AndMattersVille
Here it is, written by Ray Blessin and published by Kamloops This Week:
An open letter to Kamloops MLAs Todd Stone and Terry Lake:
As British Columbians, we are some of the most fortunate people in the world.
We share the riches of abundant natural resources and public services, which derive from the taxes we pay.
We also expect private corporations that extract these public resources should pay a fair share of the value of those resources in the taxes they pay.
However, a comparison of the value of the resources extracted in 2001 with those extracted in 2012 — and the related tax revenues — exposes an alarming trend about which we should be very concerned.
First, let’s take a look at the increases in just three resource-based production values in this province:
• In 2001, the value of coal production was $959 million. By 2012, it had grown to $5.06 billion, an increase of 527 per cent.
• The value of metals production in 2001 was $1.39 billion. In 2012, it was $2.45 billion, an increase of 76 per cent.
• The value of industrial minerals in 2001 was $296 million. That had increased to $472 million in 2012, an increase of 60 per cent.
This represents a huge increase in corporate revenue over the last 10 years or so.
In comparison, if we look at the total B.C. natural-resource tax revenue in 2001, we see it was about $4.2 billion. In 2013, that figure had declined to about $2.5 billion.
Looking at natural resources produced in B.C., we find the provincial share of market value has declined from a steady 35 per cent some years ago to about 15 per cent in the last two years, a stark contrast to the huge gains made by private, resource-based corporate interests.
Can Stone and Lake help the folks in Kamloops understand this apparent anomaly?
Can they also advise voters as to whether or not private resource-based corporations have made tax-deductible contributions to political parties in B.C.?
Ray Blessin
Kamloops
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And those graphs at the top of the post?...From the VSun?...the Globe?....the Financial Post?...Michael Campbell?...British Columbians For Prosperity?....Of course not...Instead they are the work (and the result of the digging) of Norman Farrell.
And what did happen to that Progress Board anyway?
The point of all this?..... Well....We don't have to wait for 2046 for the fake Sparkle Ponies to arrive...The real ones are right here, right now...All we have to do is stop giving them away to the cronies for free.
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7 comments:
This should be on the headline of every place that it can be because you wont find it on ANY mainstream media so pass it on and post anywhere you can.
I guess the liars oops I mean the Liberals want to sell off ALL the so called "surplus government assets" to their friends so they can claim to be "balancing Budgets" before EVER thinking of raising royalty's on the STRING PULLERS.
I don't like that the graphs cover different time periods --> not NF's usual quality.
The graph graphics (sorry) would have made an effective election advertisement for the NDP in 2013. Instead the NDP took the advice of a hired expert who just happened to be partners in a consulting firm with the Premier’s ex Chief of Staff and the “Guy” running her election team, and cast Adrian Dix as the quintessential pussy.
What could possibly go wrong, right?
I probably ought to know who Ray is but I don't. I am proud to have him as a reader however. Too bad the voters of this province prefer BS and free rides on the Skytrain for the rich over the hard numbers that infer we are all getting robbed like drunk loggers in a Saturday night gutter.
Anon-At-The-Top--
Agreed.
Given, however, that it is not one would be remiss if one didn't ask the question 'Why not'?
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Anon-The-Second--
They also want to make sure you don't know that it's happening.
Thus the killing off of the pretty independent Progress Board (which was a GCampbell invention btw) and the institution of a usual suspects lackey group.
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Anon-At-The-Third--
I think thouest quibble too much.
If you don't like the slightly differing overhangs cut both off at 2000-2012 and the story told is exactly the same.
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Lew--
Yes.
And Ian Reid took Mr. Topp to task for that.
The response Ian received, by way of comments was most interesting.
My opinion...A very different fellow is in charge now...And the team he puts together, and the message he uses, will likely be very different next time around.
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Beer--
But here's the thing...
The average voter, especially he/she that wants to do the right thing, regardless ideology, doesn't have the time/patience/inclination to dig around to find these hard numbers, especially when there is an entire flack-hackery dedicated to burying them.
Thus, they never see them, especially if the puffed-up-punditry who are beholden to the flack-hackery for their next bit of 'access' to juicy stories never print/trumpet them.
And if well meaning average voters don't see those hard numbers, and instead always hear how much worse the hard numbers were in the decade before the period shown in Norm's graphs (which they WERE NOT)...
Well...
I think it is hard to blame said voters.
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Sorry for the sloppy drums commenting above...In a rush...There's buskateering to do on this fine Sunday afternoon.
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