further resulted in yet another problem -- the displacement of special needs kids into regular classes, with the most recent plans trying to stuff as many as 3 (I think?) special needs kids into a regular class.
For those who have not worked with special needs kids, you probably cannot imagine how different and how much effort is needed to work with them. Having a single ADHD or autistic kid in class can already completely change the dynamics of a class, as the kid can "disrupt" the flow of the whole class due to the amount of attention he needs / generates. Now multiply that by 3, and your whole hour or hour and a half class is spent on trying to manage interruptions and classroom discipline instead of actually teaching anything.
Furthermore, when the provincial government regularly does not respect their own class size laws, stuffing more students into classes than what the law allows, something is clearly not right. There is little surprise to see why BCTF hates the BC Liberals guts.
Oh, and we haven't even gotten to any salary discussion yet.
Another thing that really pisses me off with both Liberals and NDP is that while they will both come out saying how they need to be fiscally responsible, they have no problem fattening their own MLA / premier pay cheques. When Gordo was still premier, I remember one time when the bastard proposed to give himself some ridiculous raise, to the tune of 30 - 40%. In the same bill, MLA pay was also raised by quite a bit as well (easily 10%+, if not 15%+). Naturally, Carol James and the NDP quietly supported it as well. This was doublely insulting at the time because just a little earlier than that, the Liberals government has denied some public sector salary increase.
Suffice to say, both the Liberals and NDP are fxxking bastards.
Well... step one in Dix's platform is to boost tax credits to the film industry up to 40%. It's a decent start, albeit a fairly obvious one given the large outcry from the local industry in the recent past. I'm curious what else they have planned.
Still, that's 40% only on labour, which is pales in comparison to ONT and QC which offer tax credits to the entire production. Which is why you see VFX work still in Vancouver but live-action shooting dropping in BC.
I honestly think the general public wouldn't want more money than last year ($437m) spent on an economy largely benefitting US studios. Don't get me wrong, I work in the CGI industry and I love it, but it's not an essential service.
How would the teachers union feel when the Film industry gets an increase in the budget but not higher education?
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Still, that's 40% only on labour, which is pales in comparison to ONT and QC which offer tax credits to the entire production. Which is why you see VFX work still in Vancouver but live-action shooting dropping in BC.
I honestly think the general public wouldn't want more money than last year ($437m) spent on an economy largely benefitting US studios. Don't get me wrong, I work in the CGI industry and I love it, but it's not an essential service.
How would the teachers union feel when the Film industry gets an increase in the budget but not higher education?
It's a different set of priorities; essentially the difference between spending on marketing (making more money) and HR (training existing staff to do better).
I think as long as everyone gets respectfully listened to, there'll be progress. I'm in the middle of working right now, but my essential feelings about the teachers especially is that they'll back the fuck off from wage demands as long as someone fucking listens to their need for more support roles; LAC and Special Needs in particular. One of the reasons the teachers have pushed for money over the last few cycles is because the one time they accepted a 0/0/0 three year contract in exchange for more hiring and smaller classes, the province went "oops, we thought we had more money than we did, no new teachers for you" and then went ahead and legislated in a new contract that stripped a lot of rights. This is where the strike and essential services came in.
Also, only jurisdiction in the world that has teaching as an essential service. Just saying.
Crusty wants to have a one on one debate with Dix, good move Crusty I would asume Dix will back down because she just wants to grill him on the plans for the province I'm sure Posted via RS Mobile
Still, that's 40% only on labour, which is pales in comparison to ONT and QC which offer tax credits to the entire production. Which is why you see VFX work still in Vancouver but live-action shooting dropping in BC.
I honestly think the general public wouldn't want more money than last year ($437m) spent on an economy largely benefitting US studios. Don't get me wrong, I work in the CGI industry and I love it, but it's not an essential service.
How would the teachers union feel when the Film industry gets an increase in the budget but not higher education?
The thing about the film industry is that it directly supports dozens of other local industries. Construction, food service, textiles, electricians, hotels, etc., etc. At one point the industry was spending over $1.2 Billion in BC alone. No matter how you slice it, that is a lot of cash for the government, local businesses and crew/cast members.
Also keep in mind that we're not giving the studios money by increasing the tax credits. We're merely taxing them less.
Also keep in mind that we're not giving the studios money by increasing the tax credits. We're merely taxing them less.
This is incorrect as the PSTC, which the US studios benefit from, are refundable tax credits up to and exceeding the corporations payable income tax. In other words, subsidies. They get even more if they are doing VFX or CGI work because they also qualify for the DAVE credit. Hence, the huge amount of US VFX houses setting up branch operations in Vancouver.
For instance, say I work for MPC in Yaletown as a compositor. For every $1000 the pays me, the provincial gov't sends MPC $495 and the federal gov't sends $79, total is $574.
The problem with the film industry and VFX especially, is that it's completely mobile and they will continually chase where the biggest subsidies are, which is why the jobs are in Ontario and Quebec, where the subsidies are eligible on the entire production cost.
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Originally Posted by Hondaracer
Crusty wants to have a one on one debate with Dix, good move Crusty I would asume Dix will back down because she just wants to grill him on the plans for the province I'm sure Posted via RS Mobile
The problem is she just dismissed all the other parties in BC.. its ridiculous let's face it every election the Green Party, etc get enough votes imo that they should be heard you can't have a debate and ignore a substantial amount of the populace
that right there, imo, shows that Christy Crunch is literally out to lunch
We really need to solve this problem of who gets included in debates.
I think there should be a certain percentage of popular vote that a party needs to achieve 'grass roots' style, and can then be included in debates and all the other things as a party.
You need that number to be high enough to keep out the marijuana party, and the communism party and keep it from being a gong show(not that I'm against either, but you can't just allow anyone up on stage) and low enough that other parties can form, and have a chance at exponential growth that being included in the debates and as an "official" party can allow.
...and then we can end this stupid debate debate every election.
Still, that's 40% only on labour, which is pales in comparison to ONT and QC which offer tax credits to the entire production. Which is why you see VFX work still in Vancouver but live-action shooting dropping in BC.
I honestly think the general public wouldn't want more money than last year ($437m) spent on an economy largely benefitting US studios. Don't get me wrong, I work in the CGI industry and I love it, but it's not an essential service.
How would the teachers union feel when the Film industry gets an increase in the budget but not higher education?
I don't think you quite understand how many different sectors the film industry helps. It's not giving money to the US studios, it's creating tons of jobs from the PA who sits and watches the cars in the parking lot to the director shooting the film and everyone in between. Hair, makeup, wardrobe, locations, lighting, sound, camera operators, hundreds of background performers, stunt performers, and many many local actors. Not to mention all the vehicle rentals, locations rentals etc. IF Dix gets in, I hope he keeps to his word and increases the tax credits.
VFX and actual film can not really be compared like you are doing above.
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I don't think you quite understand how many different sectors the film industry helps. It's not giving money to the US studios, it's creating tons of jobs from the PA who sits and watches the cars in the parking lot to the director shooting the film and everyone in between. Hair, makeup, wardrobe, locations, lighting, sound, camera operators, hundreds of background performers, stunt performers, and many many local actors. Not to mention all the vehicle rentals, locations rentals etc. IF Dix gets in, I hope he keeps to his word and increases the tax credits.
VFX and actual film can not really be compared like you are doing above.
Yeah I worked in the film industry, so I'm pretty sure I know what the spin-offs are. However, that's not the point of my argument.
The point is that the BC tax credits are nothing compared to ONT and QC in terms of what they offer. If you were making a movie, which place would you choose? Vancouver, which if the NDP follows through on their promise, offers 40% refundable tax credit on labour only, or ONT where 25% of the entire production is eligible?
I bring up VFX because the tax credits that only VFX are eligible for, are greater than ONT and until recently, QC. That is why there is an abundance in VFX work in Vancouver.
I believe that even at 40%, with it only on labour as it stands, it will not bring back the employment levels that one would hope. The lack of PST exemption now that HST is gone also hinders the BC film industry.
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We gotta remember that the US film industry is based in Hollywood, and that means they share the same time zone as BC, and is much, much, much closer to Ontario and Quebec. There are certainly operational benefits to this proximity, and that is an advantage Ontario and Quebec can never win over us.
What I'm saying is, to lure film production back, we don't really need to offer the same numerical tax savings as ON and QC. We just need to offer something compelling enough so that the overall benefits outweight the short comings for the production company.
That is a big part of it as well. I've been on a few productions where one of the lead actors was back and forth almost daily to Hollywood. Filming in TO makes this a lot more difficult.
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We gotta remember that the US film industry is based in Hollywood, and that means they share the same time zone as BC, and is much, much, much closer to Ontario and Quebec. There are certainly operational benefits to this proximity, and that is an advantage Ontario and Quebec can never win over us.
What I'm saying is, to lure film production back, we don't really need to offer the same numerical tax savings as ON and QC. We just need to offer something compelling enough so that the overall benefits outweight the short comings for the production company.
Oh I'm well aware of the time zone differences but this chart here:
and here:
See the spike in tax credits spent, yet how employment in the film industry tanked? This proves that live action has all left for the east coast and post-production houses have stepped in. That's why all the spin-off industries have suffered, even though Sony Imageworks, MPC, ILM, Digital Domain all have large offices in Vancouver. My friends in VFX are enjoying the boom times and the ones in live-action are languishing or have moved east.
Do you think going from 33% to 40% is compelling enough to entice Hollywood to start coming back? I don't think so, which is why de Jong went to Ontario specifically to try to get the film tax credits leveled out.
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Do you think going from 33% to 40% is compelling enough to entice Hollywood to start coming back? I don't think so, which is why de Jong went to Ontario specifically to try to get the film tax credits leveled out.
I don't know if that 40% tax credit on labour is compelling enough or not, which is why I refrained from quoting any actual numbers in my previous post.
In a news1130 article, I remember reading a few of the local film crew / groups / unions type of organizations were very supportive of the NDP's 40% tax credit proposal. I hope their assessment on the situation is accurate, because as a BC resident, obviously I'd want the province's economy to do well.
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