We're described as Citizen Journalists somewhat akin to CBC's Fifth Estate of "investigative journalism, to challenge assumptions and question conventional wisdom". Where news media fight amongst themselves for the best ratings and dollars, blogs exist as "pages" pulled together by a common cause in hopes of finding some traces of truth in amongst the word of the highly paid political script writers (spin doctors) of the government, in this case, the very much provincial BC Liberals.
Why is there a difference of this amount---> 7,488 6,197
We're talking ($ millions) billions
Question: Were the numbers tweaked in the data provided to make the accompanying Graph work?
Question: Why is the government still using the Independent Panel Report on the HST on forecasting job losses?
Question: Why has Finance Minister Kevin Falcon provided a graph without indicating where a Balanced Budget line would be?
All during the Colin Hansen NEW ERA of Financial graph reporting there was always THIS IS:
LOOK HOW GOOD WE ARE - Balanced budgets, easy to do.
Now its almost as if Mr. Falcon refuses to admit that he's even in a Valley, of his own making. The graph above is ALL Valley, there isn't an indication of just where he (we) can get our heads above water, the level line, the Balanced line AND the Yearly spacing is all wrong, its more spread out when compared to other Graphs by Mr. Hansen.
Question: Just where are we on Mr. Falcon's graph when compared to anything from 2009?
Former Finance Minister Colin Hansen depiction of a TEMPORARY deficit was almost a flat line
Red line was the Half Billion in Depth Deficit
********************************
Here's Falcon's version of an Open and Transparent Government by only showing the part of the graph that he wants the public to see:
It's drawn this way so that NO comparison can be made
Question: Is this "Temporary Deficit" starting to look a lot like what the BC Liberals "inherited" when they took over from the NDP?
Question:Will the next political party that forms the next Government of BC say the same thing that the BC Liberals said about the NDP?
Fact is, the BC Liberals will never get us out of a deficit before they attempt to get re-elected in 2013.
The more pressure they put on us to fix their Hated HST error it will only result in more Anger. ....... and then in 2012, four months before the elections, the Families First Christy Clark will be there at the opening of the NEW Port Mann Bridge with her hand out for collecting $3 tolls on a public highway bridge that was promised by WAC Bennett never to have a toll again!
1 Ministers' salary includes their ministerial allowance and payment of salary holdback from previous year.
2 A minister who resides outside of the Capital Regional District (CRD) may elect to claim a Capital City Living Allowance in accordance with the options defined under the Legislative Assembly Management Committee Act. A meal allowance of $61.00 per day may also be claimed while the minister is on official business and is not at home. The Capital City Living Allowance and Travel amounts include only amounts paid from votes other than the Legislation vote while the member was premier or a minister
Under the heading of "OIC and Other Appointees"
There's 6 instances for Judge, Provincial
There's 164 instances of Judge including the above 6
There's 11 Master, Supreme Court
Vice-Chair = 42
Public Affairs Officer = 93
Under the heading of "Other Suppliers"
One instance of IPSOS REID PUBLIC AFFAIRS
And under the Letter J, as in Jawl..... there's three instances. If you haven't been to Victoria lately and are wondering how BC Ferries is.... with their new head office, moved.... and how they managed to fund their new headquarters.... and other treasure troves of information, you really need to go back to here: http://thetyee.ca/News/2009/03/05/FerrySpin/ to refresh your memory banks.
The Tyee reported in December, by the way, that the ferry company has struck a real estate deal with a Jawl family business. The company will sell its headquarters to the Jawls, then lease part of a building the Jawls are now developing. BC Ferries also agreed to advance $25 million to the Jawls.
That $25 million could have cut the cost of fares, right? BC Government ???? renting space from Jawl, is that why they come under the heading of Other Suppliers?
Don't forget this, last column below, Colin G. Hansen in 2010/2011 had a total Travel Expense, as the Finance Minister, of $24,951. Kevin M. Falcon for the same time frame, as the Health Minister, had $37,172. For the one month of July the new Finance Minister has had Travel expenses hitting $11,289.16 for a total of $14,417.73 since April of 2011.
Did Christy go for a Government House sound system or the Super Deluxe Expensive outside Contractor of her preference? Does Christy have a Preferred photographer?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!GMC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Taking a step backwards, here is the typical day-in-the-life-routine-for-the-former Premier..... Gordon Campbell
When it comes to Monthly Finance Meetings, "they are called at the discretion of the Premier."
Does anyone still believe that Premier Gordon Campbell didn't have a clue about the financial position of the Province during the 2009 election, especially on the subject of the Harmonized Sales Tax?
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!CJC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
As to the Timing of the HST Referendum .......
"The most expedient manner in which to create a legal certainty about the date is to conduct it as a Referendum. This could be done by OIC immediately upon the swearing-in of a new Premier and Cabinet."
These pages are dated February 2013.
Christy Clark won the Leadership race for the BC Liberal Party on February 26th, 2011.
Its not clear who is the author of this document.
In light of the above, and the result of the HST we already know was decided in August, plus the minor detail of how the World economy is tanking, does anyone here still believe that the last Saturday in September, Today would have been a great time to have a province wide vote on the HST?
The Pages were "torn out" (selected) ....... from a heavily redacted government copy made available by the Vancouver Sun when they went looking through the Open Data :
From The Office This part bit is from The Office and as outlined in the opening paragraphs in this document it stipulates quite clearly which Office they're talking about.... The Premier's Office ..Gordon Muir Campbell wrote it all..
I was looking forward to the last pages of this document where it lays out what Christy has to do in the first 90 days of her Premiership, but, alas, a massive amount of White-out was used by Christy.
In regards to the HST ballot packages that were delayed in being delivered to Voters, and then Elections BC swore to the majority of late voters that if the ballots didn't arrive on time.......
August 5 Close of voting – All ballot packages must have been received by Elections BC, a Service BC Centre or an Elections BC Collection Centre before 4:30 p.m.
Election BC has now admitted that in regards to the By-Election for the Riding of Vancouver-Point Grey VPG, which happened on May 11th, 2011, CEO James Craig, via his Assistant Chief Electoral Officer (Electoral Operations), enacted a good-old-stand-bye-double-standard when it came to his final final (Yes, two reports) to the Speaker with the last one being delivered by the NEW CEO for Elections BC yesterday (on September 21, 2011):
ORD002-2011
May 11, 2011
A voter in Vancouver-Point Grey applied for a voting package under s. 106 of the Election Act using the online application form available from the Elections BC website, but as the result of a technical issue, the voting package was not sent to the voter until May 11, 2011. The voter was unable to deliver the voting package to the Vancouver-Point Grey district
electoral office by the close of voting. The voter was permitted to return the voting package provided that it was post-marked by the close of votingfor the by-election and was received by the District Electoral Officer prior to final count. The voting package would be accepted by the District Electoral Officer as if it had been received by the deadline.
- CEO Craig James
The ONE ballot that was missing in action in The Vancouver-Point Grey by-election wouldn't have made a difference in the outcome of who was elected as an MLA, BUT if Elections BC had applied the same logic to the returning of HST ballots,............. the NO side may have won the day and saved us $1.6 billion and $85 million a year in interest charges for the next ten years. Or the YES side would have been reinforced.
We'll never know now because Acting CEO Craig James didn't exercise his responsibilities with an even hand.
However in a 1130 News report ..... dated Aug 15, 2011 17:49:58 PM did you know that:
VICTORIA (NEWS1130) - Elections BC has revealed that 39 voters were given extensions on their HST ballot because they hadn't received one by the August 5 mail-in deadline.
The overseeing body says it had no responsibility to inform voters who were in a similar position that the extension option was available.
Extensions were only given to those who got their ballot after the mail-in deadline and complained, not those who just didn't make the deadline. The ballots were accepted but Elections BC says it had no responsibility to inform people who hadn't yet received a ballot that the option was available.
Numbers, just the numbers by themselves, doesn't give a clear picture of why, in this particular instance, the travel expenses went sky high, so fast. But it does leave one thinking that the August numbers could be far worse.
If I may make a suggestion here, we've all heard how the Government compares itself to the Budget that they set down in "stone", to live by, or not. Personally I believe they set the amount too high so that later on they can crow about how much money they've saved when in fact they never were going to spend all that money in the first place........ then they are rewarded with a bonus. Sounds like another BC Ferries.
Its great to see all this information but.... wouldn't it be grand if the government included their BUDGET for just how much money they planned on spending on Travel In and Out of BC or Canada, but managed to find a way to save money.
Once against her name, per month, then once a second time by having her name included as part of the Premier's Office and others who work within HER office, too. Exactly the same file(s) are used. Then for good measure you could go looking for the names of those who work in HER office but there's no cascading link between the Premier and those who work for her in HER office. Got it? You have to know who they are.
For the public to check up on how much Expenses a Minister, a Deputy Minister, a Ministry is racking up on the public's dime, one has to open up one file per month per person. Like this for the premier and don't blame me for the shoddy scanning, the Premier's Office has included a blue screen over every number, I suppose its to prevent fraudulent use of the information:
If this is the way the BC Liberal Government keeps their books, I'm surprised that the Province even has, an AAA rating.
Why not provide spreadsheet like I've provided up top. That's ONE file, with each month being rolled in as a Column Entry for EVERYONE who is on the payroll in Victoria? As it is there's a report being generated in the PAB for everyone who's on the list that's required to provide their Expenses.
If I find the time tonight I'll try and do an update, then of course I would have to do an update when the September information is posted for the Christy Bunch!
But I would also say that while there are certain parts of the public -- a substantial majority -- who are not enamoured with broad tax cuts to business, we have still committed ourselves, even in the face of an economic downturn, to deliver on the tax cuts that we promised over last year, this year and the coming year. G. Farrell-Collins: How would I characterize the government's continued comments on the bright future of British Columbia's economy? I suppose, when you're at the bottom of a valley, anywhere upslope looks higher than where you are at the present time. For the minister to say that a number of indicators in the last quarter have started to trend upwards. . . . I think that while it's nice to hear, it's going to be an awful long time before we get anywhere near where we were prior to the downturn. When one sees housing starts in British Columbia drop by 35 percent to, really, their lowest level on a per-capita basis since those figures have been kept -- some 50 years -- one has to ask oneself whether or not that's an indicator of strong, broad economic recovery. I would say that no, it isn't.
Now its the BC Liberals turn to have bottomed out and the promised HST tax cuts to business, shredded.
There are a few MLAs sitting on the Cabinet Committees who just might be twiddling their thumbs while their fellow MLAs are working hard on more than one committees.
I suppose if you want to get the attention of one of the Committee Members it would be best to direct your correspondence to those who only serve on One or two committees rather than trying to get the attention of someone like a Rich Coleman who serves on 4.
5 BC Liberal MLAs sit only on this ONE committee of 11
Mary McNeil (Chair) Vancouver-False Creek (2) Margaret MacDiarmid (Vice Chair) Vancouver-Fairview (1)
George Abbott Shuswap (2)
Harry Bloy Burnaby-Lougheed (2) Marc DaltonMaple Ridge-Mission (1)
Michael de Jong Abbotsford West (3) Dave Hayer Surrey-Tynehead (1)
Gordon Hogg Surrey-White Rock (2) Joan McIntyreWest Vancouver-Sea to Sky (1)
Mary Polak Langley (3) Jane Thornthwaite North Vancouver-Seymour (1)
Cabinet Committee on Jobs and Economic Growth
5 BC Liberal MLAs sit only on this ONE committee of 13
Pat Bell (Chair) Prince George-Mackenzie (3) Moira Stilwell (Vice Chair) Vancouver-Langara (1) Donna BarnettCariboo-Chilcotin (1) Iain BlackPort Moody-Coquitlam (1)
Shirley Bond Prince George-Valemount (2) Rich ColemanFort Langley-Aldergrove (4) Rob HowardRichmond Centre (1)
Blair Lekstrom Peace River South (3)
Mary Polak Langley (3)
Ralph Sultan West Vancouver-Capilano (2)
Steve Thomson Kelowna-Mission (2) John van DongenAbbotsford South (1)
Naomi Yamamoto North Vancouver-Lonsdale (2)
Environment and Land Use Committee
4 BC Liberal MLAs sit only on this ONE committee of 11
Steve Thomson (Chair) Kelowna-Mission (2)
Terry Lake (Vice Chair) Kamloops-North Thompson (2)
Pat Bell Prince George-Mackenzie (3) Bill BennettKootenay East (1) Murray CoellSaanich North and the Islands (1) Rich ColemanFort Langley-Aldergrove (4) Eric FosterVernon-Monashee (1)
Randy Hawes Abbotsford-Mission (2)
Don McRae Comox Valley (2) Pat Pimm Peace River North (1)
Mary Polak Langley (3)
Cabinet Committee on Open Government and Engagement
3 BC Liberal MLAs sit only on this ONE committee of 9
Stephanie Cadieux (Chair) Surrey-Panorama (2)
Blair Lekstrom (Vice Chair) Peace River South (3)
Ida Chong Oak Bay-Gordon Head (3)
Gordon Hogg Surrey-White Rock (2) Kevin KruegerKamloops-South Thompson (1) Richard LeeBurnaby North (1)
Don McRae Comox Valley (2) John Slater Boundary-Similkameen (1)
Naomi Yamamoto North Vancouver-Lonsdale (2)
Legislative Review Committee
3 BC Liberal MLAs sit only on this ONE committee of 9
Barry Penner (Chair) Chilliwack-Hope (2) Rich Coleman (Vice Chair) Fort Langley-Aldergrove (4)
Ida Chong Oak Bay-Gordon Head (3)
Michael de Jong Abbotsford West (3) Douglas HorneCoquitlam-Burke Mountain (1)
Blair Lekstrom Peace River South (3) Norm LetnickKelowna-Lake Country (1) John RustadNechako Lakes (1)
Ben Stewart Westside-Kelowna (2)
Ralph Sultan West Vancouver-Capilano (2)
Five not on any Committee:
Bill Barisoff Penticton Speaker Elected: 1996, 2001, 2005, 2009
The Speaker gave Gordon Campbell his Order of BC
Linda Reid Richmond EastElected: 1991, 1996, 2001, 2005, 2009
Linda Reid is the Deputy Speaker of the Legislative Assembly
Ron Cantelon Parksville-Qualicum Elected 2005 , 2009
Government Caucus Chair and a member of the Select Standing Committee on Health
MLA $101,859 Basic Salary MLA $ 50,000 Extra pay for The Honourable Minister titleMLA $ 15,000 Extra pay of Parliamentary Secretary
MLA $101,859 Basic $ 91,673 Premier (Leader of BC Liberal Party) $193,532 Total Salary
MLA $101,859 Basic $ 50,930 Leader of the Opposition (Leader of the NDP) $152,789 Total Salary
Then there's the Committee "work" for the Chair and Vice Chairs:
Letnick, a Liberal from Kelowna-Lake Country, was paid $13,353 - on top of MLAs' base pay of $101,859 - to chair a legislative committee that met once, for 22 minutes. Fleming, a New Democrat from Victoria-Swan Lake, was paid $8,903 as deputy chair. - Paul Willcocks on B.C. politics and life. Paying Attention blog
While parliamentary secretary positions have been described as "empty titles" used to mollify MLAs who would have preferred to be ministers, they do come with pay.
In announcing the new British Columbia cabinet March 14, Premier Christy Clark shrunk the number of ministers but increased by one the number of parliamentary secretaries.
A parliamentary secretary gets a 15 percent bonus.......snip
premier Christy Clark says that there will be no Provincial election till May 12, 2013, but in reality her BC Liberal Party is in full campaign mode against the BC Conservative Party, in particular, their Leader, one retiree John Cummins.
We Cant Trust Cummins (Can't the BC Liberals Spell Can't?)
Dear Supporter,
Earlier today the BC Liberal Party began an extensive campaign to inform the public about the BC Conservative Party, and their unprincipled leader, John Cummins.
This campaign comes after months of irresponsible attacks from Cummins against Premier Christy Clark, our government and our party.
Christy Clark claims that Mr. Cummins is an "unprincipled leader". But what is the public supposed to see, or think, when our premier displays a flash in the pan lack of her own principle where on one side of her web site she portrays herself as a leader and on the other side the premier is so poor that she is seeking donations from the public?
Donate, Donate, Donate, Donate to the Premier's Office!
The BC Liberals have this to say about John Cummins:
John Cummins opposed Premier Christy Clark’s minimum wage increase, but he’s happy to take your tax dollars to pay a $100,000.00 annual pension to himself. He doesn’t think your family deserves a raise, but said he took the pension because “I owe it to my offspring.”
And the cherry on top? Now Cummins is trying to get a BC government job to pocket even more taxpayer dollars every year.
Does that sound like a principled politician that you can trust? We don’t think so.
A click on their link to taxpayer.com not only has info on Members of Parliament retirement packages but also what Christy Clark and Gordon Campbell refused to do:
In addition to their hefty salaries, the men and women who represent us in the B.C. legislature can claim expenses of up to $140,000 a year, for things like food, travel, office furniture, and living expenses in Victoria. But MLA’s from both the government and the opposition have steadfastly refused to share the details of their spending with the public. What are the politicians hiding? In Nova Scotia, an audit of MLA expenses showed massive waste, with taxpayers getting the bill for politicians’ high-definition, big-screen TV’s and espresso machines. Now, since the scandal there, MLA expenses are posted online, and Nova Scotia taxpayers having been logging on, by the hundreds, to see the details for themselves.
Even Canada’s Senate, a bastion of privilege for unelected politicians, has begun posting senators’ expense details online. And some Canadian cities are posting the politicians actual expenses claims, along with the supporting receipts, for all to see. B.C. taxpayers were promised action by September 2010 – that deadline came and went. Now, the government is promising MLA’s will come clean “in a couple of months.”
Other forward thinking jurisdictions, such as Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and the City of Toronto have simply posted their expenses online. There is no reason why this can't be done in B.C. as well. Let’s tell our politicians that we’re tired of waiting for answers.
The attack against someone who isn't even an BC MLA is unheard of but the bottom line for the BC Liberals is that they are desperate for donations to their Party:
Political contributions can entitle you to various personal tax credits.
You can cancel your monthly donation at anytime by contacting the BC Liberal Party. BC Liberal Party PO Box 21014, Waterfront Centre
Vancouver, BC V6C 3K3
Telephone: 604-606-6000
Fax: 604-632-0253
Toll-free: 1-800-567-2257
There's various ways you can donate to the BC Liberal Party, but there's no better way than being a member of the Club 300.
Your past support has turned the tide
and made a difference.
We have made our way through
hard-fought and expensive
elections before, and with your help
we can do it again.
“The Club 300 program has helped us reach British Columbians to talk about the BC Liberal Plan to lead us out of these challenging economic times so we can build a stronger province.
As a charter member of Club 300, I’ve had the opportunity to
meet with program members on numerous occasions and thank them for their efforts to support our team. Today, I’m asking you to consider joining our efforts by becoming a member of Club 300. We’ve accomplished so much, but, with your help, we can accomplish so much more.”
— Premier Gordon Campbell
The most recent EIA projections also show oil’s share of the world total energy supply -- far from remaining constant at 38% -- had already dropped to 35% in 2010 and was projected to continue declining to 32% in 2020 and 30% in 2035. In its place, natural gas and renewable sources of energy are expected to assume ever more prominent roles.
So here’s the question all of us should consider, in part because until now no one has: Are the decline of the United States and the decline of oil connected? Careful analysis suggests that there are good reasons to believe they are. -------> America and Oil Declining Together?
By Michael T. Klare
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View water for the development of tar sands oil mining. There are licenses in place to divert 349 million m3 of water per year out of the Athabasca River for tar sands...
File Format: PDF/Adobe Acrobat - Quick View by M based Solutions - 2007 - Related articles 3 Down to the Last Drop: The Athabasca River and the Oil Sands, Pembina Institute, .... Section 2: Water Use and Alberta Oil Sands Development-- Science and ..... Allocated and licensed water use for the six approved and operating oil sands ...
Alberta’s oil sands (174 billion barrels) are not only the world’s largest capital project but now represent 60 per cent of the world’s investable oil reserves. But to produce one million barrels of oil a day, industry requires withdrawals of enough water from the Athabasca River to sustain a city of two million people every year. Despite some recycling, the majority of this water never returns to the river and is pumped into some of the world’s largest man-made dykes containing toxic waste.
I greeted Ian this morning as he was leaving his downtown office building. I was on my way into the building because I wanted to know the size of the Plaza where the 2011 Vancouver Riot was born. I had this great presequel to go along with the riot that he covered.
For those of us who hung around to see the fireworks, at home, we got it all, in living colour. There they were, up on the battlements atop the CBC castle, the CBC crews were recording everything, probably in high definition too. That was then.
Today there wasn't a whiff of tear gas, or black smoke from burning tires, nor was there an unruly mob to contend with, but as I took a walk around the CBC Plaza, the outdoor Stage in fact, something caught my attention, a sign, a big blue sign way off in the far corner. Blue background, White foreground. Sign.
Maximum weight of 100 pounds per square foot!
Lucky for me there were two workers resetting some of the concrete slabs (approx. weight 7 lbs each), nothing to do with the riot, just normal wear and tear, especially where the concrete tiles meet the solid concrete border. After seeing the above sign I was trying to determine how much the concrete tiles weighed, overall. The Answer: 3,400 pounds per 100 square feet, in other words 34 pounds per square foot of paving stones. That's Five tiles per square foot. (Total area of plaza, close to 11,000 square feet.)
Mix in one rioter, average build, weighing in at 180 pounds, strong enough, apparently, to take the Vancouver City Police barricades apart and use them for smashing the windows of the surrounding stores. A rioter able enough to repeatedly bounce off the roofs of Vancouver Police Cruisers. A rioter, Crammed into his space on the CBC Plaza of one square foot (normal is 1.5 square feet in an elevator) and the weight becomes a whopping 214 pounds, well over twice as much as the allowable amount permitted, on one square foot of real estate space ........according to the sign.
Then there is all the material that supports the paving stones to be accounted for, but I'm quite sure the Engineers who Redeveloped the CBC for $65 million, took that all into account, but did they allow for a riot, complete with police officers on horseback?
When CBC agreed to hold this event, and surely they were involved in the process, it was their private property, their liability issues to contend with, their television monitors (hauled up from California), and their insurance, did anyone at City Hall check their records of just how many people are permitted to be on the Plaza, which is over top of an underground CBC parking lot?
Did CBC in fact, get an Engineer to sign on the dotted line that everything was copacetic?
You see, if the plaza "underpinning" had failed, it wouldn't be CBC being held financially accountable, nor would it be the Insurance company, that responsibility, lies solely with the Engineer...... but if there wasn't an Engineer signature on the dotted line then who would be held accountable........ if Hell opened up, and swallowed every one whole. There is one answer, regarding the Engineer, he may have stipulated that only 100 lbs could be on a TWO foot square space.
by Associated Press / KATIE ZEMTSEFF - The Seattle Daily Journal of Commerce
".......The roof has 400,000 indigenous plants, 120 kilograms of seed and 80,000 planted bulbs. Grass gets cut once a year in the fall.
Layers of material form the green roof. Above the roof deck is a fluid applied hot rubber membrane, a protection layer, a drain mat layer allowing water to be directed to a drain, followed by four meters of rigid insulation, another drainage layer to keep air moving above preventing insulation degradation, and six to eight inches of growing medium. (Note: Not clear if that's really Four meters of rigid insulation or not.....12 feet!!)
The growing medium is made from sand dredged from the Fraser River, garden waste and lava rock. It has an exact weight of 39.6 pounds per square foot when soaking wet, to make sure the team could control the load of the roof. The irrigation system is inside this layer.
In addition to creating habitat and treating stormwater, the roof also helps to insulate the convention center. ....." (Note: Still looking for the Environmental savings by using so much rigid insulation.)
Why is it that the Three MLAs on the North Shore can't get it straight on who THEIR Constituents are?
How many EXTRA brochures were printed, just to be on the safe side? $$$$$$ for each Riding?
When does Kevin Falcon's belt tightening begin?
Premier Christy Clark was sworn in on March 14, 2011, and today, I received a document printed on 100% recycled stock from Jane Thornthwaite. She says that the environmental savings are as follows:
14 trees,
764 kg of Trash
50,420 litres of Water.
And it was printed in a Carbon Neutral Facility. Oh Goodee!
29 photos later, two of which are of HER on a business like card all by her lonesome self.
Will I be on the receiving end of another document from my REAL MLA tomorrow and will the environmental savings regarding how it was printed turn out to be a lost cause?
Problem is, Jane's NOT my MLA and there's this bit of NEWS, onethat Jane is so excited about, she's been been appointed to the Cabinet Committee on Families First to represent MY interests.
As to the Families First Cabinet Committee:
Cabinet Committee on Families First
Mary McNeil (Chair) Vancouver-False Creek
Margaret MacDiarmid (Vice Chair) Vancouver-Fairview
George Abbott Shuswap in red on the map above all others are far too close together to be seen individually
Harry Bloy Burnaby-Lougheed
Marc Dalton Maple Ridge-Mission
Michael de Jong Abbotsford-West
Dave Hayer Surrey-Tynehead
Gordon Hogg Surrey-White Rock
Joan McIntyre West Vancouver-Sea to Sky
Jane Thornthwaite North Vancouver-Seymour
Naomi Yamamoto North Vancouver-Lonsdale
George is from the Heartland of BC
Michael is from Abbotsford
Joan, Jane, and Naomi are from the North Shore
Dave and Gordon are from Surrey
Mary and Margaret are from Vancouver
Harry, good old Harry is from Burnaby
Marc is from Maple Ridge/Mission
Now we know where the Families are in British Columbia!
Oh, and then there's the minor detail of the $1.6 Billion that the BC Liberals accepted as a signing bonus from the Feds, regarding the HST, and then squandered the money just to make themselves look good to the voters, that put them into Office for a third term.
Ever since the 2009 election, the BC Liberals have tried everything to bail themselves out of a Fudget Budget scenario, they even dumped their Leader (Gordon Campbell). The Original one by the NDP, pales in comparison to what the BC Liberals have brought down on themselves, and us.
Returning to the provincial sales tax will cost B.C. about $2.2 billion more over the next three years than if voters had opted to keep the harmonized sales tax, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon announced Thursday.
The added cost - which includes the $1.6 billion British Columbia needs to return to Ottawa - means the province is projecting much larger deficits for the coming two years.
On Thursday, Falcon said deficit projections for the current year will rise to $2.8 billion, up from $769 million, which the government had projected as a deficit figure in pre-referendum documents if voters had kept the HST in place.
Snip
From Tyee.ca in July of 2010 Wil McMartin does the explaining
Worst Fudge-it Budget Proven, but Free Ride from Media
Four times the 'fudge'
Looked at another way, it is evident that Campbell, Hansen and the BC Liberal government overstated Victoria's pre-election CRF revenues by more than eight per cent.
By comparison, the notorious NDP "Fudge-it Budgets" of the mid-1990s saw Glen Clark's government inflate CRF receipts -- with so-called "revenue optimism" -- by a relatively puny one-to-two per cent.
Nearly every British Columbian of voting age and above probably remembers the outcry sparked by those fudged fiscal plans for 1995/96 and 1996/97.
I spent the afternoon sifting through filing cabinets upon filing cabinets and finally settled down to five drawers in particular, at the Vancouver Downtown Library. My domain was the old world of the Fourth Estate, stored on the 5th floor, mixed in amongst the myriad of computers of the Fifth Estate, and a few microfiche machines from the former. Oh, and books, lots of books too.
If enough of these clippings get read on the internet, like here, the Librarians just might have to scan the lot and drag these clippings into the future, screaming and kicking all the way. For example: There's two drawer fulls, packed with Murders, written by the same journalists who covered the BC Rail trial.
Murderers They Wrote is their typical fare; covering a BC Government corruption case must have been BORING.
Then there was the tantalizing folder from one drawer that covered RADIATION, the same kind of stuff that's been leaking from Fukushima Nuclear Reactors since March of this year, into the oceans where our local Salmon hail from, and from the air that we breathe and the rain that falls from the clouds to water our plants and...... for us to drink.
Photos are almost good enough all on their own........... to start a riot. Please, do read on.
A hundred years from 1957, that's 54 years to go, its going to be a tricky problem
Flip side has to do with Radiation, But McCarthy the Senator on this side, caught my attention
Question: Can a person be protected from nuclear bomb radiation in the same way he is immunized against diphtheria, polio, small pox, and many other infectious diseases? Ans: Parke-Davis experience with the Salk anti-polio vaccine is expected to aid his search since the principle is the same.
Atomic radiation treatment of potatoes - to increase the spud's edible lifetime for a year or more, has been found possible by University of Michigan - 1953
The above was filed under B.C. Living
Radiation from all the world's nuclear tests only equal to a single medical chest X-ray
I'll repeat that last one:Radiation from all the world's nuclear tests only equal to a single medical chest X-ray
PS There are only five days left to get your '55 Buick for $2695 Open to Midnight every Night
You won't find the column down below from the Times Colonist at your local library as a hard copy.
You won't find it on the internet either.
You won't find the invited PRESS who reported on Education Minister (George Abbott) and the premier's (Christy Clark) promised announcement of $50,000 per playground last week to help the forty-four schools, doing any research that might cast a spell on her playground theatrics either.
We all know that Christy Clark was the Minister of Education way back in 2001.
We also know that it was the former Premier, Gordon Campbell, who rolled out the HST and eliminated all of the exemptions that were covered by the OLD PST.
It did come as a surprise though to hear that on the eve of the children going back to school, and the government still in negotiations with the teachers, that the cash strapped (think Court Sheriffs/delayed Justice) BC Liberal government found $8 million to spend over the next two years on Public Schools. Its not that they had to look far though, the monies were sitting in a special account marked PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT DO NOT SPEND COLLECTED TAX DOLLARS, its illegal to do so, since July 1, 2010. At the news conference last week, premier Christy Clark said this:
“Learning continues outside the classroom and playgrounds are a venue where kids come together and learn from each other through play,” said Premier Clark. “Playgrounds are a reminder to all of us that providing access to safe spaces helps make kids happier, healthier and ready to learn.”
The "Families First" motto that we've heard so much about since Christy was elected leader of the BC Liberals has been around, for her, since June of 2001. Way back then, as the Education Minister, she saw the burden upon families with school children and she arranged to have the Provincial Sales Tax Abolished.
Leaves one wondering why, when she became Premier, she let the bullies in the BC Liberal Caucus push the HST stickman down everyone's throat. Why didn't she stand up and say NO! There isn't any PST on playground equipment! Why the grandstanding when it came to her defending the HST, when she damn well knew there were supposed to be exemptions under the OLD PST?
B.C. schools must improve. (2001, Jul 19). Times - Colonist, pp. A.12-A12.
Education Minister Christy Clark has offered more details of her plans for the province's schools in a Vancouver speech. But those curious about the future of education in B.C. under the Liberals need look no further afield than Edmonton.
That's the city the new deputy minister of education, Emery Dosdall, hails from. He made some major changes to the structure of schools there, most of them reportedly for the better.
A key element of his approach is greater accountability of schools for the education they deliver, decentralized management, and more responsiveness to parental concerns and wishes.
The result, in Edmonton, is a stronger -- not weaker -- public school system that is attracting students away from private and charter schools.
Of course, Alberta does have some advantages over B.C. when it comes to revamping the school system. For a start, Alberta has more money for things like new schools along specialized lines. For another, its teachers' unions aren't as powerful as the B.C. Teachers' Federation, and therefore more amenable to changes.
Clark's main problems will be persuading the BCTF to go along with her reforms -- and making education an essential service, while desirable, won't help on the labour-relations front -- and finding the money to make the changes work properly.
So Clark gets an "A" for promising to scrap provincial sales tax on school supplies bought by parent advisory councils -- taxes that can add thousands of dollars to the cost of things like parent-funded playground equipment. But that's a loss to the B.C. treasury that will have to come out of somewhere else.
She gets an "A" for changing the per-student funding formula so school districts whose enrolment is falling -- like Greater Victoria's -- don't suffer (they still have the same fixed costs no matter how many students are enrolled). That, too, will cost more money.
Similarly, responding to parents' wishes about the type of education they want their children to receive rates an "A" -- in Edmonton, Dosdall created schools with specialties ranging from all- girls' to Jewish to dance to a "cadet" model. But what if the funding isn't there for a new building to house this specialized type of school?
More autonomy for school boards in allocating funding rates an "A", as long as it doesn't mean (as BCTF president David Chudnovsky fears) that the province simply downloads its budget problems onto the boards.
In other words, there will be many practical problems in implementing Clark's reforms, and they will cost more in the short term. In the long term, though, they are the way to go.
Parents are more demanding in the style and quality of education they want their children to receive. It's increasingly recognized that a one-size-fits-all educational model doesn't work very well for the wide variety of students and learning styles out there.
More important, education is going to be at a premium in the new world of high-technology workplaces. In her speech, Clark described B.C.'s school system as already "excellent." But she recognizes we can't sit on our laurels.
Clark's job -- and the job of everyone involved in the school system, from boards to staff to parents to students -- is continuous improvement.
Clark's final mark will depend on how well her reforms deliver on this commitment.
(Copyright Times Colonist (Victoria) 2001)
