Wage increases. Landlords, banks.
(Chrome has a problem interpreting some of the links in this post. They work properly in Firefox.)

CBC News reported in an August 29, 2025 article, "BCGEU issues 72-hour strike notice for more than 34,000 public sector workers," that BCGEU is demanding higher wages because of the sky-high cost of living in BC, the root cause of which is the mercilessly inflated price of housing in BC.

What CBC did not report is that whatever wage increase BCGEU wins will amount to a pass-through subsidy to: real estate holders (to whom some refer as "landlords") who are gouging BCGEU renters for the absolute maximum they can extort for shelter; the banks to whom these "landlords" are indebted for the properties they hold; and the banks to whom BCGEU members who "own" their homes are indebted for these homes.

Housing prices are out of control across Canada, including in BC, because housing, especially since the dot.com collapse in 2001, has been repurposed from structures in which people dwell to financial assets with which to extract economic rent from Canada's productive economy.

It is understandable that the 68% of Canadians who "own" their homes feel wealthy when the "market price" of their property increases, but fictitious capital (money-for-nothing) is not a foundation on which to build an economy, as the exasperated call for a raise by BCGEU members to meet the demands of the banks and "landlords" squeezing them for every nickel they can extort for a place to live illustrates.

The solution to BC's cost-of-living crisis is to manage housing as a public utility, renting forever for what it costs to build and maintain it, and force private capital to invest in productive economic activity that actually creates material wealth.

Humanity's needs for innovative, useful, and important products and technologies are limitless. Canada needs to drop its cowardly preoccupation with gouging people for a place to live, boldly work to develop a coherent industrial policy to give direction to this economy, and engage as a nation in work that is of actual value to the economic life of the human race.

The world is burning around us, and all sharpies managing trillions of dollars of capital dare to do with it is gouge people for a place to live. CBC should be disgusted with this, and if it is not, it needs to take a good hard look in the mirror.