PoliticalVille
Friday October 14th...The VSun's Tracy Sherlock reports that the VSB trustees in the majority announce that they are going to vote on a balanced budget proposal on Monday evening October 17th. At that time, the Milburn audit/report of the VSB ordered by BCL minister Bernier is due the following Friday Oct 21st.
Friday October 14th (also)...The VSun's Vaughn Palmer says the orders to fire the VSB trustees are drawn up that day.
Saturday October 15th....Minister Bernier receives a super secret 'draft version' of the Milburn report.
Monday October 17th....Minister Bernier fires the VSB trustees saying that the Milburn report, which the public, of course, has not seen, contributed to his decision.
Monday evening October 17th....The VSB trustees do not pass a balanced budget.
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Now, based on the above timeline, it seems to me that it is reasonable, based on the facts currently at hand, to hypothesize that the VSB trustees were fired, not because they hadn't passed a balanced budget, but rather because they were in the process of doing so.
Passing a balanced budget, I mean.
Which leads to the following question...
Why didn't the BCL brain trust just declare victory and move on?
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Of course, Mikey Mike of the Province, taking 39 steps further into the rumour mongering mill than even Ron Obvious of the Globe, says it must be all about the WCB bullying thing, also ordered by the good minister Bernier...Why?...Because the minister must know something (super-secret) that we don't...Or some such thing.
Sub-header got the earworm wiggling?....This!
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21 comments:
Well with no BCTF contract looming crusty has to find some way of stoking anti public education sentiment before the election. Any one who is familiar with what has happened over the last 15 years know we have lost a generation of at risk students. No mental health counselors, no reasonable class size and composition rules, and no funding,second lowest per student in Canada. And don't get me started on the $350 mil for private schools, plus an extra mil for special needs in private schools but not for public.We know that they want to starve the public school system out of existence and "drown it in a bathtub". NO TAX MONEY FOR PRIVATE SCHOOLS!
We'll just have to wait until the Privacy Commissioner gives the okay, or black/white (Section 1??) out the offending email contents.
Then the public will know if the Minister of Education was justified in doing his political duty.
Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier
https://www.leg.bc.ca/learn-about-us/members/40th-Parliament/Bernier-Mike
"Mike has lived in Dawson Creek since 1993 and has 20 years of experience in the natural gas industry."
No experience with Metro Vancouverites, large populations. The only thing he sees is school real estate $$$$
The OIC was signed on Sunday Ross - your suggestion has more than a little to recommend it....Further, Milburn is a long-standing water carrier for this government. That being said, there is a lot to criticize in the behavior of the Board.
The BC Liberals did not fire the VSB after the June 30 deadline because it would have brought sharp focus to their role in the continuing downward spiral of education funding relative to GDP in British Columbia. We currently sit second last in Canada.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/education-funding-british-columbia-ccpa-2016-1.3735255
What they needed was something to muddy the waters, and a loyal handpicked foot soldier was assigned to do an audit to accomplish that aspect. The BC Liberals never initiate an investigation without advance comfort in the outcome. One would also have to be extremely naïve to believe there wasn’t some coordination involved in having a group of administrators simultaneously come down with severe and timely medical distress as a result of alleged bullying by trustees, thereby providing further cover.
The steps were in place, and the plan was playing out as designed, including having the usual suspects in the local media primed to polish the result. Then a fly landed in the ointment. The trustees made it known on Friday they would be passing the budget after all on Monday night.
Bernier had already given the “special” audit investigator two more weeks to finish his audit, which was now due next Friday.
Suddenly, not only were two cabinet ministers diverted from important party fundraising duties on a weekend to sign dismissal papers (prepared by staff on overtime?), but the supporting audit report which wasn’t supposed to be ready for another week became magically available on a Saturday in order that Bernier could have some semblance of justification.
And Bernier says those nasty Vision people are the only ones playing politics here.
GW--
Thanks.
Someone mentioned there was a second signature on the order.
Is that correct?
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PRIVITIZATION of public education continues.
back to Facebook people.
OIC Education
1. OIC 707 oic_cur
...Executive Council Chambers, Victoria Minister of Education Presiding Member of the Executive Council (This...
http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/document/id/oic/oic_cur/0707_2016/search/CIVIX_DOCUMENT_ROOT_STEM:(Education)%20AND%20CIVIX_DOCUMENT_ANCESTORS:717449587?1#hit1
Not signed by Lieutenant Governor but by an Administrator October 16, 2016 a SATURDAY
Dianne Turner is appointed official trustee
Signature Minister of Education Bernier and
Presiding Member of the Executive Council ... Fassbender
"... it is the opinion of the Lieutenant Governor in Council that there is SUBSTANTIAL NON-COMPLIANCE with the School Act."
Looking for more on the latest Education OIC, ..
http://www.bclaws.ca/civix/search/oic/ancestorsearch?p=Education&ancestor=717449587&q=CIVIX_DOCUMENT_ROOT_STEM%3A%28Education%29&s=0&e=20&nFrag=5&lFrag=100&xsl=%2Ftemplates%2FsearchResults.xsl
Thanks NVG--
So it is true that Mr. Fassbender's fingerprints are all over this thing.
Should we be surprised?
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To be clear, Minister Bernier's time in natural gas wws in the extreme downstream end of it. Utility company experience is a bit different than exploration, production, processing or transmission.
Firing a democratically elected board for balancing their budget will have to go down in history as a rather poor way of showing how to fund education when so much public cash is ending up in private hands. The proof would have to be in that most if not all private schools would likely not exist without taxpayer funding.
Some one should ask the Lieutenant Governor why she didn't put her signature to the OIC, AND did she authorize the 'Administrator' to do so in her absence.
Is our LG in favour of firing duly elected officials? Does she care?
October the 16th was a Sunday, the Administrator signature is not legible. Were all three signing the OIC in the same room? Were there any witnesses to the signatures? Where was assbender and Bernier, same town, campaigning for the BC Liberal Party coffers?
This is all about Christy and her cabal being able to get their hands on the real estate the Vancouver School board owns. Lets see what is the first piece to be sold or leased for 999 years and how much they will have donated to the cabal/B.C. Lieberals.
if the school board was going to pass the budget, it would not have worked well for the B.C. Lieberals. Passing the budget would have resulted in cuts and as each parent grew more angry, there would be one less voter for their B.C. Lieberals. then when you take into consideration the families in other ridings of relatives and friends of those Vancouver voters, it might not be the ending Christy and her cabal wanted. This way, they fired the board, can say they were terrible and the root of all problems, then start selling the land. Oh, well the parents in Vancouver might want to ask themselves: Who did I vote for last time? If the answer is B.C. LieberaLS, YOU HAVE NO one to blame but yourselves.
The provincial government ought not to be able to fire school boards, they are elected by the citizens in the area. School boards ought to be able to run 5 yr deficits to take into account things that "pop up".
One of the schools on the chopping block is Champlain Heights annex. Lovely chunk of land. go a few stories up and its views of the river. Wonder how much that will go for? Then when you take into consideration the city owned land next door, whose 35 year lease is up in about 5 years, you get the picture.
People might want to check and see if there has been some sales of properties around schools that were "slated" for closure and if so, who bought them. Now in some areas that is a nice little chunk of land and profits for all.
eaf--
Ya.
Which is why I'm waiting for the Keef to be given free, all-expenses-paid-for-by-the-UDI helicopter trips around the region to have an intimate look at said properties.
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RossK, I wonder if those chopper trips will come with a free jacket?
I'll have a look.
GW--
NVG has the doc in his link above...The co-signatory is, indeed, Mr. Fassbender.
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Lew--
Free jacket?
Well, personally I'm giving the benefit of the 'all retail, all the time', doubt on that one.
After all, what idiot blogger wouldn't?
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Lew is right. My legal advisor confirmed that it was signed by both the puppet (Bernier) and the puppet master (Fassbender)....( the usual practice would be, of course, for the Premier to be the second signatory - although that's not a hard and fast rule. One wonders if Ms Clark was more than pleased to have the puppet master pinch hit for her in this case....
G
Who was the Administrator? that signed it too
Governments and organizations sometimes require that documents for use in foreign countries be authenticated in order to be accepted. Authentication, for purposes in British Columbia, means the signature of the B.C. official who signed the document has been authenticated (sometimes called legalized) by the Government of British Columbia.
In British Columbia, the authentication of documents is handled by the Ministry of Justice Order in Council (OIC) Administration Office.
http://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/governments/government-id/guide-to-the-authentication-of-documents
Anon @9:07pm:
That process is for citizens requiring authentication of government-issued documents for use in other arenas. Has nothing to do with this issue.
GW raises an interesting point which leads me to wonder...
Why, exactly, did our fine Premier keep her fingerprints off of this one?
Assuming, of course, that it was actually our very fine Premier's decision to do so.
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Sabbatical to try and restore some of Clark's utility & gumption for 2017?
Clark has not been looking well or happy since she & de Jong bolted the Leg and left the chairs spinning last May.
I suspect that unresolved $150K Haida Gwaii issue has something to do with cancelling the legislative session this fall 2016 .. too risky to expose her?
Also, Horgan was hanging around the courts at the time of the Bonney charges, and photographed smiling like the Cheshire cat. Is something else there?
So generally, Clark is having a really bad year, the reception has been harsh and personal, the experiment in having her run for election to disguise the continued absence of functional government, all the way through a fixed four year mandate, is failing too early.
And this still outstanding $150K Haida Gwaii stunt, so stupidly provocative and evocative of the BC Rail scandal ... did this stupidity cost her standing and power in The Party?
Safety? Clark was foolish enough to disclose, a few years ago, that she actually lives within VSB boundaries ... unlike deJong, Fassbender, Bernier, Coleman et al.
I think most of Clark's value to The Party was always depended on the polls. Lately, The Party is acting as if the polls are awful.
Something like any or all of that?
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