My Three Responses To The News About BC Ferries' Million Dollar Baby

I'llSeeYour200CutsToSocialServices
AndRaiseYouOneCEOVille


So.....

As reported by Paul Willcocks, Mr. David Hahn, the man who, in my opinion, is running BC Ferries into the ground to make it an attractive takeover target, is himself now making, all told, over one million dollars per annum to do so.

Which has so far generated three responses that have burbled up from deep within my hindbrain.

Outrage: Pure outrage. There is no other way to describe it, especially when Finance Minister Colin Hansen has been running running around telling anyone who will listen how hard he is working to cut the hearts out of small social service providers in this province at $5,000 a pop.

Wonder: As in......If this is what the fully-lackeyized Board of BC Ferries has given Mr. Hahn as annual compensation behind closed doors, what the hell is his coming golden parachute going to add up to?......Two million?.......Four?.......Heckfire!.....Why not Ten?.....

Curiousity: This one came last, when I finally calmed down and stopped yelling and screaming for the chief steward to check the man's pockets for gold-plated cotter pins..... And, truth be told, it only bubbled to the surface when I took a closer look at Mr. Willcocks' report and noticed that this 'item' was originally floated by Mr. Jordan Batemen, blogger, highly successful astroturf layer, and Langley Councilperson who also just happens to be in tight with Mr. Rich Coleman.....Which is why I can't help but wonder if this is actually the first salvo from the Red-Meat Faction signaling their intention to put the LINO back in the BC Liberal party for real this time around...


OK?


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The cuts to social services thing really sticks in my craw.....Especially in the face of million dollar salaries paid for with double-dipped deficit financing and fare increases/reservation fees/fuel surcharges....Why?.....Because back in the era of the 9 figure CareNet debacle I was forced to watch, up close and personal, the same kind of 'Cut-The-Heart-Out-Of-The-Little-Guy' approach literally kill a small, extremely efficient non-profit that really did help people (and would never have made any money for a large, centralized corporation).....And here's the thing.....When we realized that we were in a deficit because of the thousand tiny cuts, we couldn't just jack up our reservation fees and/or go back through the back door to get more money from the government by running our capital costs through the roof by, say, flying in a couple of dozen summer camp staffers from Germany, our board shut things down because we decided it would be immoral to pay our one single solitary full-time staffer less than $20,000 annually to keep the thing afloat....This is how insane all this codswallop is.

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