This Day In Clarkland...Is Another Shoe About To Drop?

YourSoakingInIt
BCLiberalDonorDollarVille


Based on goings on in the Ledge yesterday, specifically more questions from J. Horgan and the ensuing evasive answers from C. Clark, our friend NVG asks if another shoe is about to drop regarding folks in gov't with top-ups from the donor laundering machinery:

J. Horgan: The question was…. After reading the regulation change that said that political staff may hold jobs outside…. Maybe I'll be more specific. Does anyone in the Premier's staff receive stipends from the B.C. Liberal Party?

Hon. C. Clark: I take it he's talking about me.

I'm not aware of that happening in my office with any staff members.

J. Horgan: If I can be clear, then, the Premier does not believe that any of the staff working in her office receive stipends from the B.C. Liberal Party. Is she aware of any of the staff in her office holding any other positions, running a business or a consultancy?

Hon. C. Clark: No.

Hmmmmm....

We shall see.



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For The Record....Another Conversation In Clarkland.

TheirConversations
WereShortAndSweetVille


Yesterday, we were talking about the 'conversations' that Premier Christy Clark and her brother Bruce Clark had with Massett Village Chief Councillor Ken Rea that helped make $150,000 in public money appear out of (according to an empty FOIR response) thin air.

All of which got me to thinking about a 'conversation' that Mr. Clark had with a former member of the Gordon Campbell government that Ms. Clark herself ran away from as fast as she could back in the days of yore.

Neither of which had anything to do with anything untoward whatsoever.

Here is a transcript of that long ago conversation, for the record, based on a recording made by the RCMP for no reasons of untowardness whatsoverest, even if the discussion in the call was focussed on a draft  'requests for proposal' (RFP) for a certain railway spur line whose proposed  'sale' (which was to be based, presumably, on responses to the 'RFP') would later be cancelled based on completely, totally and absolutely unrelated reports of any and all potential untowardness from that very same RCMP:


David Basi: "So basically, um, what we have is the draft RFP." 

Bruce Clark: "Okay."

Basi: "Um, that uh, we have t' make changes and y'know, uh, um, we can draft it anyway we want now, right: so..."

Clark: "Whose, wh', whose hands is it in?"

Basi: "It's, it's in our hands right now."

Clark: "Okay."

Basi: "Uh, and then it'll go back to transportation. And then they'll look at it and then they'll uh, um, issue the official RFP."

Clark: "Okay. What are the time lines like?"

Basi: "Uh, two weeks."

Basi: "So, I can sit on this thing for two weeks. So if you come back next week then you can take it and look at it, show it to them. They can, they can, y'know, change some of the words around, that's obviously, some buzz words they wanna see in there, right?"

Clark: "Yeah."

Basi: "And these, these companies know how to, how to, y'know, get the fluff out of this shit and how to tailor it to themselves, right?"

Clark: "Of course." 

...{snippety doo-dah}... 

Clark: "Wonder, wonder if it would be better if you got it couriered from here or not?"

Basi: "I don't care. Whatever you want. I don't care."

Clark: "Okay, well maybe I'll get you to courier it to Europe for me, or something."

Basi: "You want me to courier it to Europe?"

Clark: "Sure, you could do that."


...{snippety doodle-dandy}...


Clark: "Or uh, or, or can it be faxed or something or?"

Basi: "Oh it can be faxed, yeah. Do you wanna give me a fax, secure fax number?"

Clark: "Yeah, I'll get you a secure fax number and we can do it that way."

Basi: "Yeah, you get me a fax number and I'll fax it to you.

Clark: "Sounds great my friend."

Gosh.

Wonder if there are any other 'conversations' recorded by the Horsemen from days of yore that we have never heard thanks to the sudden emergence (out of thin air again and/or the prying eyes of the cabinet or the treasury board) of $6,000,000 in public money?



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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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This Afternoon In Clarkland...Another Sparkle Pony Down.

AMillionBillionTrillion
PMartinVille


Via the Canadian Press...

AltaGas Ltd's joint venture partner, Idemitsu Kosan Co., says it has stopped work on the Triton liquefied natural gas project in northern British Columbia.

The Japanese conglomerate says in its annual results issued Tuesday that it had suspended all efforts to export LNG from North America...


Hmmmm....

Must be the 1990's fault.


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Subheader?.....This!


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This Decade In Clarkland...Even Dirty Laundry Is Part Of The Pay-To-Play Long Game.

CroniesCroniesEverywhere
ThreadCountVille


Remember the following, from March of this year?

Looks like Ms. Clark has another event she can haul the entourage and, especially, the videographers to:

Hospital laundry services will be ending throughout the Interior Health region, leading to the loss of 93 full-time jobs over the next year.

A private, Kelowna-based facility will pick up much of the work, IH said in a press release Tuesday afternoon.

Millions of dollars are expected to be saved.

The Hospital Employees' Union called the decision deeply disappointing. The union maintains more than 100 jobs will actually be lost.

The 20-year agreement will see hospital laundry services contracted out to Ecotex Healthcare Linen Service Inc., a B.C.-based laundry service company that has provided laundry services to health-care providers at the Lower Mainland...

Twenty years?

Twenty freaking years?

Right out of the gate!?

Hmmmmm....

I think it's time to go look something up.

$127,940.

Bingo! 

****

Well....

We have now learned, thanks to the work of the folks at Integrity BC, that this kind of thing appears to be pretty much all pervasive in the Clarklandian laundry contracting out game:

Gosh.

Wonder how much of that money, on a purely proportional conflict-free basis of course, made its way into the palm of the leader's hand after it was laundered through the party's fundraising machine?



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And if you use the Twittmachine, you are missing out if you aren't following Dermod Travis and Integrity BC.


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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?


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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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This Day In Clarkland...They Only Smear The Ones They Fear Most..

DigitallyInfluenceEverything
RatF*ckVille


Hmmmmm.....

Their super-ninja polling must be telling them that Mr. Eby is making headway:

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And if you haven't read it already, I highly recommend you go have a look at Laila's piece on how the Clarklandian media monitors do their thing behind their not-so secret curtain...And when you're done at Laila's think of all the people that are not working for us (i.e. park rangers, social workers, education aides, etc.) because these fine folks are.


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This Day In Conflictyland...Rafe Climbs (All The Way) On Board.

RememberWhenThe'98WasReallyA
GiantVille

Regarding both Ms. Clark and, perhaps more importantly, her government's Conflict Commissioner:

"...I remember you when you were smart, Paul. But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, since you don't think that the fact of your son's long and close friendship with Clark and that he is a politically appointed deputy minister in her government places you in a conflict of interest! Hell, Paul, you're probably right. I mean, who would ever dream that a lawyer making $269,000 a year from a legislature made up largely of Liberals would consider it in his interest to keep those Liberals kindly disposed towards him?..."


Gosh.

And, if I remember correctly, the good Mr. Mair himself is also lawyer.

But not a farmer.

Unless, of course, he also hates Email but doesn't mind  the feel of a Blackberry.

Ha!



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This Sunday In Snookland...Word Salad Wednesday Comes Early.

AndWhoStenoed-UpThatMDayPieceForZussmanAnyway?
SmartVille


From our fine premier's shiny happy people appearance on the CBC's  'The House' yesterday:

..."I'd remind Americans that America was never made great, and no American president is remembered as great, because he built walls."...


Then again, 'studies' show that most folks who cross the border where Trump actually wants to build his wall end up working for minimum wage (or less).

Which, ipso-facto-Christyco, means that all those border crossers and the low end foreign wage earners that Mr. Trump apparently likes to employ in his fine wine 'n dine emporiums must be living at home while living in a foreign land.

Or some such thing. 


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And The Cronies Shall Inherit The Earth.

OhMarginMyMargin
TaxBracketVille


So.

Due to the egregious actions of the socialist horders, Alberta's income tax for the super wealthy (i.e. those earning more that $300K/year) is now only the third lowest in Canada.

Slightly better (i.e. higher) than B.C. and Ontario (but not really because their slightly lower top rates kick in down in the hundreds) and exactly dead even with the boffo Brad's super-slasher government in Saskatchewan.

All of which means that big money mining guy Murray Edwards, who once a raised a million dollars for the BC Liberal Party's premier palm-greasing laundering facility just before his un-monitored pile of dirt failed, has been forced to flee the province and, thanks to JTrudeau's heavy handedness also, the country.

Or.

Perhaps not.

At least according to the 180ish MoCo division in Calgary:

..."What (Mr. Edwards is) struggling with and what every businessman is struggling with is the sheer incompetence that's been layered over us at the municipal and federal and provincial levels by inexperienced governments," said Brett Wilson, a Calgary investment banker and close friend of Edwards...

Though Wilson told CBC he doesn't believe taxes are the reason Edwards left Canada...


Calgary investment bankers.

Now there's a source pool I sure would like to hear more from re: 'sheer incompentence' and the 'layering' and all that.

And while he's at it, perhaps Mr. Wilson, or the CTF, or the Fraser Institute, or the Calgary Herald would like to tell us what they think about kd lang and all that.

Sheesh.



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And, regarding Mr. Edwards failed pile of dirt at Mount Polley...The following is a Steve Earle tune that was Phil Ochsified at the time to try and explain what went down:
 

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This Weekend In Clarkland...Damning With Faint Obviousness.

Turnin'BackToTheHerd
ConventionalWisdomVille


I have to give Mr. Mason of the The Globe and (nolongerEmpire) Mail some credit.

Because he has, in my opinion at least, been the most active member of the local proMedia in telling British Columbians that there really is a big pile of super-secret money being funneled into the BC Liberal's Party gullet, some of which makes its way to the palm of our fine premier after it has been pooped out the other end.

And heckfire.

In yesterday's column Mr. Mason kinda/sorta almost tiptoed over the 'pay-to-play' line when he started talking about hunting guides, their five figure donations and grizzly bear trophies and such.

Which is all fine and good.

But I also found it interesting, given the events of the last week, that Mason did not mention the millions from mining co's and execs that are extremely well-correlated with the complete lack of oversight of said mining co's and execs that is now entrenched in British Columbia thanks to BC Liberal government policy and legislation.

Or all that money from bridge builders.

Or tunnel borers.

Or train makers.

Or, dare I say it, lawyers? (more on that to come because I'm still really angry about something)

Anyway, after his wee bit of tip-toeing was all done, a little further down the column Mr. Mason signaled that the time has come to really start pulling the punches because, well, the trains are running on time or some such conventionally whimsical wisdomish-type thing:

"...The NDP is likely to make the notion of fixing a corrupt electoral system a pillar of its election campaign. The Liberals are certain to make the next election exclusively about jobs, the economy and fiscal management – and their record on this front is unquestionably impressive..."


Hmmmmm....

Jobs, the economy and fiscal management and 'unquestionably impressive'?

Really Mr. Mason?

Let's see....

Is there somewhere we can go for an unbiased, in-depth look at such things that do not rely on deceptive accounting and/or the spinning of very short-term trend numbers that are often bucked-up by deep dives that occurred during the previous term and/or terms?

I know!

How about we turn to the 'Progress Board', that flaming pinko outfit that was put together by Gordon Campbell that did the in-depth/un-biased analysis to show that the 1990's were actually a little better than the 2000's by most measures.

I mean, maybe that outfit can tell us how 'Pay-To-Play-In-Extremis' has helped float all boats (or not) over the last five years?

Oh, wait...

Nevermind.


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Why does the turning back to the herd matter so much?....Because it keeps the public from understanding what is really happening to their province...Which, of course, is ironic given Mr. Mason's recent lament about how said public just doesn't get it...Oh, and just for the record...It was also Mr. Mason who said that the still-birthing of the LNG Sparkle Ponies doesn't really matter much because everything economic is just so unbelievably rosy 'round here...


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Is There A Potential For A Perceived Conflict Of Interest Involving The Conflict Commissioner?

OnceYouKnowAThingYouCannotPretendTo
UnknowItVille


Look.

After this latest report of a provincial government leak, this time apparently involving the Conflict Commissioner's report (scroll down) on Ms. Christy Clark's secret large dollar fundraising activities, there is something I fee compelled to revisit as a citizen of British Columbia...

****

The following is from a post I wrote in back in 2014 when the matter of Ms. Christy Clark's having been associated with a lobbying shop run by her former husband prior to her becoming the premier arose in the public prints:

Remember what our fine Premier, Ms. Christy Clark, told the proMedia, and anyone else who would listen after Matthew Millar's third story broke in the NaPo, about her demonstrable pre-premier connections to a subsidiary company of RCI, which itself is a company that our fine Premier has done her best to pump while in office?

I mean, it was only a couple of weeks ago, right?

Well...

For the record, here is what Ms. Clark told the VSun's Rob Shaw:

...“I never did any work for the company, I wasn’t paid by the company, I never attending any meetings at the request of the company, and as far as I know the company never really got off the ground,” she said at the legislature...
 
Which is a pretty emphatic statement, no?
 
Except...
 
As we have already pointed out, there is documentary evidence which suggests that something quite different may have gone down with said 'company' given their letter-based overture to the University of New Brunswick a number of months after their incorporation. In addition, this letter was dated a full two months after Ms. Clark's first monetary compensation was due to arrive based on the company's original invitation/contract to her.
 
An invitation/contract, by the way, that Ms. Clark herself signed off on.
 
And last week Bob Mackin unearthed more paper involving additional overtures to (gasp!) Ms. Clark's old alma mater, Simon Fraser University.
 
And while very few of the proMedia herd have followed up on such documentary evidence, have no fear because the good Premier offered a 'don't worry, be happy' - type solution that seems to have satisfied said herd:
 
...(Ms. Clark) said she’d be happy to forward the matter to B.C.’s Conflict of Interest Commissioner for review...

****

With all of the above as pre-amble...

Please recall that the Conflict of Interest Commissioner that Ms. Clark was referring to is a very fine public servant by the name of Mr. Paul Fraser who was originally appointed by Ms. Clark's former boss, then Premier Gordon Campbell.

And please also recall that Mr. Fraser was forced to recuse himself from John van Dongen's recent complaint that revolved around Ms. Clark's actions in the run-up up to the sale/not sale (i.e. 990 year lease) of BC Rail by Mr. Gordon Campbell and friends, one of whom Ms. Clark likes to give bundles of our cash so that she can fly on private jets to exotic and hard to reach (by commercial airline route) locales like Edmonton and Regina.

And with that we finally arrive at a number of matters that get to the real heart of the matter here....

First, this, from Matt Millar's original VanObserver piece about how Ms. Clark once worked for Burrard Communications in her pre-Premier days just before the fine folks from BurrardComm went to work flack-hacking for Enbridge:

Which is how we know that BurrardComm, whose founder is Ms. Clark's former husband Mr. Mark Marissen, did such flack-hacking.

But...

Just who is this John Paul Fraser fellow named in the federal lobbying documents anyway?

And why does J.P. have a monicker that is so similar to that very fine conflict commissioner that we discussed above, but only because Ms. Clark herself indicated that he should make a ruling on the appropriateness of her not having disclosed her association with Burrard, Translink and a subsidiary of RCI, which itself had a business relationship with BurrardComm.

Well, as you may have already surmised, Mr. J.P. Fraser is the son of Mr. P. Fraser who is the above-mentioned conflict commissioner.

****

And what, you may be asking yourself,  is the point of this revisiting of history given that the fact that it has recently been noted that Mr. Fraser's son works for the Premier's government at the Premier's pleasure?

Well...

Firstly, please don't assume that I am in any way impugning anyone for their past business or personal associations.

However, in my opinion at least, the history of the past associations noted above further indicates that the potential for a perception of a conflict of interest for the Conflict Commissioner is very real where investigations into the deeds and actions of Ms. Christy Clark as Premier of British Columbia are concerned.

Not as leader of the Opposition with no decision-making, spending, legislative or contract-writing powers that may, or may not, involve the myriad of big money donors to her political party that has been using said donations, at least in part, to pay her approximately $300,000 over the last six years.

But as Premier.

OK?


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And another thing....It looks like some proMedia folks from East of the Rockies are starting to sniff around at this thing...It is my sincere hope that they actually shame the local puffed-up punditry to actually do something....Or, at the very least, just shame them generally.


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This Evening In Clarkland...Let Them Eat (Homemade) Cake!

What's$50KPerYearAmong
FriendsAndInfluentialUnclesVille


Andrew McLeod of the Tyee follows up on that minimum wage deflector spike spin bauble that was thrown into the proMedia maw this morning:

That.

And.

She can see Versailles from her house!

(allegedly)


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This Day In Clarkland...Citizen Warns Speaker Of Contempt of Decency.

WhatTedHughesDidNot
SayVille


From Mr. Shaw of the VSun's twittmachine feed:

From Mr. Shaw's latest piece in the VSun:

...Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond was “highly disrespectful” by releasing a child welfare report on her website last Thursday before the required practice of having the Speaker table it in the legislature, Speaker Linda Reid warned in the house and in a letter Tuesday.

“As an Officer of the Legislature, your decision to proceed with a premature disclosure of this report prior to a formal tabling in the Legislative Assembly was an egregious action, disrespectful and inconsistent with your position’s statutory reporting relationship with the Legislature and a contempt of Parliament,” Reid wrote.

The extraordinary public rebuke didn’t sit well with Turpel-Lafond, who said she tried to get her report – which criticized the ministry’s recent handling of a review by retired deputy Bob Plecas – introduced into the House, only to hear at the last minute it couldn’t be accommodated due to the morning question period schedule...

{snip}

... To complicate matters, someone tipped off the Ministry of Children and Family Development about the sensitive report within minutes of the representative’s office first mentioning the document to the Speaker’s office on Tuesday, April, 26, said Turpel-Lafond. She said that leak could only have come from the Speaker’s office.

“Well, the Ministry of Children and Families director of communications called my office within three minutes and said, ‘What is the report?’ So I don’t know who else would have done it. It’s awkward because there are occasions, and this is one of them, when I need to have a report released,” said Turpel-Lafond...

{snip again}

...“Words like contempt are usually reserved for cases of bribery or treason or serious crimes against the legislature. I’m just trying to do my job and stand up for kids.” (said Turpel-Lafond)...


The header at the top of this post is all mine.


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What, exactly did Mr. Ted Hughes NOT say back in the days of yore?....Well....This.
Of course, Ron Obvious had something quite different to say more recently...


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This Day In Clarkland...The Auditor General Comments.

What'sALousy$50KPerYearAmongFriendsDonorsAnd
InfluentialUnclesVille


From page three of the Auditor General's report of her audit of compliance and enforcement of the mining sector in British Columbia:

"...We conducted this audit to determine whether  the regulatory compliance and enforcement activities of the Ministry of  Energy and Mines (MEM) and the Ministry of Environment (MoE), pertaining to mining, are protecting the province from significant environmental risks. 

We found almost every one of our expectations for a robust compliance and enforcement program within the MEM and the MoE were not met. 

We found major gaps in resources, planning and tools. As a result, monitoring and inspections of mines were inadequate to ensure mine operators complied with requirements. The ministries have not publicly disclosed the limitations with their compliance and enforcement programs, increasing environmental risks, and government’s ability to protect the environment..."


Every...

Single...

Expectation.

****

Meanwhile....

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