Tuesday 25 December 2012

Just so you know ....

The BC Provincial DEBT, is 51 BILLION dollars.

That means YOU owe $12, 891.00! Every person in BC owes that. Right now.
Yes we have those smart guys running our government, BC Liberals who think they know how to run businesses. Methinks maybe their experience has been running Daddy's business, without a concern for having to actually make a profit to support their families.

By the end of 2012, we will owe 57.6 billion, and with these smart guys running the province, it will be 66 billion by 2015! It is a matter of what you will accept. Moody's Credit Rating Agency has just given us a prod, downgrading our credit rating from stable to negative.

Our deficit is projected to go to 1.47 billion. That means however much money we take into BC we are going to spend one and a half billion dollars MORE! How long do you think you could exist personally by over spending like that in your household?

But wait, here's the sneaky little dark secret; The BC Liberal government has these P3 projects that they've been doing for years now, and because they are deemed as private deals, they are not for you or I to see or know about. They are called 'Contractual obligations' and they are what we owe these private contractors for whatever they did for the Campbell/Clark government. And because of this, they are NOT added to our provincial debt!
The present estimate is about 53 billion! as of 2010!

Some see this as the payoff to private corporations for building Run-of-the-River power projects, for instance. Those very same projects that were touted as helping the BC economy and are now gouging BC Hydro for more than the power should cost! Some are also wondering what these private corporations did to get such lucrative contracts? Nevertheless, we owe these added billions. Contracted by the Liberal government.

There are any number of BC people with the skill, experience and intelligence to look after this province in trust for the people who live here. BC people who would care about the results of their efforts. We needn't hire the so called experts from elsewhere. We have always been leaders in hydro-electrical power and forestry and mining. We have a right to expect care and concern for British Columbia, it's people and resources. We should reap the rewards of BC's bounty before we allow the funneling off of those riches.

We've tried the so called business models. They have control of the media to remind you of how great they are and how bad others would be. But they have failed miserably to look after your province.
It's time to try again, with a clean slate. We need trust.

The BC Liberals are just not capable of the integrity to run British Columbia.




Wednesday 19 December 2012

Here we go again!

Translink has awarded a 25 million dollar contract to a Netherlands company to build a new Seabus boat. Bob Padden of Translink, on talking to Mike Smythe at CKNW, said they had bids from three shipbuilders. One from the US, the one from the Netherlands, and one from a BC builder!

When questioned about the cost, Mr. Padden said the BC bid was two million dollars more, so the contract was awarded to the European company. Do you remember we sent 430 million dollars for three BC ferries to a German company to support their employees. Money directly sent outside of our province with absolutely no spin-offs to BC business.

Mr. Padden had no concern at all about BC workers losing out on the contract, even when pressed that the residual benefits would far exceed the two million dollar difference. He arrogantly said that was not Translink's concern and it was not their policy to promote BC jobs! Apparently we pay this man about half a million dollars a year to make these kinds of decisions. When asked about Christy Clark's BC Jobs Plan, Padden said the BC Government had nothing to do with Translink as they were totally independent! And there was no priority to contract work to British Columbia companies. It was NOT their policy!

So we are back in the position of allowing Netherlands workers to buy cars and stoves and pension plans. At the cost of BC taxpayers! It is a shame that we have people in high positions who seem to be working independently of British Columbia interests.

Once again, if we understand how international business works, in regards to big money contracts, we have to wonder what other benefits are contained in this decision. All we can say is they'd better hide the money trail carefully, because some people are determined to find out who is getting what.
When you obviously work against the benefit of the people whose money you are spending, you evoke suspicion for your methods. Either that or you just don't give a damn. Either way there needs to be an accounting to the government of BC and perhaps someone needs to be fired.

One should ask Christy Clark what happened to her BC Jobs Plan? Having people working in BC should be a priority. The money drain because of contracts like this weighs heavily toward the ability to have a balanced budget. People who are working in BC are spending that pay within BC!

Mr. Paddon doesn't consider or care about British Columbians. Why do we consistently hire these people? Spending 25 million in a foreign country over spending 27 million in BC is false economy by anyone's standards. Evidently Paddon doesn't comprehend that.

I would ask all those BC Liberals who are so obediently quiet what are they proposing to do for British Columbians if they are elected in May? And how can we trust them to do anything if they cannot speak up for the voters now?

Same old same old from the BC Liberal Government.


Saturday 8 December 2012

Let'$ Make a Deal.

This is not exactly yet about BC politics, but bear with me a moment.
The Federal Conservatives just allowed the sellout to CNOOC, the Chinese communist state owned oil company, of NEXEN, the Alberta energy company. Nexen is one of Canada’s top 10 energy corporations in the Alberta oilsands. The sale was never really about rejecting or approving the $15 billion dollar deal. It was done long ago.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper even had his picture taken with Canada flags and a sign that said, 'A Strong Canada'. Sure. Reminds me of a newscast bit I saw showing a street corner drug dealer being cuffed while wearing a jacket with the stitching,'Just say no to drugs'. He was caught selling meth. Same contorted message designed as disinformation. 

So what do all these red-neck Albertans who are now gleefully shaking hands while counting their cut of the deal have to do with BC? Ask what the future holds? The Chinese think 30 years down the road. Canadians think 30 days.
Right now we have BC lumber going to China. Most of the BC forestry is foreign owned already. But as you know, our BC lumber mills keep burning down. Raw logs have been sent to US mills for years after American companies bought our industry and closed most Canadian mills to keep Washington State mills operating. At the cost of Canadian jobs. So what happens when the Chinese start thinking they can mill their own lumber, and just want us to send the logs? 

Their thinking will be to simply BUY our forests, send in their own people to cut down the trees and their own ships to transport them to China. Like they are doing with mining right now! Do they have the technology and capacity to do that? Probably do, and if they don't right now they'll simply have Canadian engineering companies design it all for them and then tell us to take a hike. Meanwhile passing around yuan to whomever in order to get the deal done. Maybe even rip us off there too as the currency is only worth 15 cents. 

That's where BC comes into it. 

Some people would suggest that virtually ALL international deals like this get done by making sure the players who are in charge of what is wanted, and are able to make the decisions necessary, get a serious dose of cash, deposited into a stealth bank account somewhere. Silly ideas? Maybe not, the court case of Karlheinz Schreiber and Brian Mulroney proved a lot of that. 

BC already has a track record of selling out our resources via the Liberal governments. 
Run of the River Power projects, heralded at the time by Gordon Campbell and now hurting our BC Hydro. BC Rail, our own railroad intended to open up our vast interior and service the people of the province, is now only used for the profit of CN. BC Ferries sending huge building contracts to Germany instead of BC shipyards. Foreign owned fish farms operating at the detriment of the worlds largest wild salmon run, virtually killing off nature's bounty for the profit of a few. 
You have to ask why would the ones in power make these deals against the people if private gain wasn't the goal? 

So when the Chinese come with cash in their wallets, anxious to pass it around to anyone who can make the deal they want, don't expect the government to have ethics or the good of the people of the province in mind when their pockets are open and available. Shareholders' instant dividends trump the future of the industry and the ownership of the resource. 

And even some Conservative MPs are saying the Chinese cannot be trusted to honor any deal they sign, quoting past records. 

Now here is the final slap in the face that your Prime Minister gave you, Harper would not tell you any part of the deal. Not what the Chinese communists get, and worse, not what Canada gets! He said it would be up to the Chinese to reveal any part of the deal! It is all secret!

Do you have any thoughts that the Enbridge tar sands oil pipeline to Kitimat won't be approved? Neither do I.
Know what a 'done deal' is? So do I. 
Do you feel like we are only a third world country? So do I.

And I hope that not a single BC Conservative gets elected. Alberta can sell out, but British Columbia doesn't need to.
We need responsible government in Canada. Not secrecy. 

The only power you have left is your vote. 





Saturday 1 December 2012

The arrogance of them all!

On the same day that the Vancouver Sun sported a headline saying the BC Government deficit had increased to 1.47 BILLION dollars, Bill Good of CKNW radio, had a one hour commercial for the BC Liberals featuring one of their main spin cyclists, Philip Hochstein, President of the of the Independent Contractors of BC. Now this is an arrogant guy. He should give psychic readings, he keeps telling anyone who will listen what is in Adrian Dix's mind. And what every NDP MLA will do. Nice, he should forecast earth-quakes and tsunames too! That's not a pack of smokes in his pocket, it's a deck of tarot cards!

He went on and on while Bill Good sat and listened without interruption to his ridiculous spin that the NDP would be so bad for BC they'd put us into a deep hole. Ahem. 

That 1.47 billion was an increase of 50% in the last six MONTHS!  There it was in the newsaper, probably right there on the NW studio coffee table, available for any intelligent person to see and read. Of course that doesn't fit the agenda of these Liberal hacks. Even the BC Liberal controlled Vancouver Sun had to print it. No matter how much they wanted it buried amid their Want ads.

Hochstein didn't even bother to mention that deficit or why it was so out of whack, he just went after Adrian Dix like a grow-op pitbull. At least Good, Keith Baldrey and Vaughn Palmer usually accept a question about the BC Liberals and their idol, Christy Ckark, before carefully and stealthily guiding their answer to go after what the NDP did many years ago. 

Of course, Dix is frustrating the hell out of them, because he won't fall into their traps and give them real ammunition. He is playing the cool game right into Clark's goal, and it looks like he's going to score big time.  But Hochstein doesn't even bother to change the subject. He just ignores reality to rabidly chase the NDP.

If he really is interested in construction work in BC, perhaps he should go after all those employers importing cheap labour from Argentina, Guatemala  Mexico, the Philippines and yes, China! No wait, Christy Clark is selling her BC jobs plan. Is it interpreted to mean come to BC for a job? But don't apply if you're already here? 

One would think Hochstein doesn't get it at all. Maybe he doesn't understand that a deficit is NOT the debt. The deficit is the difference between the money Government takes in and what the Government spends each year. Receipts include the money the Government gets from income taxes as well as user fees and other income sources. Outlays include all provincial spending including health, social security etc. along with all other spending. 
When there is a deficit, the Provincial Government must borrow the money needed for the government to pay its bills.

The BC Provincial DEBT is about 45 BILLION. YOU are paying 2.5 Billion in interest payments alone! 

But in spite of not accounting for it's spending or telling us where it is trying to save, (all the while advertising everywhere about how great they are, using YOUR money) indoctrinated people like Hochstein blindly go after whomever they're directed to attack. The voters are beginning to ask if the NDP is going to be so bad, how can they be worse than this group of pretenders? Don't forget people, these are the so called 'businessmen' who keep telling us they know how to run things. Hmm, maybe it's time for the simplicity of amateurs who know you can't spend more than you get. People who never had a rich daddy to set them up in business and had to live on their own income. 

MLA Mike de Jong accounted the BC Liberals poor financial showing to not being able to sell a Little Mountain property for 232 million. Like that would have done it? What's next? Selling off Stanley Park? Isn't that the problem with the BC Liberal mentality? Just sell off what they don't own to cover their bills? Your BC Railroad is gone but what did that money do for you?

To see the BC Liberals floundering every day as they dig a deeper hole is not the thing, to see the corruptions emerge every week and the constant turmoil over their poor decisions is not it either, it is the arrogance that they show while being sucked under. 

People like Hochstein have no clue. He could be equated with Rush Limbaugh in the States; making spurious arguments to the detriment of the party he thinks he represents!
A growling dog with teeth but no brains. Perhaps not really important but he just can't shut up. The NDP is older and wiser these days. They've silenced the harangue of their unions. They are steering a careful course towards re-election as the BC Government. And when they get there we'll be bitching about them too. We desperately need a change in the British Columbia government, each week the suspicions of corruption get deeper than Christy Clark's cleavage.

But the BC Liberals can't get the Gordon Campbell heritage out of their heads. The Liberal attitude of get it all for us, regardless of what the public thinks ... a perfectly expressed attitude by the arrogant Philip Hochstein.