Scape Scape:
The skilled labour shortage is not a myth. Costs of education has skyrocketed for jobs that are in dire need. Take nursing for example: there was a time where a high school education and hands on education was enough, now you need to be almost a doctor in the level of schooling and accreditation which takes years and huge amounts of debt. Back then they would be into the workforce earning a wage and paying taxes, today they are lucky to may payment on debt let alone buy big ticket items.
No doubt - the Liberals cut back post-secondary funding big time in the 90s and unlike pretty much everything else (health care, defence, social programs, etc), they, nor their successors the Conservatives, restored funding for post-secondary education. Back in the 80s & 90s, students in Alberta paid about 10-12% of the cost of a university education, while nowadays it is closer to 30%.
I needed a student loan to pay for my bachelors degree (my family could never afford to put all six of kids through school), and because costs skyrocketed after the mid-90s, I paid more than double what my friends did in the early 90s. And I wasn't one of the students who went to Mexico for reading week or ate out all the time or had any other bad spending habits. I also worked while going to school too. It took me almost a decade to pay it off and as such, I wasn't able to buy a place until 2008.
That is going to bite us in the ass when the government comes calling for more taxes to pay for health care for the baby boomers in the next decade.
CKA Super Elite 
CKA Moderator 
