Thursday, January 10, 2013

The AG Firing Fiasco ctd...Who Left Mr. Foster Twisting In The Wind?

OnACalmDaySpinmeisters
CanSeeForeverVille


Yesterday we wondered why backbench MLA Mr. Eric Foster was left to crank his own Wurlitzer with nary a peep from any other BC Liberals (or the disappeared Premier) over the potential conflict of interest flap regarding the apparent firing of AG John Doyle.

And  now, well, there's this, from Les Leyne in today's VT-C:

Liberal MLA Eric Foster is clear on one point — he had no idea while sitting in judgment on auditor general John Doyle’s fate that Doyle’s team had rapped his office earlier for not submitting receipts for a constituency-office renovation...

{snippety doo-dah}

...A $78,000 bill was submitted for payment by the legislature with only a spreadsheet showing $67,000 in expenses. The lesser amount was paid, on orders from Speaker Bill Barisoff, which the audit considered a departure from standard policy.

That issue was spelled out in a report that has apparently been circulating for some time between the auditor general and the legislature.

It was obtained this week by the Times Colonist. When Foster was asked about it, he explicitly denied any knowledge of the accounting matter.

“I haven’t seen that letter. Isn’t that interesting?

“I never saw that letter ... That has never been raised with me ... I’ve never seen that.”...



Mr. Foster never saw the letter?

Hmmmm....

Isn't that interesting, now that he is the poor fellow taking all the flack and the (not) Premier's name is nowhere to be seen or heard on the matter of the actual apparent firing of an AG that was looking into all manner of matters involving both her government and, potentially, her?


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On the actual potential conflict point, to me it does not matter if Mr. Foster was exonerated by Mr. Fraser over the matter of the actual renovations that were done on his office in a building owned by his CA's family....Why? Well,  just the fact that this matter was raised by Mr. Doyle and that Mr. Foster definitely knew about it and had to respond to it should have been enough for him to have been asked by his conscience and, more importantly his Party, to step down as chair of the committee that sat in judgement of the AG...OK?

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13 comments:

Anonymous said...

According to poster Alpha_Bear on AGT's blog this is the city of Vernon's site for building permits -- https://ecommerce.vernon.ca/TempestLive/webinquiry/reports/permitissueentry.cfm?functionname=PERMITISSU -- the site is down for the moment for a scheduled update and should be available later today ("reactivated mid morning").

Alpha_Bear writes that he could not find any permits. So, $78,000 in renovations on the tiny office building and allegedly no permits?

just... WOW!

Ian said...

There are a lot of things that make you go 'hmmm' to this one.

On who's going to carry the can it seems to me there are two possible scenarios at play:

1. Foster is being hung out to dry - plausible but done so ineptly as to be unsustainable.

2. Chaos. A government with no centre and no plan, which would mean a very scary next three months.

Then there is a a combination of the two, which means a botched number 1 headed for something very weird and twisted.

In fact, as I write it, I think that's where we're at.

Anonymous said...

VernonBlog - June 05, 2009
http://vernonblog.blogspot.ca/2009/06/new-mla-seeks-new-office.html

"Foster will retain the same two staff members that former Liberal MLA Tom Christensen had, including Min Sidhu as his constituency assistant, but says he won't be using the same Vernon office. Foster says he wants to find a downtown site that's on the ground level, with no stairs."It (would be) a little more accessible to people. That's the only reason. " Christensen's office has been in the Sun Valley Mall on 30 Avenue."

Anonymous said...

A bill for $79,000 was submitted with a spreadsheet of $68,000 for expenses. So why was the $11,000 not approved and what was it for. Filling out the form charge, perhaps.

Anonymous said...

Who is Min Sidhu ?

Besides being BC Liberal Vernon-Monashee MLA Eric Foster's constituency assistant.

http://www.vernonmorningstar.com/community/122365049.html

http://www.vwib.com/component/content/article/15-woman-of-the-year/135-min-sidhu-2011-woman-of-the-year.html

and for completeness: Vernon's Sun Valley Mall site -- http://sunvalleymall.ca

Bella Vista Farm Market does not seem to have site.

North Van's Grumps said...


Before the Auditor General leaves, there's one more "venue" to cover:

Conflict of Interest Office

RossK said...

Ian--

I'm at the same place...And, despite the fact that I am much more naive about these things than you, I could smell something weird and twisted coming as soon as I read Mr. Willcocks post yesterday morning.

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NVG--

Very, very good point.

But, in this specific instance, as I wrote in the post-script to the post the ruling by COI guy Fraser does not matter...Even with that ruling it is my opinion that Mr. Foster should NOT have been chair of the committee that decided the AG's fate...So, why didn't the Premier step in and make sure that was the case months ago?

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Anon-O-Folks--

Thanks very, very much for the additional info...

Anonymous said...

There's more..Leyne's piece this am claims sources saying receipts were produced after the AuG expressed his concern..Those receipts would have to originate with a request to Foster's office. Unless I'm missing something, I simply don't believe Fosters claims of ignorance. - Merv

RossK said...

My gosh.

Excellent point Merv.

I guess you could, perhaps argue about the timing...But didn't the AG selection committee do their thing pretty darned recently?

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Grant G said...

Forget about Eric Foster, he`s a bit player..

Why is no one talking or asking questions of the "fixer"

Who ruled against the NDP over and over again..He ruled the NDP could NOT ask questions in a special emergency session in our legislature(The Vancouver city request to raise their borrowing limit to pay off Fortress hedge fund)..No questions were allowed to be asked..

Who circumvented the nominating rules for the Order of BC award?...Which resulted in Gordo receiving the coveted award..

Who was Gordon Campbell`s room mate when the legislature was sitting?

Who was chided by the Auditor general in 2009 and ordered to "fix" the accounting mess within the legislature?

Who was the person charged with fixing that problem?

Who "fixed" Eric Foster`s auditor general problem.

Who indeed..

Bill Barisoff..The speaker, a speaker who never once ruled in the NDP`s favour..

A speaker who permitted the BC Liberals members to stay silent, and defended those MLAs who said..

"no comment, it`s before the courts"...Bill Barisoff allowed the scope of non-answers to cover everything from Pat Kinsella, BC Rail executives, fairness commission, RCMP, judges, legal appointments, land deals, Ken Dobell.

And here the media are blowing it again..

Barisoff fixed Eric Foster`s accounting problem.

Really simple, someone ask Bill Barisoff why/how he fixed Foster`s problem, and when, and if he brought the issue to Foster or did Barisoff fix it behind the scenes..

This story might shed more light on Barisoff.


http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2012/12/neocon-christmas-treasons-greetings.html

RossK said...

Excellent point well taken Grant.

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e.a.f. said...

Mr. Foster is being left on his own because the rest of the lieberals hope the public/media will focus on him & not the rest of them. While they are focusing on Mr. Foster, they won't be focusing on the "firing" of Mr. Doyle.

the lieberals are such a bunch of crooks. The current Auditor General will be "fired" & Eric Foster will continue in his position unless of course the lieberals have someone they want to parachute into his riding.

RossK said...

eaf--

Based on how this is going, 48 hours later, it is hard to argue with the analysis you offer in your first paragraph.

Thanks.

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