Wednesday, May 11, 2016

This Day In Clarkland...A Place Where Monitoring Blogs Is More Important Than Overseeing Parks.

Priority
OneVille


About a year ago, when we learned that the average British Columbia family was going to be forced to spend even more for user fees to visit a provincial park, Mark Hume wrote a very important piece in the Globe.

One passage that caught my eye was the following:

...In 2001, there were 27 full-time park rangers in the province. Today there are 11, patrolling more than 13 million hectares between them.

Ministry of Environment documents released by the NDP last week show that there isn’t enough money to replace the aging infrastructure in parks or to hire adequate staff.

The documents state that with costs rising and the budget static for years, BC Parks has been “forced … to shorten operating seasons, eliminate park ranger positions, reduce preventive maintenance and implement other program cuts.”...



Why did this get my attention?

Because I wrote about the slow, decade-long strangling of the park ranger budget a long time ago, back in the last days of GordCo.

And, in so doing, I compared the miniscule number of full time park rangers left at the time (10) to the number of very fine folks workin' it in Mr. Campbell's 'Public Affair's Bureau' (223; affectionately known as PAB-Bots 'round these here parts back in the days of Railgate; the name has since changed 'Government Communications & Public Engagement').

Anyway.

Coming back to the present...


Despite this:



...Which was a recommendation of the Select Standing Committee On Finance And Government Services, an all party committee of the BC Legislature earlier this year, I doubt much has changed in Ranger land given that the Ministry of Environment (where Parks is housed) budget was flatlined in the latest budget:



But, so what if I'm wrong.

Because even if there was suddenly a 50% increase in full time Park Rangers there would only be 17 of them, which would still be way below pre-GordCo levels.

And it would also be below the number of very fine PAB-Botian folks, right here and right now, whose very specific job is to monitor the media, and that includes blogs, so that they can put little green (for Clarklandian favourable) or red (for Clarklandian unfavourable) squares beside the 'monitored' bits.

How do we know this is happening?

Because Laila discovered it yesterday and later confirmed, via Bob Mackin, that there are 18 of these Bots doing the deed. 

So, with all that in mind....

Next time you're in a park and need a ranger.

Well, you know whose job is way more important to Ms. Clark and friends.

OK?


_______
As for social workers, mental health workers, librarians, educational aides, etc....Who needs them when you've got an army of PAB-Bots ready to head out and do stuff like, say....This.


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9 comments:

North Van's Grumps said...

Talking about the PAB-Botian folks, and from what ministry they are signing in from eg.

StatCounter result:
Province Of British Columbia (142.36.192.187)

British Columbia Partner Library IP Addresses with 175 lines....


Justice Institute of British Columbia
142.23.206.193-222
142.30.157.1-14
142.30.190.129-192
142.30.203.*
142.30.240.34-46
142.30.30.1-32
142.36.58.33-48
70.71.0.141-143

Anonymous said...

Anybody remember the feisty plane that could?

The owner made a critical faux pas and called the BC Liberals something that rhymes with 'liars' and now Wayne Coulson is taking the Absolutely Fabulous Martin Mars to the Oshkosh Air Show in Wisconsin in late July in hopes of finding another business or home for it.

http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/owner-looking-for-new-home-for-martin-mars-water-bomber-1.2250425

Anonymous said...

create the disease ,sell the cure.
privatize profits ,socialize debt.
cater to the helicopter crowd
helicopter into okanagan to run
golden parachute into Victoria.
BC seeming now a offshore new province of China? media minders and all?
Does BC Media ever get angry?did you get a red mark(-1) or green(+1) on your article today?
Has this been going on for 14 years from the war room?
do bc lawyers lean on media bosses after the info is collected.?
BC lawyers leaning on judges alledgedly re drunk driving?

Anonymous said...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RhlXqYiTz2Q

motorcycleguy said...

the less we get our kids out there in this great province, the less interested they will be in doing that as they get older, the less chance of anyone seeing what is getting given away

e.a.f. said...

Without Park Rangers it will be difficult to maintain control over things in the parks. Once that happens and people stop using them Christy and her friends can sell them off.

All of this began many years ago by Christy's hero, mini WAC Bill Bennett, who privitzed the running of Provincial Parks and campsites. So they collect and keep the money but the services keep going down.

Can you just imagine what developers would pay for the Golden Ears provincial park, or the Cultus Lake Provincial Park, or the O.K. Lake provincial park. They must just be creaming their jeans at the thought.

Remember chrsity doesn't care about us. she does care about developers, mining companies, LNG, private schools, and those who pay her $20K a pop to attend her private soirees, of which she gets to take a cut.

Alberta, even with its fires is starting to look good. Ya, I know the winters are cold, but there is always Palm Springs or Maui.

Lulymay said...

An ex Regional Director of BC Parks was heard to say: It took 50 years for us to build a world class Parks system and Gordon Campbell took less than two years to kill it!

And thus Gord the Impaler carries on in luxury while his many disasters are left for others to clean up.

RossK said...

Lulymay--

The impaler has a very long tail, indeed.


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Anonymous said...

Have more people have died under BCL than any other party in power?