Monday 25 March 2013

Should ALL BC Christy Liberals be turfed out?

A  FEW of the things the BC Liberal party has done that forces one to believe they should ALL be tossed out in favor of some honest newcomers. in no particular order -
  1. Gordon Campbell's BC Liberals tried to shut down the Georgia Straight newspaper. (while totally controlling political output of the Vancouver Sun and Province dailies)
  2. BC Liberals tried to cancel our Knowledge Network.
  3. Gordon Campbell gets drunk and drives in Hawaii, is arrested and tries to cover it up by using a sleazy lawyer in Maui.
  4. Campbell promised a deficit of $495 million that became 1.8 BILLION! 
  5. Liberals allow split up of elderly couple married for 60 years to separate care homes over costs and one dies lonely and afraid without her lifelong partner.
  6. Gordon Campbell sold OUR railroad, BC Rail, under suspicious circumstances. (still ongoing investigations, while the Christy Liberals obfuscate)
  7. Gordon Campbell keeps old fast ferries for political show when he could have sold them.
  8. Campbell vindictively tried to stop NDP leader Joy MacPhail from an office in Legislature.
  9. BC Liberals send 430 million to Germany to build 3 ferries instead of using competent BC shipyards. ALL of that money supported German families, NONE for BC workers.
  10. Persistent whispers that the propellers' design causes bad cavitation resulting in unexpectedly high fuel costs. BC Ferries raises prices.
  11. They allowed private Run-of-the-River projects on publicly owned rivers that are now costing us a fortune for Hydro, paying a much higher cost and only benefiting privately owned power projects.
  12. BC Liberals hire out of province people to run BC Corporations - BC Ferries. BC Hydro and pay them ridiculous salaries, while ignoring homegrown BC talent.
  13. BC Ferry sunk while American CEO runs corporation for 1 million a year salary.
  14. BC Liberals steal surplus money from ICBC for general use so BC safe drivers get no lower insurance break.
  15. Gordon Campbell sells BC Gas to private corporations for what considerations? Another BC asset sold off to private corporations for no apparent reason.
  16. Campbell stopped a legitimate criminal trial on BC Rail and paid guilty pleading Virk and Basi to be quiet! The DAY before Gary Ferrel-Collins was to testify. Suspicious?
  17. BC Liberals allowed foreign owned fish farms and diseased Atlantic salmon to devastate our once greatest wild Pacific salmon fishery.
  18. Campbell illegally terminates legitimate union contract of the Hospital Employees Union.
  19. Bowed to the 'creme-de-la-creme' on the natural/cheapest Skytrain route to the airport.
  20. Huge cost over-run of 388 million on the Vancouver Convention Center.
  21. Gordon Campbell gives himself a 53% pay raise!
  22. Christy Clark spends 12 million hosting Bollywood but nothing for dying BC Film industry.  Bollywood to bring 500 employees to work the event. No one from BC.
  23. Gordon Campbell steps away in shame from BC Premier job and gets an estimated 1.5 million pension plan and a plum job in England. 
  24. BC Liberals purposely make no input into Enbridge pipeline hearings until too late. Tacitly being quiet while pretending to put conditions out.
  25. Basi and Verk get 6 million legal fees paid by taxpayers after pleading GUILTY! How can anyone construe this as anything but a keep quiet payment?
  26. Lying to merchants on Cambie Street about Skytrain 'tunnel' when it was cut and cover.
  27. Port Mann bridge becomes dangerous in icy winter for design flaw.
  28. BC allows private liquor stores to replace taxpayer profit with private profits. Money taken right out of BC coffers with every bottle of liquor sold!
  29. Liberals try to sell off distribution branch of BC liquor control division.
  30. BC Place stadium cost over-runs higher than fast ferries for restricted new roof.
  31. Liberals fire Auditor General Doyle for investigating their own BC Rail scandal.
  32. BC Christy Liberals control media through Vancouver Sun and Province, Bill Good, Sean Leslie, Keith Baldrey, Vaughn Palmer.
  33. Rich Coleman.    Nuff said.
  34. Kim Haakstad, Christy Clark's aide resigns over ethnic vote scandal. Liberals try to minimize attention to the personal emails shared by Pamela Martin and others. Information about people's private issues!
  35. Translink builds a Seabus ferry in Holland for 25 million instead of a BC shipyard for 27 million, saying they have no interest in employing British Columbians for the job Again sending 25 million OUT of BC with no benefit for BC shipbuilders!
  36. Christy Clark continues to surround herself with people with questionable motives. More aides under suspicion.
  37. Minister John Yap admits that PERSONAL emails were used to avoid Freedom Of Information requests and revelations from media. Then cites privacy issues for not telling.
  38. Provincial debt rises every year Liberals in office in spite their own law of balanced budgets. 50% higher!
  39. Liberals hide true debt by grouping huge debts as 'Contractual Obligations' and not figuring them into what we owe.
  40. Continual increase in raw logs shipped to out of province mills instead of value added for BC's benefit.
  41. Pat Bell involved in 3 different scandals up north! 
  42. Tolls on new bridges and more to come.
  43. Christy Clark openly neglects the once billion dollar BC Film industry causing 15 thousand employees to struggle
  44. Christy Clark spends 11 million BC taxpayers` dollars on Bollywood film-maker awards. Which turn out to be only a private TV promotion of Bollywood and Christy changed the date to precede her election image!
  45. Shadow tolls on the Sea-to-Sky Highway.
  46. Scam Liberal political ads all over TV pretending to be info ads at cost of taxpayers.
  47. Liberals allowing Enbridge corporation to purposely distort the Douglas Channel by photo-shopping distances and islands to minimize the impact of their bitumen tankers.  
  48. Liberals disbanded Tourism BC after years of successfully promoting our province.
  49. Liberals introduced the HST after promising before the election NOT to have it. And it shifts up to 2 BILLION dollars from big business onto the back of BC taxpayers! The so called 'revenue neutral' tax brings in another 800 million from consumers!
  50. BC Liberals fought every way at huge cost of $8 million to prevent a recall of the HST.
  51. Christy Clark Liberals dragged their feet about when to stop the HST, instigated it within 30 days, took 5 years to end it. And after five years, we owe the federal government nothing because we have fulfilled our obligation!
  52. Allowed Smart Meters over the protests by the homeowners of BC.
  53. Questionable carbon tax adds 10 cents per liter to our gasoline price at the pump.
  54. No protests from BC Liberals about 300 imported Chinese workers taking BC mining jobs while not allowing Canadians to gain employment! Fighting all queries about it.
  55. BC Liberals fund raising in Alberta but not telling us what they are promising Albertans.
  56. Wimpy BC Liberal MLAs unwilling to speak up for their own constituents.
  57. Clark's legal bills for BC Rail paid by taxpayer AFTER she left the party for CKNW? 
  58. Lara Dauphinee paid almost 300 hundred thou for being Campbell's aide?
  59. Liberal candidates can't promise anything for voters - Premier's office controls it all.
  60. Lost millions on the Telus renaming of BC Place. 
  61. Rich Coleman tries to get Casino for Surrey, no, then tries for Langley. SUSPICIOUS!
  62. Clarks close aides have to resign for trying a sneaky ethnic vote scandal. Sending private information about BC residents to personal emails of Pamela Martin, Brian Bonney etc. Admittedly to stop Freedom of Information Requests from media! More sneakiness. 
  63. BC Liberals totally quiet while the federal government closed our Coast Guard station! 
  64. As rats leave the sinking ship, Liberals still billing themselves as new faces while Rich Colman, Bill Bennett, Michael de Jong, Terry Lake, Mary Polak, Ida Chong, Shirley Bond, Margaret MacDairmid and Christy Clark pretend they are fresh and untainted. Sure.  
  65. Moodys lowers the Province's credit rating to Negative.
  66. The BC Liberals, under Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark, have raised the provincial debt and taxpayer obligations five fold and every Liberal has sat there without a squeak to protect his or her constituents or the valued assets of British Columbia. Doesn't that tell you something?
  67. Twice as many people left BC under the Liberals than the NDP! The NDP had a net gain of 126,000 people.
  68. The money from BC Natural gas will not begin flowing into BC until 2017, well after the NEXT election! 
    Sorry, I have to stop! If I wait another day before posting this there will probably be a whole list of new scandals! How many more do you want?
    I've had enough already. Time for a major sweeping of the BC Christy Liberal Party scandal littered floor! 
    Wow, just like I said, one day later and what should appear? Yet another scathing report from BC Auditor General slamming the Liberal government for carbon offsets cheating! And using tens of millions of dollars (from hospitals and schools) that are not being credibly spent! 
Had to add this in 2017 #69 scandal Christy fires employee of the Health DEPT. AND ONE COMMITS SUICIDE OVER PHONY ALLEGATIONS!   FORCED TO RESCIND. NO ONE SAYING WHO DID WHAT TO WHOM IN LATEST SCANDAL!  Could I add more? YES!!!!

Saturday 9 March 2013

Refinery in BC?

B.C. newspaper mogul David Black has a group of investors who have committed financing to build a $25-billion oil refinery project on our province's northern coast. A deal that would be one of the largest private developments in B.C. history and perhaps put to rest some of the concerns environmentalists have for the danger of piping chemical added bitumen through our pristine wilderness. And the best part is that it could be done through rail cars!
Alberta tar sands

To get the Alberta tar sands bitumen through a pipeline, they have to add chemicals and heat to make it liquid enough to pump. The exact composition of these chemicals, collectively called diluents, is considered a trade secret. And the diluents vary depending on the particular type of dilbit being produced.

It is suggested that diluted bitumen – also known as dilbit – leads to higher risks of pipeline fractures and consequently oil spills. Pipelined bitumen needs higher temperatures to maintain viscosity and thus flow which in turn leads to faster corrosion of the line. 
Chemicals need to be added to the butimen to make it liquid enough to pump. Tixture often includes benzene, a known human carcinogen. But the pipeline companies do not reveal exactly what other chemicals are used.  
Transporting it by rail could change that whole process! The dangers of a spill are limited to the rail cars that could be derailed. And the product spilled would be far less liquified if at all!

The refinery within Canada would also mean not shipping that heavy bitumen through our northern waters. The Marshal spill on the Kalamazoo river required gathering the bottom sediment of the river and disposing of it. A task near impossible in BC's deep fjords. Spilled bitumen settling on the bottom could prove to destroy the seabed and waters for wildlife and growth for centuries or forever!  

And the costs of cleanup could be crippling because Enbridge is evasive on saying what portion insurance will cover if a spill occurs. Or who would assume the risk of high insurance premiums? It is suspected that the taxpaying public may have to cover costs. This to me is a non starter. The average cleanup cost of every crude oil spill from the past 10 years was $2,000 per barrel. The Marshall spill has cost upwards of $29,000 per barrel! And that was in a relatively small, slow flowing river.


the bitumen product
Mr. Black recently suggested he could make it all work without any Northern Gateway pipeline at all, by using rail cars alone. (We currently have dedicated steady lines of coal cars destined for the Roberts Bank coal port) Thus eliminating the need for chemically diluting the product until it actually reached the refinery. There have been many who say we need to refine the product ourselves, and sell the value added product, instead of sending the resource out of the country and buying back the high priced result. Just like shipping raw logs to other country's mills and having to buy lumber from them at a huge profit to those foreigners! A new technically green designed refinery would be a constant source of future revenue in spite of development costs, and make us self sufficient in that energy resource.

There are also many buyers who would rather deal with Canada than a foreign country for refined product. The refinery and all its accoutrements will be 100 per cent B.C. owned, Black said. That in itself is a big plus in the argument for control of a resource that will inevitably be sold no matter what. 

There is an alternative and this continuing development will be interesting to watch.

Sunday 3 March 2013

Contractual obligations.

We have this huge debt in BC now. But those Liberals who attack the NDP say we had more debt with the NDP.  They are constantly trying the usual scare tactic saying you know what the NDP did to BC. But when pressed, really aren't sure themselves about what they say was so bad.

According to 2011 figures, when the NDP took power in 1991, the provincial debt was 20 billion. In the decade of NDP rule to 2001, it became 33.8 billion, an increase of 13.8 billion.

Then the BC Liberals won the right to govern in 2001. I am using 2011 figures because it is nice and easy to use 10 year periods.
So, after another 10 years of Liberal rule, the government debt was now 47.3 billion. This is an increase of 13.5. Construed by Liberal hacks as WAY lower than the NDP! (.2 billion)
But wait. Is everything on the up and up? 

Not quite. The Liberals went to those public/private/partnerships, or P3s to work BC projects. A lot of people were suspicious of this Gordon Campbell stuff anyway. Wondering what was going on? Why we couldn't KNOW what was going on? How were we going to look after our publicly owned assets? Who were these people getting shadowy deals? Who was making all the money on projects that effectively cut OUT the people's government of controlling what was happening to our own resources?

When you consider the creative accounting of the BC Liberals today, you want to get in on that yourself! When is a debt not a debt if you just call it something else?
So the BC Liberals, began calling certain debts, 'contractual obligations'. Nice. Creative. Deceptive. Lies? You still have to pay it.

Because of these contractual obligations, which simply mean money we have to pay out to the owners of those notorious P3 contracts, there is a huge debt not accounted for on our government's books. Because they are 'private', say our accountants, and not privy to public scrutiny.
But IF we DID add in these moneys that we certainly DO owe! Then exactly what IS the amount? We could only get the Public Accounts statement for 2009/2010 figures, (page 75) but at that time, this debt was 53 billion! Fifty-three BILLION. 

So we add that to the Liberal figures of debt for British Columbia, and we get a figure of $66 billion as our total debt! And that is a three year old figure. But one has to believe it is true. Non fudged.

That in case you don't want to figure it, is FIVE TIMES higher than the NDP decade of government in spite of us losing some of BC`s most important assets through the (mis)management of the BC Liberals, namely our railroad. So why are the Liberal shouters still shouting? Do they have any credibility at all? Why are some still trying to scare you off? Why are the BC Liberals still playing dominoes with your money?

Seems simple to me, BC Liberals management against BC NDP management. 


Which is better?