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.


2 comments:

  1. There's two intrinsic possibilities with TransLink: 1) They're incompetent fools. 2) They're screwing us.

    Because of the Crilly Report released earlier this year, wherein much of the blame seemed to be pointed towards minor issues with the bus system, TransLink's focus is now on minor savings while ignoring the cause of the problem.

    The first thing they did was let the public know that things may get worse for them - for instance, buses late and/or missing. (p.6, TransLink's 2013 Base Plan)

    In October, TransLink cut (up to) 17 supervisory jobs and 60 maintenance jobs. Supervisors are debatable, but people whose job it is to make sure buses work? People whose job it is to make sure the bus is safe for people to use? (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/translink-bus-company-to-cut-maintenance-jobs/article4600225/ or http://www.cupe.bc.ca/news/2746)

    I suppose maintenance people aren't that important, especially since TransLink bought a bunch of new buses, the first of which arrived in Vancouver last month. Odd move for people with a budget crisis. (http://www.vancitybuzz.com/2012/11/translinks-newest-buses-begin-to-arrive/)

    Buses have been seen being towed from their not-really-used 41st and Oak for a couple months or so. I can only assume they've been scrapped, since pretty much all buses have been since late 2010 (140 unwanted buses head for scrap yard after TransLink fails to find buyers, Vancouver Sun, 11 October 2010).

    How about we try and cut back that car allowance some more? They're in charge of a public transportation organisation, right? I think the term 'synergy' applies here, does it not? (http://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/story.aspx?ID=1836304)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, thanks for a great comment. Glad to see you care about what happens here!

    ReplyDelete

Keep it civil, folks, I know you're angry but try not to swear too much.