Very interesting read. John L wins regarding facts/reality while Frank is a great dancer (tap-dancer) while continually focusing on minor points while not addressing the big picture. The big -picture being that the government of Ontario is basically broke....thats what happens when more money is spent year over year than what is taken in. This has created a debt which costs the taxpayers of Ontario over $1000 million/year ($10billion) to just service, not even touching the principle amount. This debt is increasing yearly by approx $1600 million ($16 billion) as spending continually outpaces revenue. Any logical person cannot argue that this is a problem. We are mortgaging tomorrows future for todays greed (yes greed) since future generations will be saddled with this debt. I realize much of this is due to political pressure and politicians who cannot or will not make tough decisions but that is another topic of discussion. Based on the above, we have a couple of "options" we can:
1) do nothing
2) increase revenue (taxation)
3) reduce costs
4) combination of 2 & 3
Obviously #1 is unsustainable and I hope nobody argues that #1 is the best option (if so you have some serious mental issues). Option #2 is not financially prudent in these economic times since a very good way of makiing a bad economic climate worse is to take away disposable income (further taxation) that would otherwise be spent on goods/services (this is economics 101 simple stuff). Option 3 is the most responsible way of dealiing with the fiscal predicament we are facing. Option 4 might be acceptable in theory but any tax increase is usually put in the general government coffers and spent with the same constraint as to which caused this whole mess in the first place, nevermind my objection to Option #2.
I am not anti-teacher, anti-police, anti-firefighter etc but concessions must be had or else. One must also remember that interest rates are low at the current moment when interest rates increase debt servicing will eat up a much bigger chunk of the funds available for education, health etc. If our province gets another unfavourable credit rating this will also add to increasing cost of borrowing $. This will definitely happen if action is not taken. Are teachers overcompensated? In todays reality YES!!
To address the OP, it has been stated that teachers volunteer for after school programs and technically they do but it has also been stated that in order for a teacher to get promoted to VP or principle that these actions are required. So even though these activites are voluntary in nature this is obviously some altruism built in so that the "volunteers" can potentially pave a brighter future for themselves. So if you add this to the equation it sheds some light on whos benefit these volunteer hours are geared toward in SOME cases.
Someone mentioned taxing big business and the banks more to make up the shortfall in spending. This is a very simplistic/non-thoughtout arguement. Society had better hope that corporations and the banks are making money since they employ the majority of the tax-base that PAY for revenue generated. These corporations and banks also make up a large percentage of the investment vehicles in the Ontario Teachers Pension plan.....so to further tax these corporations/banks would dimininsh profits which in turn would lower the value of retirement plans which are ALREADY taxpayer subsidized since they are all defined benefit vs real-world defined contribution (which you are also lucky to get in the private sector). So better be careful in taking profit (taxing) big business further.
In closing, many are missing the point. I have read how hard teachers work etc and I have no doubt they do, as do the majority of other workers in other occupations but real-world economics state that compensation is based on what the market can bare. Obviously the market (taxpayers) cannot bare the cost due to constant deficits resulting in greater debt so something has to be done. If we wait it will only make the pain worse later on.....
(btw I like putting billions in million figures so that the true value is more transparent).
