Monday, January 05, 2015

This Day In Clarkland...Transport Minister's Casablanca Moment.

PlayItAgain(AndAgainAndAgainAndAgain)
SamVille


Apparently, Ms. Clark's Transportation minister, Mr. Todd Stone, is shocked, shocked I tell you, that there is bad management going on at BC Ferries.

Rob Shaw of the VSun has the non-story story. Here's his lede:

B.C.’s transportation minister says he’s frustrated with the slow pace of change within BC Ferries and says the corporation should look at cutting back on managers and free rides for employees before it looks for increased government subsidies and higher fares...


Hmmmmmm.....

And who foisted the quasi-private, management-heavy structure on we, the people, that we, the same people, are paying for in every way imaginable, including yet another 4% fee hike to come this year as well?

Well...

I'm pretty sure that Rich Coleman and/or Sean Leslie or some such luminary will soon tell us that the Dippers made them do it.

And I'm even more pretty surer that the Ledgie Boys will then weigh-in with sage advice about how the Knotty Gordians had to do 'something' because the pre-Hahn subsidy for actual ships and crews 'n things had just gotten too darned large and, besides, people who live on islands shouldn't be getting stuff for free.

Or some such thing.

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Meanwhile, speaking of further fare increases and the damage they do, here is what Mr. Shaw of the Sun says our fine Premier had to say about that:

...Fares are “about as high as they can get without really impacting ridership,” said Premier Christy Clark...

Uhhhh.

Actually.

We passed that point a long, long time ago.

Which once again demonstrates just how challenging actual reality can actually be for our fine Premier, particularly as it pertains to things that actually matter to the actual citizenry.

Sheesh.



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You want actual numbers and graphs and stuff to demonstrate how divorced from reality Ms. Clark is on this issue?....Norm Farrell's got 'em...
And we're pretty sure Chris Montgomery might have something to say about this too...


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11 comments:

paul said...

Two thoughts.
David Hahn´s strategy, backed by the board, has now been shown to have been a total failure by any business measure.
And it´s interesting that while Stone is complaining about ferry spending, expenses at the corporation have actually increased less in the least three years than operating expenses in his ministry. (That´s 6.3 per cent for ferries, 7.0 per cent for Transportation Ministry.)

Norm Farrell said...

RossK, thanks for the link to Northern Insight. It caused me to reread the 8-month-old item and that resulted in a smile of appreciation for some of the comments.

I expect we are not too far from the next Cabinet Shuffle so I'm going to suggest to Premier Proxy that she take inspiration from George Orwell and combine all the economic ministries, along with control of natural gas, forests, mines, bridge building, road tolling, liquor sales, etc., into a new Ministry of Plenty.

The obvious leader is the guy that I call the Minister of Graft and Corruption.

BTW, anyone who reads the linked Northern Insight article should be sure to read the comments.

Anonymous said...

Why are inland Ferries free ? We know the Federal contribution is because they consider Ferries part of the Trans Canada... but why are inland Ferries Free. With respect to an earlier comment on David Hahn... must of us already knew he was out of his league... his previous position in the USA proved that. But he was a Liberal puppet who is laughing all the way to the bank. While BC Ferries was losing customers and increasing it's fares... the good old David Hahn figured it was a smart move to invest 25 million dollars into real estate with the Jawl family. All that did was help a big Liberal supporter with a comfortable cushion to build another revenue stream. The same Jawl family purchased the od Fort Street BC Ferries building... threw some paint on it... and like magic... the government needed more office space. It never ends does it ?

Guy in Victoria

Anonymous said...

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/just-one-in-three-approve-of-b-c-premier-s-performance-poll-1.2150070

e.a.f. said...

what is so entertaining is they keep referring to free rides for unionized ferry workers, right as if that is the problem, but trust me that is what people will remember.\

The "re-structuring" of b.c. ferries was el gordo's idea to hide a few things. it worked for him, not so much for us.

if Tod can't get that bunch of idiots at B.C. Ferries to do their job, he could have them fired, or wait, get rid of the board of directors, who are all lieberal appointees. Perhaps Tod ought to have a look at what they are paid, oh, wait, that can't happen because those appointees also donate to the b.c. lieberals.

North Van's Grumps said...

Why are BC Ferries Free?

Is highway to blames for ferry hikes

Queen of Surrey was sold to help pay the Ministry of Highways for the purchase of the Inland Ferry routes Fares for BC Ferry, No Fares for Inland Ferries

John's Aghast said...

Lease it to Washington State!
For 999 years?
Make sure you retain ownership of the seabed though.

Anonymous said...

graft?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graft_%28politics%29

RossK said...

Paul--

Those are a couple of pretty important inconvenient truths you raise...Did not know that about the differential rate of increase in Op Expenses, most interesting.

And just who, exactly, installed that that board that backed the golden parachutist?

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Norm--

That would be one helluva catch for that particular minister, that 22 ministries ministry.

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Guy--

Doling out real estate loans....Now that's a fine idea for a ferry 'company' no?

btw, didn't Norm write about that too?

Why yes, indeedy, he most surely .....Did.

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e.a.f.--

Deal with it through the board?

Now that's an idea.

So novel/crazy/radical, of course, that it would appear that the fine folks from the VSun didn't even bother to think to put it to the good Mr. Stone.

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NVG--

Excellent catch (as per usual)!


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John's A--

Oh man...I'm still laughing....This will be fronted.


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Anonymous said...

After the way the gentry on the coast who use these ferries pissed and moaned about the fast ferries and not being able to get french fries on board most people in the interior could care less if ferry users are forced to swim across to Victoria or where ever.

Anonymous said...

http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.ca/2015/01/caution.html