[ssiguy]

It is obviously good new that the province is investing funds into the skilled trades but training them and keeping them are two very different things.

BC currently has a natural decline in population........more people are dying than being born and we have a net negative interprovincial population flow. Only mass immigration is stopping the province from shrinking. This is not because the crime rate went up 10 fold, the mountains disappeared, or the climate has changed to Inuvik levels but due to one reason and one reason only...........these young and newly trained people can't afford to live here.

My 28 year old nephew makes a decent wage but lives in a tiny apt and has to live hand to mouth. His father is a super nice guy and loaded but he doesn't want to live off charity and his financial goals are not to bear it out waiting for his father to drop dead and hence is seriously thinking about, like all young people, moving to Calgary.

Victoria could give away Ph'Ds to every one in the province but if they still can't afford to live here they will leave and who could blame them?