Thursday, May 12, 2016

This Day In Clarkland...The $150,000 Conversation(s).

SomeRequestsAreMoreDirect
ThanOthersVille


Back in December of last year we commented on Mark Hume's piece in the Globe which noted that premier Christy Clark made an unannounced trip to the small community Old Masset on Haida Gwaii to dole out a whack of our money for a project for a school under federal (i.e. not provincial) jurisdiction that was supported by a band leader named Ken Rea who just happened to be in the midst of a campaign for his re-election at the time.

Interestingly,  Mr. Rea's opponent in that election campaign, Kimball Davidson, was opposed to a business deal between the local council and a company named Broadwing Renewables, Inc. that is proposing to erect a wind farm there.

Perhaps just as interestingly, if not more so, Mr. Rea supports the deal.

And, perhaps most interestingly, it turns out that the president of Broadwing is a very, very fine fellow named Mr. Bruce Clark who also just happens to be premier Clark's brother.

Now, of course, Mr. Clark's office denied any political inference and/or skullduggery whatsoever.

But.

How did Mr. Rea get in touch with members of Ms. Clark's government in the first place?

Well, for that, let's return to Mr. Hume's piece, shall we....

...Mr. Clark said he had nothing to do with the grant (to the school) and denied doing anything to get Ms. Clark to visit Old Massett.

“I have trouble getting her to come for family dinners,” he said.

Mr. Clark said he did help Mr. Rea make connections with government education officials.

“I simply told [Mr. Rea], ‘If you have issues, here’s who you talk to,’” he said.



Now.

As you can imagine, at the time we wondered who, exactly Mr. Clark told Mr. Rea to talk to.

Which brings us, courtesy Hansard and the eagle eye of Merv Adey, to yesterday's question period in the legislature when the leader of the opposition John Horgan questioned Ms. Clark about who, exactly made the ask.

The following is Ms. Clark's money quote:

..."Chief Ken Rea made the request directly to me in a meeting that we had."...


'Nuff said?


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And, for the record...Mr. Rea won his re-election by 42 votes over Mr. Davidson in the wake of Ms. Clark's grandstanding (acomplished with the help of flight by private jet, btw) and cash shovelling...

And, by all means, please go and read Merv's post on this to get the full story on all of this, particularly with respect to the lack of proMedia interest 'round here and the complete and utter lack of any justification whatsoever from the Ministry of Education (or anyone else in gov't) for the 'grant'.


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11 comments:

Lew said...

It will be interesting to see Vaughn Palmer's recap of the thrashing John Horgan delivered to our Premier yesterday in the Legislature given his previous efforts here:

http://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vaughn-palmer-column

Keeping faux gooses and duplicitous ganders and the like in mind of course…

RossK said...

Lew--

Faux gooses, duplicitous ganders and, perhaps, obfuscatory dandies will always be kept in mind.

Of course.


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John's Aghast said...

Nothing that this cable of crooks does aghasts me anymore. But this one almost takes the cake!
What, we don't have any non native schools on the verge of collapse?
All it takes is a verbal request, and Presto! the cash in an instant!
And what was the purported feasibility study about? How to get more funds from the Province? Don't bother, just ask.

RossK said...

John--

If you go and read the actual exchange between JHorgan and CClark (Merv's got it), you will see that all those points were raised and Ms. Clark had no answer for any of it.

Further, the Dippers FOI'ed this and got absolutely nothing back from the Ministry.

Which is not to say that there isn't a post-it note that explains it all somewhere.

Gosh.

Maybe it is stuck to the bottom of someone's shoe.


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Anonymous said...

more like stuck in the arsenal of democracy aka shredder.

RossK said...

Anon--

Ha!

Wonder how many pieces you can shred a post-it into.

And, once done, can you fit them all onto a Blackberry chip?

(and/or toss them into the rotor blades of the helijet)


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Anonymous said...

SH:

Christy, takes with one hand, and gives with the other—closes the only high-school in Osoyoos, yet champions the expansion of the school in Haida Gwaii, so the kids don't have to go to three separate schools.

https://www.facebook.com/ChristyClarkForBC/videos/10154321802455942/

Anonymous said...

next helicoptering osoyoos kids who dont age out to haida.?

Anonymous said...

Once a scammer, always a scammer.
Scammy McScamface Bill Vander Zalm GUILTY again

Former B.C. Socred government abused power in water export dealings, says judge

Former B.C. Premier Bill Vander Zalm and members of the 1980s Social Credit government committed “misfeasance in public office” in their dealings with a B.C. water export company, a B.C. Supreme Court judge said this week in a ruling on a decades-old case.

http://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/former-b-c-socred-government-abused-power-in-water-export-dealings-says-judge

Lew said...

Anon@10:22

"Misfeasance in public office".

Good thing that never happens in BC any more.

RossK said...

Interesting about the timeline on the water thing.

Does that mean that, for example, a class action regarding the malfeasance of a sale/not sale of a public railway might still be possible?


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