B.C. budget intended to cover up govt's ugly scandals
By John Twigg
It took a while but now the word is getting out about exactly what was in the B.C. government's latest budget, namely a bunch of ploys designed mainly to help the B.C. Liberal Party regime get re-elected and only minimally to help more people live better lives.
Some outrages against some budget moves arose towards the end of last week and over the weekend, as groups with negative impacts went public about them (e.g. handicapped people losing free bus passes) and more came out this week as the leading pundits and Opposition politicians put the many flaws in the budget into a clear pattern, namely that the government was saying one thing while doing another, giving with one hand while taking with the other, doing far too much fiddling around with phony funds and various other fiscal gimmicks, and generally doing dis-services to the broad public interest.
One of the best critiques of the parsimonious inequalities in the budget was by Paul Willcocks on the Tyee on Feb. 19, viewable here .
Sun columnist Vaughn Palmer skewered the government on Saturday (Feb. 20) for how it is deferring action on a series of issues until pre-election time next year, viewable here .
Another good overview of the budget's moves was by the Tyee's Andrew MacLeod, who on Feb. 19 showed how low-income people in B.C. are worse off than similar people in other provinces, viewable here.
Also see "Disability rates won't alleviate poverty," by UVic scholar Michael J. Prince in the Feb. 19 Times-Colonist.
A scathing and detailed analysis of that shockingly cold approach of the B.C. Liberals' government's abuse of disabled people appeared this morning on the Tyee by pundit Bill Tieleman, viewable here . The gist is that tens of thousands of disabled people have been knowingly impoverished by the Campbell-Clark Liberals for about 10 years now and that this has been happening even though the province supposedly can now afford a so-called Prosperity Fund (those are my words based on Tieleman's facts and stats).
And "Budget an insult to vulnerable people of B.C." by Rick FitzZaland, executive director of the Federation of Community Social Services of B.C., in the Times-Colonist on Feb. 20.
Or "Budget shows Clark is out of touch" by NDP finance critic Carole James in the Vancouver Sun on Feb. 19 (adapted from her speech in the Legislature).
And finally, IntegrityBC's Dermod Travis put out an excellent commentary that highlighted some of the billion-dollar boondoggles in the budget as well as many smaller peccadilloes. It is appended below because it has not yet been posted online.
So when I declare that the latest budget from Premier Christy Clark is an atrociously-partisan political scam I have lots of company, and the above collection of citations could have been much longer by including Globe and Mail reporter Justine Hunter's pre-budget scoop on the flim-flam Prosperity Fund coming back, a neat letter on the mounting gross debt from former Newfoundland Premier Brian Peckford, and many others. By Tuesday mid-day it was becoming a cacophony of protests, and rightly so.
BC Liberals' budget creates pre-election slush fund
There are several ways of describing exactly what Finance Minister Mike de Jong did, but one gist that stood out (aided by pushes from the NDP caucus) was that most of the best tax breaks are going to the upper two per cent of income earners and precious little new money is going to low-income people of various kinds and meanwhile some $4 billion of spending power is being socked away to prepare for next year's pre-election vote-buying season.In B.C. that strategy shouldn't be a surprise to anyone because the Social Credit regimes and their successor vehicle now called B.C. Liberals have been using it since the 1950s but it still rankles those of us who see it used anew so self-servingly because really it is tawdry politics verging on a perversion of democracy.
Not to worry though because those protests against that blatant pork-barrel politics probably will prove to be insufficient to derail the Liberals' fiscal flim-flam plan because Premier Clark and her colleagues will monopolize the news agendas with diversions and in other ways minimize the times she and her cabinet colleagues have to answer any really tough questions about the despicable ethics and blatant abuses of power exemplified in the budget.
But it gets worse: those ploys are being done to try to keep a lid on perhaps dozens of billion-dollar scandals and horrific cases of mismanagement, incompetence and perhaps even misfeasance in a variety of industries, business venues and social service areas as well as pending lawsuits - several of which I cited in the previous issue of this blog and more which I'll detail below.
SPCA event was deliberate smokescreen of budget scams
That smokescreen strategy was crystal clear on Monday morning (Feb. 22) when Clark pulled off a classic media diversion ploy: going to the SPCA shelter in Vancouver to announce a crackdown on breeders of dogs and cats, which was the third time this month that SPCA-related news has entered the political news, which suggests it was intended to do so, and of course it gave Clark an excuse to not make it over to Victoria in time to participate in that day's question period and thus saved her from having to face some sharpened barbs from New Democratic Party leader John Horgan and other NDP critics - a job that was left to Deputy Premier Rich Coleman, who arrogantly sloughed the questions off as mere nonsense from a party that merely says no to all progress.
Clark avowed that "irresponsible breeders are not welcome in British Columbia" - as if saving a few dozen cats and dogs is more important than taking bus passes away from special-needs people, and as if coming down hard on a few dozen animal breeders is more important than say getting the Health Ministry to clamp down on slum landlords renting out hundreds or thousands of bug-infested SROs.
Sure enough the SPCA event gave the mainstream news media some video and audio clips to use in their newscasts and Clark was saved from answering more important questions in the legislature such as how she could justify plunking $100 million of play money into a badly-misnamed Prosperity Fund. (It began as a repository for revenues from liquefied natural gas projects but since no plants have begun they have tried to save some face by filling it with revenue from an increase in Medical Service Plan premiums aka taxes.)
Some readers may scoff that a government would go to such lengths to manipulate media messaging but in fact the Clark Liberals government is spending hundreds of millions of dollars a year on "communications" and the central strategy agency [which ironically I urged the creation of when I was Premier Dave Barrett's press secretary from 1972 to 1975] alone spends about $35 million a year on such things, according to the report below by Integrity BC's Dermod Travis.
Federal election used to smokescreen damning report on child death
And now this morning we have new graphic proof of how Premier Clark uses that agency to control the news that the B.C. government releases each day and thus also what the mainstream media consumes and regurgitates in larger or lesser amounts, thanks to another scoop exposee from independent journalist Bob Mackin [@BobMakcin] in today's online Tyee, as I thus Tweeted:
Media manip in
Or as the Tyee's photo caption put it, "The BC government took months to prepare its response to a report on the 2013 death of Paige Gauchier, finally releasing it at 3 p.m. on Oct. 19 -- election day."
An excerpt from the Tyee story and a link to the full version is appended at the bottom of this blog; it contains the names of contents of emails between government communications staffers which clearly show that the smokescreen was designed in the Premier's Office.
Needless to say, Child and Youth Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was livid to hear that news and talked about it with talkshow host Simi Sara, a copy of which was rerun shortly after 10:30 a.m. and can be heard via CKNW's audio-vault archives.
Listen especially to NW's news report at 10:00 a.m., Jill Bennett and Gord Macdonald discussing it at 10:05 a.m. and then the interview with Turpel-Lafond after 10:30 at http://www.cknw.com/audio-vault/ . It is or should be a shocking indictment of the governing Liberals even worthy of their removal from office.
And when Children and Family Development Minister Stephanie Cadieux declined a previous commitment to discuss the matter on-air at 1:10 p.m. the station re-ran the Turpel-Lafond remarks and excerpts of Cadieux in today's Question Period.
Clark decries new book from Willie Pickton
Back at the SPCA event, the Premier did take a few questions from the media at the animal shelter but none of the questions struck home about her basic and generally poor stewardship of many many government files, such as say the huge cost overruns and operating losses on the Port Mann bridge, the massive overruns on bungled information technology projects, and many other boondoggles.Instead the top story out of the event became her responses to the stunning news that convicted serial murderer Robert Willie Pickton had managed to secretly write a book in Kent Prison near Agassiz and smuggle it out to a writer and publisher in the U.S. whereupon it was posted for sale on Amazon, on both Canada and U.S. versions, until public outrage and political comments by Clark and federal Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale more or less bullied Amazon into taking it down - a de facto censorship of a legal act that while emotionally understandable is nonetheless another dangerous step towards state censorship.
"I don't understand why anyone would want to buy the book," said Clark, ironically standing behind a lectern with the words "Respect Animals, Prevent Abuse" on it while she either ignorantly or knowingly overlooked the reported gist of the 144-page book, namely Pickton's shocking allegations that he was really being scapegoated alone for things other people had participated in.
Oh?
That's a really really weird coincidence, at least to me, because only a few days before in my Daily Twigg blog I had lamented that among the budget's failings was yet another failure to fund a proper investigation of the many scams going on in and around this (and other) governments, such as failing to extract the full truth behind the misnamed Truth and Reconciliation Commission and failing to investigate who else must have been at least aware of Willie Pickton's sordid activities since he claimed to have murdered some 49 women, far too many to have acted alone and many of whom fit one typology: drug-addicted prostitutes whose bodies were disposed of by being fed to pigs - but he was convicted on only six cases.
And then suddenly Willie puts out a book about that very thing? I had no idea it was coming. And then the governments rush to successfully suppress it the same day, aided by a storm of outrage in the mainstream media, said fury fueled by feelings from such as Clark that it would be truly heinous for anyone to profit from such a book, and that that loophole allowing prisoners to write things should be closed as fast as possible.
A motive of Profit? From selling a few thousand copies of a 144-page book written by a near-illiterate simpleton?? By a guy who was a millionaire landowner facing a lifetime in jail and having no kids? I don't think so.
No, profit is not the issue or motive here, and nor is the issue the new emotional hurts inflicted on hundreds of relatives and thousands of other people whose hearts bleed whether the victims are real people caught in the sex and drug trades or merely animals locked in cages.
No, the real story should have been that Willie Pickton is revealing or at least alleging anew - in a book text I have not read yet - that there were collaborators and other knowing participants in his awful unlawful machinations, and that some of the participants may have been high-up people, even politicians and other publicans.
Indeed the gist of rumours about the so-called pig farm is that influential people from various fields of interest were invited to attend parties at Piggy's Palace, a converted barn in Port Coquitlam, which at least initially was ostensibly a healthy happy part of a charity supporting sports teams, with great dances to live bands, but once visitors got there or maybe went back there for a second or third time then some of those influential people may have been entrapped with photos taken in compromising situations in side rooms, and then maybe they were blackmailed, such as with threats to inform a spouse or maybe to spread some word that the victim had just eaten some pork that came from a pig that had eaten human flesh....
In fact questions about the Pickton story have persisted long after Willie was jailed and even have become part of repeated allegations on the Abel Danger website that he and/or Piggy's Palace may have been part of an international conspiracy in which implications of gross sexual depravities are routinely used to coerce politicians and other powerful people such as bankers into doing the bidding of powerful interests; the most recent of dozens of Abel Danger posts to mention that alleged pig farm connection can be seen here .
Why hasn't the B.C. government taken further steps to probe the circumstances behind that horror? That's a good but unanswered question.
Oppal inquiry failed to find full story behind Pickton murders
Which politicians or publicans may have been entrapped and compromised in that? A proper inquiry might find out, but it would have to be an inquiry better than the sham run by former judge and former Liberal politician Wally Oppal for then-Premier Gordon Campbell that reportedly was hampered by a narrow terms of reference that prevented Oppal from looking into activities when the same Gordon Campbell was chair of the Vancouver Police Commission when it was assumed to be unlikely that some serial killer was behind a then-growing string of missing-women cases in the Downtown Eastside. Oppal's report is viewable here . Campbell now is Canada's High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, a position he obtained after the Clark regime broke the rules and hastily awarded him an Order of B.C. medal.The problems in Vancouver's low-end sex trade and its possible association with the Pickton pig farm is an ugly topic that mainstream media hate to touch, partly because it runs up their bills for legal opinions, but it's also a topic that Premier Christy Clark clearly does not want to pry open either.
Why not? Well because it could lead to even worse scenarios, such as that the missing and murdered women associated with the Pickton pig farm and Piggy's Palace also could be related to the missing and murdered indigenous women along B.C.'s Highway of Tears that the B.C. Liberals also have been covering up for years and even related to the soon-coming federal inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women soon to be launched by the federal Liberal government under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and supervised by new Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould, a lawyer and B.C. First Nations woman who for now at least seems to be determined to at last get to the truth of the sordid matter.
Annett alleges systemic coverup of crimes against humans
How sordid is it? One of the leading experts of that is Kevin Annett, a former Anglican minister in Port Alberni who encountered evidence of such wrong-doing first hand, found more in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and then nationally, and undertook what is now a 20-years-long international campaign for justice, which has brought him death threats, vilification and few plaudits - though his imminent publication of two new books covering the whole saga could change some opinions - assuming the mainstream media and other forces don't censor and ban his books the way they've just done to Pickton.When Annett heard about the new Willie Pickton book he was moved to write a damning indictment of the continuing coverups in the former federal Conservative government's mis-named Truth and Reconciliation Commission and before that the Oppal inquiry, a copy of which can be read at http://kevinannett.com/ .
Annett quite rightly argues that the issue is not whether Pickton should be allowed to publish and/or profit from prison but it is that Pickton is alleging his actions were part of a conspiracy that should be exposed.
B.C. sex and human abuse crimes part of global financial conspiracies?
Sadly the conspiracy theories about systemic sex and drug abuses of mainly aboriginal women in B.C. are accompanied by allegations and evidence of unpunished and uninvestigated conspiracies of many other sorts, such as the pernicious drug trades and ethnic gang crimes in Metro Vancouver, the systemic tax-avoidance in multi-million-dollar real estate flipping scams, the lax supervision and sweetheart support of various resource industries that give kickback donations to the B.C. Liberals, the giveaways of assets to global capitalists such as Campbell's giveaway of BC Rail, the chronic budget overruns on megaprojects and endemic kickbacks to friends and insiders of the governing party, the rising influence of lobbyists, the papering-over of scandals, the manipulations of the media . . . and more.
One particularly suspicious case involves the English family's large waterfront Pacific Rim Resort property near Tofino, which former owner John (Jack) English is alleging in court was partially and possibly wholly stolen from him by agents allegedly working surreptitiously for B.C. Investment Management Corp., the huge public-sector pensions manager based in Victoria that now owns part of the property through a subsidiary, as well as allegedly agents of B.C. Hydro and other government officials, who may have been assisting the B.C. government to obtain the property at below-market value for land-claims and treaty settlements and/or to become part of a regional tourism strategy.
The case has some of the earmarks of other B.C. scandals, including arson, sabotage, intimidation and allegedly attempted murders, and it too has been featured in the Abel Danger postings. A summary of English's claims can be seen here at http://cuabcimc.blogspot.ca/ .
Even larger is the alleged "water war crimes" conspiracy put forth by former lawyer John Carten at the www.waterwarcrimes.com website. He has acted for some water export proponents and notably filed a US$10.5-billion damages suit against the province on behalf of an American proponent, Sun Belt Water, whose Canadian partner won a modest payout from former NDP Premier Glen Clark's government while the U.S. partner got nothing. Carten, who also has since become a personal friend of the writer, also alleges that government lawyers abused the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program and the Law Society of B.C. in order to hamper his legal work and end his career as an active lawyer because he had reported and continued to report instances of lawyer fraud and judicial misconduct related to the Sun Belt Water case to the police and other authorities.
One of the most notable water cases involves a 30-year battle by Rain Coast Water Corp. of West Vancouver, previously called Aquasource Ltd. and incorporated in 1983 as Coast Mountain Aquasource Ltd., one of the original bidders for B.C. water export licenses in the 1980s. Its trial began in October 2012 in B.C. Supreme Court before Mr. Justice Peter Leask, with the company alleging that the B.C. government wrongfully impaired its ability to do business, and the company seeking damages that so far have not been quantified. Written submissions were completed in June 2015.
It's especially interesting from a political perspective because it has involved a number of political figures including former premier Bill Vander Zalm as a defendant, but especially insofar as they include two of Clark's most key advisers, longtime lobbyist and political strategist Patrick Kinsella who aided the leading rival water export company [he is neither a defendant or participant in the Rain Coast case], and longtime government lawyer Doug Eastwood who at times defended the government in the Rain Coast case - and both Kinsella and Eastwood, who worked together on B.C.'s role in the 2010 Winter Olympics, were co-chairs of Christy Clark's leadership campaign, after which she appointed Eastwood to head B.C.'s Justice Institute.
The water cases and all the other political machinations would make you wonder if B.C. is some tin-pot dictatorship in Central America or Africa, but no: this is supposedly beautiful British Columbia.
Yes the landscapes are awesome, and the natural resources are still great albeit threatened, but the politics stink, and the incumbent provincial government is showing no signs of wanting to do a genuine cleanup.
The cynicism in its latest budget proves that is true.
So will Christy Clark admit that her regime has been a disastrous grand deceit and repent before the next election? Or will she suddenly resign like Gordon Campbell and Bill Bennett did before they were likely to be defeated and let someone else with cleaner hands and a fresher image take over?
Or will she push forward with bravado, chutzpah and a many-million-dollars-worth media campaign using taxpayer dollars that will snow the voters once again and condemn B.C. to four more years of bad government?
We'll see. Other politicians have resigned for less disgraces. And we didn't even mention the many peccadilloes involving her various present and former aides.
--------------------
One hand giveth...
Feb. 22, 2016
By
Dermod Travis
Petty.
One word that springs to mind after last week's B.C. budget.
At
best, it's a lip service budget. Tweak here, tweak there, but devoid
of any real purpose.
To
be sure, some were tossed a chicken wing.
But
you can almost hear the minions in the backroom: “just make sure it
doesn't cost us anything, the rubes will never catch on.”
Make
believe money for the most hurting. One minute it's there, then poof.
After
the canned budgetary spin, there's a host of other insights worth
sharing from last week's fiscal plan.
Since
2010/11 – Premier Christy Clark's inheritance year – total
government revenue is up $7.4 billion or 18.15 per cent, nearly twice
the rate of inflation. Average weekly earnings in B.C. are up 11.4
per cent.
In
the “other revenue” category – things such as tuition fees and
motor vehicle licences – the government has pencilled in $3.4
billion, an increase of $793 million over 2010/11 or $170 more per
capita.
Six-years
ago, B.C. Hydro coughed up $591 million. In 2016/17, $692 million or
$52 more per household.
In
2001, the B.C. Liberal party promised to “stop the expansion of
gambling that has increased gambling addiction and put new strains on
families.”
That
was back when provincial revenue from the B.C. Lottery Corporation
was $444 million. This year: $1.2 billion.
In
the white elephant department: the Transportation Investment
Corporation (TIC) continues to bleed red ink. TIC operates the Port
Mann bridge and not particularly well.
Its
losses have overshot forecasts by 67 per cent and now total $442
million. They're estimated at a further $207 million for 2017 and
2018.
All
in, that's enough to buy three fast ferries.
How
one government's boondoggle excuses another government's boondoggle
remains a mystery to this day.
TIC's
debt stands at $3.4 billion, more than the government's original $3
billion estimate for the entire Gateway plan, which included a $300
million contingency fund.
And
the government is at it again.
The
opening bid on the proposed Massey Tunnel replacement is $3.5 billion
and that's for a bridge one-kilometer longer than the Port Mann.
They
say, practice makes perfect.
Not
all departments were left to scrounge petty cash.
In
the political spin department, the Communications and Public
Engagement Office's budget is up 43.3 per cent over 2010/11 to $37.9
million
Perhaps
health minister Dr. Terry Lake can explain that one to 82-year-old
Francis Flann who had to recover from cancer surgery in a homeless
shelter this month.
The office's overall budget isn't the only
thing that's gone up in the spin cycle.
In 2010/11, Gordon
Campbell’s press secretary made $80,153. Last year, Clark's took
home $108,655, a difference of 35.5 per cent.
Likely
wasn't a stress-free job in Campbell's final year either.
The
Ministry of Natural Gas Development is on track to spending $2.58
billion (2013/14 to 2018/19). Natural gas royalties are on track to
bring in $1.65 billion over the same period.
Prosperity,
B.C. is just around the bend.
On
January 1, MSP premiums rose 4.1 per cent. In the first 9 months of
2015, the average hourly wage in B.C. fell 5.0 per cent.
Even
with the government's so-called premium relief, total MSP premium
revenue is set to increase $124 million this year to $2.55 billion.
Back
in 2010/11, it brought in $1.79 billion.
Going
into the budget, 800,000 residents paid “no premiums at all,”
according to the government's talking point on the issue dating to
2011.
No
word yet on how many more won't be paying as a result of the
government's plan to reduce the impact of MSP premiums, while
increasing total revenue by $124 million over last year.
The
government did issue a news release last week targeting seniors with
the question “Medical Services Plan premium assistance: Do you
qualify?”
Here's
a wild idea: instead of a news release, how about getting information
to every senior in B.C. that qualifies? Revenue Canada can help in
that regard.
But then that might blow a hole in the budget.
One
company makes money out of B.C.'s health care system. Since 2010/11,
US-based MAXIMUS has billed the government $307 million to administer
MSP services.
Its
CEO – Richard Montoni – made $6.2 million US last year.
B.C.
may have some of Canada's lowest tax burdens for high-income earners,
not so much for the poor or middle-class.
According
to the budget, a single individual earning $80,000 in B.C. pays
$7,828 in provincial taxes. In Alberta, they would pay $8,106,
Ontario ($12,354) and Quebec ($19,911).
A two-income family of four
earning $30,000 in B.C. pays $2,687. In Alberta, it would be $871,
Ontario ($2,381) and Quebec ($650).
God
help them if they get a $1 raise, because the full MSP hit will
kick-in.
Like
any government that just increased the budget for its
communications's office, it's expected they'll do inter-provincial
tax comparisons most favourable to their political spin. Other
provinces do the same.
So
let's see how B.C. stacks up in Manitoba's analysis.
A
single-parent earning $30,000 would have paid $802 in provincial
taxes last year in B.C. In Alberta, they would have received $329
from the government, in Ontario paid $31 and in Quebec they'd get
back $2,071.
A
two-income family of five earning $75,000 would have paid $4,409 in
B.C., Alberta ($460), Ontario ($3,577) and Quebec ($7,161).
At
least British Columbians can take comfort in the knowledge that
there's $100 million sitting doing nothing in B.C.'s newfangled
Prosperity Fund.
Back
in 2013, when the idea was announced, Clark's advisor –
Pamela Martin – tweeted: "what would you do with a trillion
dollars? A Once-in-a-generation bonanza (sic).”
Only
$999 billion, 900 million more to find out.
----------
How the Premier's Office Buried a Scandal on Federal Election Day
Clark's office pushed to release response to young woman's death on day of vote.
When the B.C. government
released its response to a damning report on the death of a young woman
who grew up in government care on federal election day, it was clear
someone wanted the news buried.
The Tyee has learned the direction came
from the premier's office, which overruled ministry communications staff
who wanted to release the report before or after election day.Children and Youth Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond's report on the life and death of Paige Gauchier shocked British Columbians. The title -- "Paige's Story: Abuse, Indifference and a Young Life Discarded" -- summed up her scathing findings.
full version at http://thetyee.ca/News/2016/02/23/BC-Premier-Office-Buried-Scandal/
-
Horgan Responds to Child Ministry's Election Day Announcement
NDP leader welcomes improvements to at-risk youth care, questions timing.
-
BC Gov't Plan to Improve Child Services 'Huge': Watchdog
Ministry responds to scathing report on death of 19-year-old Paige.
-
Paige's Story: Who Checks In When Students Check Out?
Children's watchdog finds BC school attendance policies lack teeth.
- Read more: BC Politics
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