October 3rd, 2011 Throne Speech promise "Jobs and Investment Board in 50 days"

UPDATE November 21, 2011   The day is long, maybe something will happen .......by way of the New Jobs Board appointments

http://www.fin.gov.bc.ca/BRDO/appsList.asp

 

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This December, the progress board will release its final bookmarking report. In her announcement last week of the B.C. Jobs Plan, Premier Christy Clark added that she is creating a new “B.C. Jobs and Investment Board” that is to be up and running within two months. The new board will replace the B.C. Progress Board. The name is different, but the assignment, to hold “the government’s feet to the fire, to make sure we’re doing everything we possibly can to make B.C. competitive and not standing in the way of good jobs,” is awfully familiar.  -
    By Craig McInnes, Vancouver Sun September 28, 2011   Opinion: Christy Clark’s jobs board recycles old assignment     New group of critical thinkers is pegged to be inclusive, but whether it’s as effective as its predecessor remains to be seen

The headline above was written on September 28th although the Jobs and Investment Board wasn't officially announced until October 3, 2011.   If we take the Premier at her word that the "starting date" was September 28th, then the announcement should be happening on November 16th.   If we take it from October 3rd, from the Throne speech, then the Best Before Due Date is November 21st.


Mind you, the cat was out of the bag on this new board in a Jonathan Fowlie column on September 23, 2011 where the Premier

announced a Major Investments Office, meant to offer direct assistance to potential investors, and a BC Jobs and Investment Board, which she said will be running within 60 days.“[The board] will include citizens from all across the province to promote economic development by holding government’s feet to the fire, to make sure we’re doing everything we possibly can to make B.C. competitive and not standing in the way of good jobs,”

Sixty days would be November 21st, 2011

From a Don Cayo column on September 22nd there was this "The number of Employment Insurance recipients in B.C. may be down, but the number making claims is up"

And who can forget the 2009 Provincial election where a Deputy Minister of Finance wasn't permitted to keep the Premier and the Finance Minister in the loop on the Province's finance mess.... the result... a not on a radar HST.  Another item that wasn't mentioned, was that the Welfare applications for just one month, had sky-rocketed up to 47% compared to the previous month!   The number was absolutely scary, especially when one realizes that the BC Liberals were already wringing their hands because they were constantly paying attention to the Unemployment statistics coming out of Ottawa.  Ottawa was overjoyed, because their financial responsibility towards the unemployed was coming to an end and next up to bat to take care of those without jobs, without EI was the Provincial Government.    As far at the BC Liberals election team was concerned, unemployment rates, Welfare application rates, during an election campaign, was to remain a non-issue.

Look, sure the $8 billion contract to build Federal vessels has been won by Seaspan, but it will take at least another year and a half before the construction phase of the vessels begin.  In the meantime, the North Vancouver shipyard facilities have to be built, not rebuilt, built, from the ground up.   A long term resident of the North Shore told me the other day, that there's a vessel sitting on the old Burrard Dry Dock site, at the foot of Lonsdale, that is just itching to get into the water.  It's the SS Cape Breton (ex-HMS Flamborough Head).  It was supposed to be part of the new Maritime Museum in 2000, but the Conservatives said NO to their part of the deal.

To keep the shipyard workers happy, and in shape, Seaspan won a "major" contract to build six chip barges for their parent company, Seaspan Marine Corporation, which doesn't come anywhere near to the real thing, like meeting the training requirements for new apprentices in the refine art of shipbuilding..... but at least they might be busy until late 2013...... although one has to wonder why Seaspan waited until AFTER the Federal $8 billion dollar deal was done.   The shipyard workforce had been decimated in the past year and a half.   Was it a ploy on the part of management to keep the workers home fires cold so that their families who always come first, would keep the provincial politicians in the loop?

The BRDO has nothing, and I mean nothing, on the "Jobs and Investment Board" where this board will bring together business leaders, labour leaders, community leaders and government to fight for jobs like never before.”

The last time BRDO was updated was November 13, 2011, but in fact the last appointments that Premier Christy Clark made was on November 1.

2011 Calendar
October 2011
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
						1
2	3 Jobs and Investment Board in 50 days	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	29
30	31

2011 Calendar
November 2011
Sunday	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday	Saturday
		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17 Arrives in Victoria after Asian tour	18	19
20	21 New Jobs and Investment Board	22	23	24	25	26
27	28	29	30

Alaska Highway News Clark kills valuable Progress Board in jobs plan  

September 30, 2011

Christy Clark killed off one of Gordon Campbell’s good ideas last week, weakening government accountability and removing one of the few ways citizens have to assess its performance. Most people forget, but back in 2001, Campbell, Clark and the Liberals had a populist bent and promised a new way of doing things. They promised open and accountable government, with regular reports on the results it delivered to citizens. The B.C. Progress Board, killed by Clark last week, was part of that. Campbell asked a group of business leaders – David Emerson was the first chair, Jimmy Pattison was on board – to set measurable goals for the province, report on progress each year and offer advice on critical issues. The boards out six important areas – economic growth, standard of living, jobs, the environment, health outcomes and social conditions. Then it identified key indicators that could be used to measure how well the province was doing each year, things like exports per capita and birth weights and educational achievement. SNIP