Premier Christy Clark & the BC Liberals are both toast - so what happens now? (Thread #3)

On Tuesday, Conflict of Interest Commissioner of British Columbia, Paul Fraser, "after giving much consideration to the perception issue", announced he would recuse himself from reviewing Premier Clark's conflict of interest case involving the sale of BC Rail because his son was more than 20 year friend of the Premier, had worked for husband who had been involved in the BC Rail sale. The son now works as a senior advisor to the Premier. Why it would take so much consideration to recuse himself from the case and only occur after enormous public pressure, is something that baffles everyone else. This is even more baffling when it is acknowledged that BC has the toughest conflict of interest legislation in the country and it clearly includes apparent conflcts of interest. Fraser has already found Premier Clark had no conflict of interest in two other cases he reviewed. Surprise, surprise!

He assured BCers that "My initial public comments emphasized my ability to undertake this matter without any lack of impartiality in fact,' he said in a statement released by his office shortly before noon. 'I stand by that.' " Such apparent impartiality!

"Fraser has handed over this case to 'Gerald Gerrand, currently the conflict commissioner for the Northwest Territories, and before that, a 10-year veteran of the office in Saskatchewan. Gerrand, acting via Fraser’s commitment to transmit his decisions without interference, can be expected to conduct a preliminary investigation of the complaint, then decide whether to dismiss or elevate it to a full-blown inquiry. He is by all accounts an able, experienced and worthy choice for the assignment. But he’ll be entering into unexplored territory in at least one respect, for in my reading of the legislation, neither Saskatchewan nor the Northwest Territories makes it an offence for a politician to be in an 'apparent conflict of interest' as well as an actual one. And one can only wish an outsider much patience and clarity of thought in separating the plausible from the implausible in the BC Rail case, a scandal like no other in terms of complexities as well as absurdities.' "

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vaughn+Palmer+Conflict+commissioner+dec...

The BC Liberals are now starting to imitate the BC Conservatives in their civil war infighting tendencies. BC Deputy Premier Rich Coleman persuaded Darryl Plecas, a criminologist and former government advisor, to run as a 'star' candidate in the Bible Belt riding of Abbotsford South, currently held by former Liberal cabinet minister John van Dongen, who quit the party to join the Conservatives over the BC Rail scandal, only to quit the Conservatives to sit as an Independent because he could not get along with Conservative leader, John Cummins. All of this may result in the NDP winning one of the ridings it normally has the least chance of winning.Plecas was quickly acclaimed as the Liberal candidate without signing up any members or doing any campaigning in Abbotsford South.

"He had not even met with the riding executive as a courtesy. Still he was to be acclaimed. Party headquarters said so. Then came Tuesday of this week and the resignation of pretty much the entire constituency executive, protesting what they saw as headquarters freezing out their preferred candidate, Moe Gill. Gill is a 16-year veteran of Abbotsford city council and the first Indo-Canadian elected to local government in the Fraser Valley. He’s made no secret of his interest in securing the Liberal nomination in Abbotsford South, even back when van Dongen was still a member. When the incumbent MLA quit the party in March, Gill seized the opportunity to win control of the riding, via the annual election for the executive board. ... But other Liberals had their doubts about Gill. He’d barely won re-election in his last run for council. He’d also run for the federal Liberals in 2004, finishing a distant second. They fretted that he’d alienate supporters of the federal Conservatives, clearing the way for van Dongen to win re-election as an independent."

Coleman persuaded Gill to run in a neighbouring riding but Gill quickly discovered there were already two candidates running there who had built up a large following. He therefore balked at running there and insisted on having a chance to run in Abbotsford South. No chance said the BC Liberals.

"Thus did Gill and his team discover the rough side of Liberal party politics. 'We will exact our revenge,' Evans (Gill's riding president ally) told me. In the next election? 'Just watch us,' he replied.

And thus did Plecas get his baptism in the political arena. Come the election, the rookie Liberal candidate will be challenged from all directions. Van Dongen. The Conservatives. Maybe Gill. And laughing in the midst of it all, Lakhvinder Jhaj, already nominated to run for the New Democrats. Last time out, her party finished second with 26 per cent of the vote. If she can improve on that by a few points, in a four- or five-way race, it could be enough to win."

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Vaughn+Palmer+criminologist+rough+side+...

A Dix government will have to tackle the growing 'temporary' foreign worker problem in the province created by the BC Liberals in cooperation with the federal Conservatives. 

B.C. Jobs Minister Pat Bell has been a strong supporter of HD International Mining's  plan to use 'temporary' foreign workers at their mine near Tumbler Ridge, BC. He said these temporary jobs would last only six to eight months and involved exploration work related to the mine. 

However, when two unions, supported by the BC Federation of Labour, provided company documents showing the firm planned to hire no Canadians for more than four years and then only at a rate of 10% of the workforce for an additional ten years, Bell would not make himself available for an interview. Instead, he released a written statement that ignored this question and said only that the latest court released documents show the firm made extensive efforts to meet provincial workplace safety rules.  (http://www.canada.com/business/resources/Canadians%2Bshut%2Bjobs%2Bmine%...)

A CBC video shows that Canadian firms are illegally demanding payments from Chinese workers to get these jobs and are using Chinese recruiting brokers, who themselves illegally demand additional payments. Chinese workers are told the jobs are not less than $10 an hour (which is not allowed, as it well under the 15% below the standard Canadian wage for the occupation minimum in temporary foreign worker agreements). They are also told they must pay "over $16,000" to their employer and the brokers to get the job. Furthermore, job ads clearly state that Mandarin is a job requirement for the jobs in Canada. No wonder the 97 Canadians who were selected from a larger group of applicants were all found to lack the skills to work at the mine.   (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2012/12/10/chinese-...)

 We need both the BC and federal governments that support a living wage for workers and ensure Canadians have a fair shot at a job.  

In the meantime a new report highlights how Christy the Clown's government policies have left BC women in poverty.  The report highlights the outrageous treatment of women working in health care who belonged to HEU. 

This misogynist government did not bother much with a serial killer because it was only native women who might have been prostitutes and at the same time they attacked the pay and benefits of women hospital workers while calling them over paid toilet bowel cleaners. 

Quote:

Women who work in B.C. are earning comparably less than women in the rest of Canada and public policy is to blame, says a new report.

One person who may pay a big price for that is Premier Christy Clark, says the Simon Fraser University professor who authored the findings.

Economist Marjorie Griffin Cohen's report, just published by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, compared earnings of all females in B.C., including full-time, part-time, and part-year workers with the Canadian average of that group.

"BC Disadvantage for Women: Earnings Compared with Other Women in Canada" also compares women's wages to men's in B.C. and in Canada and then discusses the ways in which B.C. has lagged in its support for working women, including:

• Through the B.C. Health and Social Services Delivery Improvement Act in 2002, 8,000 health care workers who did cleaning, food preparation, laundry and other hospital work lost their jobs. The majority of these workers were women. Private multinational companies took over and rehired some, but the wages dropped from about $17.50 per hour to as low as $10.00 per hour. Women hold most of the low-wage positions in B.C., either at or near minimum wage.

http://thetyee.ca/Blogs/TheHook/Rights-Justice/2012/12/17/BC-Disadvantag...

In other provincial news, the new Port Mann bridge turns out to be unusable in the winter. Snow on the cables above the bridge started to coalesce into hard globs of ice-slush when it started to rain in the afternoon. Dozens of cars were damaged by "slush bombs". One motorist was even knocked unconscious.

http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Port+Mann+Bridge+reopens+after+sl...

Joke's on them, after blowing such a huge wad of cash on car infrastructure while starving the transit authority.

The BC Liberals are being criticized for planning to spend $500,000 on job fairs in addition to the $1.18 million already spent in the last four months in the lead up to the provincial election in May 2013 because "it also lets the government spend taxpayer dollars to promote its B.C. Jobs Plan - a document Premier Christy Clark has said is central to her re-election campaign". 

Even Jordan Bateman, B.C. director of the right-wing Canadian Taxpayers Federation, has criticized this saying,  "We think these jobs fairs have been a ridiculous waste of money. It's electioneering, pure and simple. What they are doing here is the government is trying to create a narrative where they are creating an economy where jobs are number 1. Really, they are just trying to buy our votes with our own money."

NDP critic John Horgan noted that "When I look at the time frame, it's clearly to expand the pre-election advertising that [the Liberals] have been doing for the jobs plan, and moving that closer to election day. Another half a million dollars to promote the B.C. Liberals, not to provide good government. Clearly, this is a government [whose] priorities are in the wrong place,". He thinks the government will use part of its contingency fund, normally reserved for emergencies, to pay for the project. 

http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Critics+slam+Liberal+spending+fairs...

This morning te Tyee published this little piece setting out the cost to the taxpayer for her last fundraising trip to Alberta. Cute since she was at it again last night.  Of course the oil and gas industry prefer the BC Liberals because she has said she wants BC to become an even larger exporter of carbon than Alberta.  Climate change whats that? At least she is leaving no doubt as to who's pocket shes in.

Quote:

When Premier Christy Clark and aides flew to Calgary on Oct. 1, 2012 for her "frosty" 15-minute meeting about the Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline with Alberta's Premier Alison Redford, the airfare was just under $10,000 and British Columbians picked up the bill.

It wasn't a futile trip by any means. Clark had other business to tend in the Stampede City. She was the featured attraction at an evening fundraiser for the BC Liberals in the Calgary Petroleum Club, hosted by Murray Edwards, the billionaire tarsands tycoon who chairs Canadian Natural Resources and is a a part-owner of the Calgary Flames. She also gave a speech the next day to university students.

When asked by reporter about the fundraiser, Clark said: "Well, I had a private dinner when I was in Alberta but I will say this -- there are a lot of people in Alberta who have made big investments in British Columbia."

The event was conveniently sandwiched between government business and taxpayers were charged $9,800 for the London Air Services charter jet and crew.

Clark prefers to fly in style. Between her March 14, 2011 swearing-in through Oct. 5, 2012, records obtained via Freedom of Information show Clark and company embarked on 37 charter jet trips worth $254,299.68.

http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/01/18/Christy-Clark-Flights/

One area that cries out for change when a NDP government is elected in May is child care which is closely tied to childhood poverty. In fact child care advocates now see the situation as so bad they are raising their concerns with the UN.

"Frustrated with a lack of development on provincial and national childcare programs, advocates are taking their concerns above the British Columbian and Canadian governments and going straight to the United Nations.

In a confidential meeting today in Geneva, Susan Harney and Lynell Anderson of the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC (CCCABC) will join a number of Canadian children's advocates making presentations to the UN working group on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, which Canada signed in 1990. Other Canadian advocates presenting to the working group include Cindy Blackstock, head of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society, representatives from UNICEF Canada, the Coalition on the Rights of Children and Youth, and Council of Provincial Child and Youth Advocates, and a delegation of Canadian youth.

Focusing mainly on childcare and child poverty, Harney and Anderson will speak specifically to the CCCABC's report "A Tale of Two Canadas," disputing the government's assertion it's meeting the convention's standards in this area.

"Canada in a number of United Nations reports in terms of childcare and early childhood has come out last among the most wealthy countries of the world. We spend less than even countries like Mexico, as part of our GDP, on programs for children," Susan Harney told The Tyee last week before she left for Geneva. ...

Although Harney says the UN is supposed to review each signatory to the treaty every "four or five" years, it's been 10 years since Canada's last review. In anticipation, the Canadian government released their third and fourth reports on Canada's adherence to the convention in 2009, highlighting accomplishments such as a decrease in the number of children in low-income households to 865,000 children under 18 years in 2004 from 1.3 million in 1996; the establishment of independent commissioners for children and youth in most provinces and territories; and increases in child benefits such as the National Child Benefit Supplement and the Child Disability Benefit, to name a few.

For B.C. in particular, the report highlights the creation of the Representative of Children and Youth's Office, and the Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons; ongoing funding of the BC Federation of Youth in Care Networks, a non-profit organization that provides support and services to youth in or recently out of government care; an increase in social assistance rates; and government's investment of $1,000 into the Children's Education Fund for post-secondary education for every child born since 2007.

But Harney says it's not enough, and points out that many of B.C.'s child and family policies are counterintuitive, citing an example she heard at a recent child poverty panel about a mother who lost her son because she can't find a suitable apartment while on welfare.

"It's one of those stories so true, and so sad, and could be so simple: the family that's looking for decent housing and can't get it on welfare rates, so the child is taken away, and then more money than would have taken to put this child in decent housing is used to put the child in care," she says.

Harney says the government of British Columbia needs to look at raising the minimum wage and income assistance rates, as well as creating quality childcare spaces. "We're beyond the debate of should women be working or not, it's all right to work and we need to feed our families, but we can't do that properly if we don't have childcare," she says.

The B.C. government has made some moves on CCCABC's recommendations already: the minimum wage will increase to $10.25 in May, full-day kindergarten has been implemented province-wide, and the province's Strong Start childcare programs has grown to 326 locations B.C.-wide.

But Premier Christy Clark told Vaughn Palmer on Voice of B.C. last fall that the province couldn't afford to raise income assistance rates, which sit at $1,036 a month for a single parent with two kids.

Strong Start programs don't live up to the childcare dreams Harney has for B.C., either. The programs aren't full day and require a parent or guardian to be present with the child at all times, which is tough when parents are working full time. But it's not just about giving parents, particularly women, the opportunity to work.

"Having really strong early childhood programs, that has nothing to do with employment or family but gives the kids the best start, and allows them to have the really best foundation to be the best that they can be," says Harney, adding the years zero to six are the most important in a child's development.

"If the government says there's not very much money, is (Strong Start) the best way to spend the money?"

In the 2008 speech from the throne, the BC Liberal government announced a feasibility study of full-day kindergarten for four year-olds by 2010 and three year-olds by 2012. The study wascompleted in 2009, and indicates early childhood educators supported the idea, but costs could reach as high as $615 million per year for full-day kindergarten for three, four, and five year-olds, as opposed to $130 million for full day kindergarten for just five year-olds.

In an emailed statement from the ministry of education to The Tyee, the ministry said it "wants to see full-day kindergarten for five year-olds completely implemented before considering moving ahead with programs for four year-olds, and eventually three year-olds."

Although all schools in the province currently offer full-day kindergarten, beginning this past September, the ministry does not consider implementation to be complete until a full school year has been completed. The ministry did not provide timelines for the implementation of full-day kindergarten for three and four year-olds.

Data from the University of British Columbia's Human Early Learning Partnership (HELP) over the last 10 years has shown an increase in the vulnerability of children entering kindergarten to 31 per cent from 27 per cent when they first began collecting the data from kindergarten teachers across the province. The difference in vulnerability rates, broken down by neighbourhoods and small communities, is as much as 15 to 20 fold.

"This has happened every time out, four waves of data, in the lowest vulnerability neighbourhoods in the province, between three and six per cent of the kids are behind where we'd like them to be. And then it goes up, and up, and up until you get to the other end and it's running 55 to 70 per cent of the kids," Clyde Hertzman, director of HELP, told the End Child Poverty Now! Panel at Langara College on Jan. 25.

"And the principal driver of that, the strongest predictor, is in fact the family, social, and economic circumstances, driven predominantly by income characteristics. There are no neighbourhoods where there are 55-75 per cent of kids who are vulnerable going to school in affluent neighbourhoods, and there are no neighbourhoods with five to 12 per cent vulnerability in poor communities." ...

Harney says appealing to the UN is just one strategy in the CCCABC's plan to push for provincial and national childcare programs in Canada. But with neither government appearing to budge on their version of Canada's commitment to children, it's going to be a long battle."

http://thetyee.ca/News/2012/02/06/Child-Care-Advocates-in-Geneva/

Clearly without a major change in government policy on childcare and income distribution the number of children (and future adults) left in poverty and all the associated problems associated with this state will continue to haunt the people of this provinvce.

It's a BC political tradition to pit BC against the feds or other provinces. I'm sure fundraising in Alberta will come back to bite her.

And then there's this:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/01/25/bc-provi...

This Bollywood awards story just took a great new twist.  $11 million for a fake awards show.  We get to host this brand new extravaganza just before the election. Makes one wonder whether Basi or Virk have come out of retirement.

Quote:

Bell told me he received regular briefings from his staff during the negotiations with the IIFA. So I asked him if the government insisted on staging the awards before the election.

“There was discussion about a wide variety of dates,” he answered.

But did the government request a pre-election date? And did the IIFA say no?

“I wasn’t part of the direct negotiations, so I can’t comment on that,” Bell replied.

Not good enough for NDP critic Spencer Chandra Herbert.

“The Liberals got caught,” he said.

“When they couldn’t get the more prestigious IIFA awards right before the election, they invented a whole new Bollywood awards show for $11 million of taxpayers’ money.”

But Bell said the Times of India approached the government with the idea. And he said $11 million is a bargain compared to what the IIFA wanted for their awards.

So how much money did the government offer to the IIFA, and how much did IIFA demand?

“It wouldn’t be inappropriate to disclose that,” Bell said.

Joseph, the IIFA official, said the government offered “substantially less” than what it’s now paying to the Times of India. He suggested the government may have deliberately low-balled the offer after the IIFA refused to budge on the date.

http://www.vancouverdesi.com/bollywood/celebrity/political-posturing-cla...

The Auditor Generals Act makes it clear that the vote had to be unanimous to reappoint him.  Even if had been 4 to 1 for the NDP if the one was the jerk who said no the answer would still be no.

This highlights how out of control the government has become.  If Christy thought they would not pay a political price for this move then she and her advisers have little political smarts.  However it is just a telling if this was a rogue MLA doing their own thing. Either way her and her party are on the way out if this is the kinds of smarts they are displaying mere months before an election.

Liberals running attack ads - oh, I thought Liberals were against running attack ads. Here in Ontario, the libs talk with outrage that Harper and Con co. and/or PC Hudak run attack ads, and yet in BC, not a peep out of the agrieved lib camp. Oh, and yes I know that the BC Libs are made up of both Liberal and Conservatives, which just shows that they are made from the same cloth.

I agree with Boom Boom - to pull something from that long ago, and where Dix already said, he took responsibility is no smoking gun. It looks desperate.

It reminds me of the dying days of the federal May election 2011, when in Sun media it pops up that Jack Layton was found in a massage parlour when he was a city councilor.

It looked to have Liberal Kinsella hands written all over the "smear job". Again desparate and the voting public saw right through it for what is was.

Premier Dix is looking good.

NorthReport wrote:

This is a nice big fuck-you to the BC voters, eh Christy!

B.C. Liberal Sukh Dhaliwal faces tax-evasion charges 

Party announced candidacy of former MP Sukh Dhaliwal two weeks after charges sworn

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Liberal+Sukh+Dhaliwal+faces+evasion+cha...

Looks like Dhaliwal won't be running for the Liberals after all.

Strange!  He seemed to fit in with the B.C. Liberals perfectly.

And another Liberal bites the dust. Sukh Dhaliwal, former federal Liberal MP for Surrey-Newton-North Delta who was defeated by Jinny Sims in 2011, resigned Friday as the BC Liberal candidate in Surrey Panorama "over revelations he's facing charges under the Income Tax Act. ... Dhaliwal said he didn't know about the six charges, sworn on Oct. 15, until the end of November after he had already been named the candidate for Surrey-Panorama on Oct. 31, 2012. But he wouldn't answer questions about when he knew he was under investigation for missing corporate tax records or why he didn't go public sooner. ... Also on Friday, he suggested that others were behind the missing tax filings, though he has not named anyone else involved in Genco. Only he and his wife Roni are listed as directors on corporate records. ... Dhaliwal ducked several tough questions from reporters."

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Embattled+Dhaliwal+steps+down+Liberal+c...