Re: “Clark restores some gambling grants” (News online)
If we needed another signal that Premier Clark’s B.C. Liberals are not about families and at-risk children, we need look no further than the gambling/gaming files. Both have caused and still cause horrendous social problems for unimaginable numbers of B.C. families: personal bankruptcies, family breakups, even suicides directly attributed to gambling addiction.
Obviously this government has become addicted to gambling/gaming revenues – more than $1 billion came in last year. This benign form of volunteer taxation is something the B.C. Liberals don’t want to acknowledge nor reduce (“… we’re not about to turn off that revenue tap,” Rich Coleman, former minister responsible for gambling/gaming told a newspaper).
Recycled minister Ida Chong now will hand out an additional $15 million to certain charities and community groups from the huge profits made from gambling/gaming in the province. It’s hardly something to brag about, even as she encourages the B.C. Lottery Corporation to carry on its insidious campaign to lure more of us into the gambling habit.
Such hypocrisy, and how disingenuous of Premier Clark and Minister Chong to pretend they really care about families and at-risk children.
Dale Perkins
Oak Bay