BC Rail - Are Two Cabinet Ministers on the wrong tracks?

Dave Basi and Bob Virk have been wearing the BC Rail chain for some five years now. They were Ministerial staff in the government in 2003 when BC Rail was being "sold" to what was supposed to be the highest bidder.

Its a thriller that one day could become a TV movie. Imagine hush hush backroom deals in smoky strip lounges, political interference matching Watergate, and the public hanging of two political aids only to discover they were acting with the consent of Cabinet Ministers and maybe even the Premier.

That could be the story when its all said and done. Gary Mason has more on how Pat Bell, the Minister of Forests and Blair Lekstrom, Minister of Petroleum Resources may have more to say about what happened and their dealings with rival CN bidder OmniTrax.

Mason's line is here and be sure to check out TheLedgeTrials, Laila Yuile, The Gazetteer and Bill Tieleman blogs for more on BC Rail.

Campbell ready to sell Liquor stores?

Here we go again. There is a crisis in BC and the Government is in deep doo doo. What an opportunity for a right wing government to sell off government assets and guess who is there to help them. The Vancouver Sun. Hey I'm not surprised. These folks are just not playing straight shooter on this issue.

BC has one of the most well run liquor distribution systems in the world. The profits go to the government to assist in paying for health-care, educations, building new roads, fixing old ones, replacing schools with newer ones etc.

Its a darn good bargain for the people of BC. Alberta went the other way a decade or more ago. They decided to sell off government liquor stores. It was good at first for price watching public as prices for everything fell. That lasted all of 15 minutes. Today Alberta is littered with little corner liquor shops, selling some things as a loss leader, but largely charging the same prices as BC or Saskatchewan.

The Alberta experiment has failed. It has only hurt the people that work in the liquor stores. These people use to make a decent wage, have a pension and security. Today they make minimum wage, no pension and no security. The profit in privatizing liquor stores went to people that could buy the license. The savings that were heralded from the roof tops for consumers never happened.

Today the profit from liquor sales goes to the owner of the store. Like always, the little guy loses. The little guy pays the price. Now look at what beer costs you.

HST Fight back info

If you oppose the HST in BC here are the email addresses for all BC MLA's. Send them an email telling them you don't want this new tax and join the No BC HST site on facebook.

Where to get information on the HST Fight:
No BC HST
Fight HST
Bill Tieleman

Online petitions opposed to the HST in BC
Sign them all!

BC NDP online petition against the HST

Stop the HST

BC ANTI HST Petition

BC Restaurant and Foodservices Association petition

Prince George-based petition started by City Councilor Brian Skakun

MLA Email Address List
Abbotsford-Mission	HAWES, Hon. Randy
Abbotsford South	van DONGEN, John
Abbotsford West	de JONG, Hon. Michael
Alberni-Pacific Rim	FRASER, Scott
Boundary-Similkameen	SLATER, John
Burnaby-Deer Lake	CORRIGAN, Kathy
Burnaby-Edmonds	CHOUHAN, Raj
Burnaby-Lougheed	BLOY, Harry
Burnaby North	LEE, Richard T.
Cariboo-Chilcotin	BARNETT, Donna
Cariboo North	SIMPSON, Bob
Chilliwack	LES, John
Chilliwack-Hope	PENNER, Hon. Barry
Columbia River-Revelstoke	MACDONALD, Norm
Comox Valley	McRAE, Don
Coquitlam-Burke Mountain	HORNE, Douglas
Coquitlam-Maillardville	THORNE, Diane
Cowichan Valley	ROUTLEY, Bill
Delta North	GENTNER, Guy
Delta South	HUNTINGTON, Vicki
Esquimalt-Royal Roads	KARAGIANIS, Maurine
Fort Langley-Aldergrove	COLEMAN, Hon. Rich
Fraser-Nicola	LALI, Harry
Juan de Fuca	HORGAN, John
Kamloops-North Thompson	LAKE, Dr. Terry
Kamloops-South Thompson	KRUEGER, Hon. Kevin
Kelowna-Lake Country	LETNICK, Norm
Kelowna-Mission	THOMSON, Hon. Steve
Kootenay East	BENNETT, Hon. Bill
Kootenay West	CONROY, Katrine
Langley	POLAK, Hon. Mary
Maple Ridge-Mission	DALTON, Marc
Maple Ridge-Pitt Meadows	SATHER, Michael
Nanaimo	KROG, Leonard
Nanaimo-North Cowichan	ROUTLEY, Doug
Nechako Lakes	RUSTAD, John
Nelson-Creston	MUNGALL, Michelle
New Westminster	BLACK, Dawn
North Coast	COONS, Gary
North Island	TREVENA, Claire
North Vancouver-Lonsdale	YAMAMOTO, Hon. Naomi
North Vancouver-Seymour	THORNTHWAITE, Jane
Oak Bay-Gordon Head	CHONG, Hon. Ida
Parksville-Qualicum	CANTELON, Ron
Peace River North	PIMM, Pat
Peace River South	LEKSTROM, Hon. Blair
Penticton	BARISOFF, Hon. Bill
Port Coquitlam	FARNWORTH, Mike
Port Moody-Coquitlam	BLACK, Hon. Iain
Powell River-Sunshine Coast	SIMONS, Nicholas
Prince George-Mackenzie	BELL, Hon. Pat
Prince George-Valemount	BOND, Hon. Shirley
Richmond Centre	HOWARD, Rob
Richmond East	REID, Linda
Richmond-Steveston	YAP, Hon. John
Saanich North and the Islands	COELL, Hon. Murray
Saanich South	POPHAM, Lana
Shuswap	ABBOTT, Hon. George
Skeena	AUSTIN, Robin
Stikine	DONALDSON, Doug
Surrey-Cloverdale	FALCON, Hon. Kevin
Surrey-Fleetwood	BRAR, Jagrup
Surrey-Green Timbers	HAMMELL, Sue
Surrey-Newton	BAINS, Harry
Surrey-Panorama	CADIEUX, Stephanie
Surrey-Tynehead	HAYER, Dave S.
Surrey-Whalley	RALSTON, Bruce
Surrey-White Rock	HOGG, Gordon
Vancouver-Fairview	MacDIARMID, Hon. Dr. Margaret
Vancouver-False Creek	McNEIL, Hon. Mary
Vancouver-Fraserview	HEED, Hon. Kash
Vancouver-Hastings	SIMPSON, Shane
Vancouver-Kensington	ELMORE, Mable
Vancouver-Kingsway	DIX, Adrian
Vancouver-Langara	STILWELL, Hon. Dr. Moira
Vancouver-Mount Pleasant	KWAN, Jenny
Vancouver-Point Grey	CAMPBELL, Hon. Gordon
Vancouver-Quilchena	HANSEN, Hon. Colin
Vancouver-West End	HERBERT, Spencer
Vernon-Monashee	FOSTER, Eric
Victoria-Beacon Hill	JAMES, Carole
Victoria-Swan Lake	FLEMING, Rob
West Vancouver-Capilano	SULTAN, Ralph
West Vancouver-Sea to Sky	McINTYRE, Joan
Westside-Kelowna	STEWART, Hon. Ben

Assistance to Shelter Act

You have got to be kidding.

The BCCLA has uncovered plans to turn homeless shelters into jails and if they are right, BC just became a Police State.

Instead of building adequate shelters for the homeless, or better yet, building more affordable housing, providing a decent housing allowance, the BC government has come up with this hair brained idea. Under the guise of protecting the homeless from extreme weather, the government has come up with a means of getting the homeless off the streets during the Olympics.

A police officer and or a social worker will tell the homeless they must go to a shelter and if there is no room at the inn, they will provide you with a nice warm cell. That's right, they will hold you there until it is deemed safe outside for you to leave.

Lower mainland jails ought to be full for two weeks of the Olympics. No need to show the world our ugly underbelly now is there...

They're selectively picking things - Vander Zalm

BC Liberals desperate to turn the discussion from HST have decided its best to attack their opponents, not on the merits of their arguement against the HST but other things.

The Liberals put out a press release on Friday, Public Eye has it on their website, that goes on as to what a "bad" Premier Bill VanderZalm was.

As Vander Zalm told Public Eye, "I guess when you can't win the argument (that) the HST is the wrong-way to go, that it's a bad thing you begin attacking and marginalizing and discrediting. And that's what they're trying to do. And, obviously, they're selectively picking things."

Its a common tactic used by those in indefensible positions, try to turn the discussion to grounds you can win on, or discredit the messenger(s). The BC Liberals must have known how much opposition they would face with this decision. That is clearly why they did not announce this in the run up to the last election. Clearly they have decided to hunker down and ride this storm out, hoping to see the storm through.

So when you have nothing to use to protect yourself, you try to discredit those speaking against your position.

Look at this line, usually used to attack those reckless freespending socialists...

As Premier, Vander Zalm introduced or increased over a dozen taxes in nearly every budget that punished families and small businesses - including introducing the Property Transfer Tax and increasing the Small Business Tax to the highest level ever. - BC Liberal Press Release Friday, September 18, 2009 (from Public Eye)

I can't recall another time when Gordon Campbell or any of the current BC Liberals have ever attributed anyone other than the NDP with having raised taxes higher than you can reach! Carole James and the NDP better tuck that quote away for use later on.

Surely the signs of a worried Liberal government. If you live in the South Cariboo, election day squeaker, Donna Barnett says she will listen to constituents, however she supports the new HST. You might ask why she would be so fast off the mark.

I suspect it could have something to do with who benefits if the HST becomes law. The Forest and Mining sectors look to reap 140 million and 80 million respectively. Needless to say these industries support the HST and contributed a great deal to Barnett's election campaign in May of this year.

From Elections BC, Barnett's Donation list

$4,648.71 - West Fraser Timber, Imperial Metals - $1,500, Taseko Mines - $2,000. In fact Barnett received $41,758.71 from corporate donors.

Barnett's campaign donations list several key individual donations that come from those working for or are owners of forest companies. With that kind of investment in Donna Barnett, I dare say they will see a big return should Barnett support the HST in the Legislature.

BC HST should scare Campbell

The HST issue is dead in Ontario but something of a different story in BC. Read the link below for a good description of the lay of the land...

"I have two words for Gordon Campbell and Colin Hansen: Be afraid.

That’s right. You read that right.

Be very afraid men, because in my opinion, the prospect of the HST is the proverbial straw that broke the camels back, and as everyone knows… camels have loooong memories – as do the people of British Columbia.You have both earned the contempt of a good majority in this province, and among them are the very people who voted you in last fall -who, in my experience yesterday, are not afraid to loudly voice their disappointment. I personally spoke to hundreds of people prior to the rally and each one had the same things to say: NO HST and Enough of Gordon Campbell." - laila yuile's blog

Biggest BC Deficit EVER

The BC Budget is out and its a shocker, the largest in BC histroy. The Liberals now have the three largest deficit budgets in BC history. Not bad for people that promised during the election that they really really could keep to the $495 million deficit set in February 2009.

More in the days ahead... Check out the link below for the latest!

From NBC Dipper

My overall first impression: it seems as this budget is the fulfillment of the idea that one doesn’t waste a crisis in order to make changes. This is a budget that is going to hurt the middle class of BC by slapping on new taxes for them, while rewarding those that tend to vote BC Liberal by reducing taxes for them. Considering that cuts are supposedly supposed to be made, what these cuts are actually going to be is very unspecific, making me rather nervous as to the future.

gg

Fudget Budget Liberal style

How to make a budget look good for a few months....

Forest fires seem to be getting worse in BC. In fact this has been known for many years. Climate change brings warmer temperatures and less rain/snow, increasing urban sprawl into forested areas and more importantly a larger degree of uncertainty. Look at the budget in BC and you will be surprised to see the Liberals were hoping this year would see climate change reverse itself.

The budget projected that fighting forest fires in BC would amount to about 52 million. That is 10 million less than the year before. As we all know, that is likely going to be less than ten percent of the money actually spent in this budget year.

see performance plan (page 12) for the Forest Service...

Strategies
The following strategies are intended to address key Ministry priorities over the next three years:
1. Anticipate and manage impacts on forest and range resources from pests and fire.
2. Manage and mitigate the resource impacts from the mountain pine beetle epidemic.
3. Utilise cross agency collaboration and alignment on First Nations relationships, land use, and research and resource management.
4. Adapt British Columbia’s forest and range management practices

Some folks have been suggesting that the high priced help we have hired, ie all those civil servants at the top making two or three hundred thousand and some make much more than that, should have seen this was a mistake to allot only 52 million to fire fighting. My guess is that they did raise this with those making up the budget. The budget as it was, was going to come in at almost 500 million in the hole. If they allotted a reasonable number to fighting forest fires, like say 300 million, then where would they be with the deficit? It would be much closer to a billion dollars, not the more palatable number of 5 million short of a half billion.

The whole Liberal mantra is based on their perceived ability to manage our money. They had to mislead us in order to assure us they could and do better than the free spending reckless New Democrats.

Just for the record, The Liberals in BC have now had the three largest deficits in BC history and are headed to gain the top five places before they are done.

On a final note, as a former employee of the BC Forest Service and a fire fighter I do know how good they are at fighting fires. Initial attack and early detection have been areas BC has excelled at. This post in no way should be read as slagging the workers in the Ministry, who by in large are very dedicated to protecting and managing our Forest and Range resources.

see more here on the overall budget fiasco

Burger King Education

The Liberals are at it again. I recall when I was working for the BC NDP government, our efforts to "modernize BC Education" and to cut costs. We moved from 75 school districts to 60. That was likely as low as you can go and still have some democracy and local control over education.

The current musing of the Minister of Education Margaret MacDiarmid reek of a seek and destroy mission. The Liberals seem adverse to democracy at any level and have been working to implement a business model of operations on the Province. Witness Health Care. The Liberals eliminated local elections, local appointees. They have CEO's that run the regions like fiefdoms of days gone by or as one would run a Burger King franchise.

Amalgamating school districts will see elections of local trustees impossible, see decisions made behind closed doors and no remedy in case of local conflict.

Now that's not all the good Minister has been up too. She has slashed, that's not quite right, she has eliminated priority maintenance, safety and energy and cost saving expenditures on infrastructure. The last time this happened was in 1991 when the then unSocial disCreditED government totally abandoned school infrastructure spending. They of course when down in flames in the fall election.

This time in BC, an election is not looming soon. It is over three years away. What to do in the interim?

Perhaps the HST will save our schools? If you believe that, the tooth fairy is also on the way!

Liberals just hate email

Just how long have Liberal insiders been trying to hide information from the public. It goes back to 2003 when then Deputy Minister to Premier Gordon Campbell said that he deleted emails so the media fishing expeditions would not produce anything.

In 2005 Sean Holman at PublicEye found this spicy email sent to Vancouver Island Health Authority communications folks. Seems they are concerned with the BC Opposition's use of Freedom of Information to request potentially embarrassing or incriminating emails. Oddly enough the email asking people not to put sensitive material in an email was leaked! I guess the Liberals were right to be worried...

"...Even before the election, the volume of FOI requests at the Ministry from the opposition were increasing - and they were sometimes asking for materials from specific individuals (ie communications staff). This trend will likely continue now. The reminder is for us to use the phone a lot more than we have been. And no briefing notes on locally changed climates, please...If you don't want it on the front page of the TC, don't put it in E mail... ~ Suzanne Germain, Media & Issues Advisor Vancouver Island Health Authority (email leaked to www.publiceyeonline.com)

This from the political party that promised to be the most open and accountable government in Canada. Since then we have learned of the extent they will go in order to prevent being open and accountable.

Recently we learned that the Campbell government was ordered by BC Supreme Court Justice Elizabeth Bennett to turn over email which likely related to the scandal plagued BC Rail sale to CN Rail. The emails of Premier Gordon Campbell, most cabinet ministers and political staff are likely relevant to the defence in the Basi-Virk case and she ordered they be disclosed to the defence.

That has turned out to be a silly order by Madame Justice Bennett. See the emails are missing. Thats what we heard in July of this year. Then in Court in August, Madame Justice Bennett was told that they had found emails from 2004. The ones missing are from 2002 and 2003.

They were written over by mistake. It seems they had the emails a little while ago but have since lost them when a staff person inadvertently deleted them all during the election.

I'm sure it was a little mistake, not meaning any harm, heck anyone could do it, right Mr. Dobbell?

You don't think the Campbell Libcons were lying do you?

The BC Liberals were caught flat footed after the election. Seems the first Campbell and Hanson knew things were going from very bad to down right disastrous was after the election, during which they said the budget deficit would not be more than the budget forecast of almost 500 million dollars.

Perhaps the Libcons should have read the paper, check out these headlines at Northern Insights, that any 'on the ball' government would have seen as a warning.

Now look, the deficit is headed south toward 3 billion!

You don't think the Campbell Libcons were lying do you?

BC headed to 3 billion plus deficit!

BC headed to 3 billion plus deficit!

Originally published at Queerthoughts

Yeppers, you read that right. Colin Hansen, BC's Robber Minister went into an election knowing the Province's projected deficit of $495 million was way out to lunch, yet he repeatedly said that the number was good.

Seems the deficit number was good for one thing only, the re-election of Gordon Campbell and his team of con artists. We don't have all the numbers yet but it won't be long before we do. A new budget is coming down in a few weeks.

We know now that Hansen must have known the budget target was not going to be met because Welfare numbers were soaring. In fact welfare numbers were going so high, the public relations Bureau (read govt PR hacks) told Social Services it could not post welfare numbers until after the election. That's bad news on two fronts. First the province is paying out more money and second the province is not getting any tax revenue from the people it is paying welfare too.

Next we have The Robber Minister telling the media today that income tax revenue is down a billion and royalties and stumpage are down another billion give or take a couple 100 million. Add to that the 400 million spent on Forest fires and we easily have a 3 billion plus deficit.

Then there are the Olympic costs that we haven't seen yet. Surely they will come in way over budget. The Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre expansion has come in at double the original cost estimates. All I can say is that its a good thing these Liberals can mange money so well. Imagine what it would be like if they were worse at it than they tell us they are?

Now the fun stuff. It seems Robber Minister got a call from the big Robber Minister in Ottawa right after the election. The Ottawa Robber Minister had the BC Robber Minister over the barrel. See, Ottawa knew BC was in big financial doo-doo. So according to Gordon Campbell Ottawa said, "Hey BC, here is 1.5 billion buckaroos (that's what Harper calls dollars), bet you can use that right now." Harper was right of course and the deal was so easy, all BC had to do was sign onto a new tax.

You know most of the story after that. The HST is coming as a result of either a quick urgent decision that would not allow for public consultations and or the result of outright lying during the election. The BC Campbell Libcons in their effort to "Keep BC Strong" brought in a big new tax on the spur of the moment or they negotiated it for some time and felt voters didn't need to bother with it until after they voted.

BC, guess what?
You have been
Hoodwinked, Sucker-punched and Tattooed.

see also...

NO BC HST

Raphael Alexander: The dog ate my reason for introducing the HST

One Way We Can Say 'No!' to the HST

Ontario sleeps, BC Boils

Biggest Tax Shift in BC History: Why Did Campbell Do It?

HST opponents launch campaign to stop the tax

Critic says Tourism BC's closure a matter of control

Campbell, giant among free spenders

Campbell, giant among free spenders

At least he is a free spender with your money...

"It's estimated that the Canada line is over 1 billion over budget, the convention centre was 500 million over budget, the Golden Ears Bridge was 300 million over budget, the Sea to Sky was over budget by 200 million $$$.... Would you call that a good job managing, how much would those revenues of helped the present state of the books?" - The Straight Goods, Powell River BC

That's one of the questions being put to the media to ask the Gordon Campbell Liberal government in Victoria. Why the heck are they getting a free ride as the good financial managers of our money.

BC Politics is always interesting, but often what is most interesting, is never reported. What is most important is rarely discussed.

So instead of taking on the Campbell government on HST and their lack of prudent financial management, the media is asking Carole James if she would scrape the HST if elected in four years. That's a helpful question. How about trying to make the guy who has the job accountable.

BC is headed for a deficit this year bigger than any the NDP ever had. The Liberals as this blogger here points out have posted the three largest deficits in BC history. They are suppose to be the money managers. Heck the over spending on the Canada line is four times the over estimate on fast ferries, The over spending on the convention centre is two times more than fast ferries, the over spending on Golden Ears bridge is 50 % more than fast ferries. In fact the Liberals have over spent by two billion dollars on projected costs and that doesn't include the Olympics.

Don't you feel better now that the recovering drunk driver is steering the ship while using ferries made in Poland or was that Germany instead of those whiny NDPer's. Don't cry too hard, the BC government spent almost a million dollars for four artists in Germany to design a big rain drop. Then they had it built in Alberta and transported it to BC, likely using Alberta truckers. (you can find this big drop, not in a bucket, but at the new way, way over-budget Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre.) Don't you think the BC government could have at least built the damn thing in BC.

It's not really a rain drop, its a tear drop.

Man its good to have our affairs conducted like a giant ponzi scheme.