The United Nations...

LotuslandIs

AllTheColoursInTheNewKitzbuhelVille

So.

I had to head over to the North Shore today.

Without the VW (notso)Microbus.

Which meant that I had to ride down to Waterfront Station.

And while I was waiting for the Seabus I sat on the steps and read yesterday's NYT cover story on the Olmert/Abbas negotiations and wondered if maybe, just maybe, pols that are in real trouble for doing stupid, corrupt things sometimes attempt to make things right by doing the really right thing.

And then I looked up from the dead-tree/no-kindle version of the paper and noticed that I was surrounded by the entire youth wing of the United Nations.....

Snow Board Division.....

Amazing.

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We Only Do.....

....Lizzy.

____

Big work build-up at the moment...So...Please consider this a kinda/sorta Mama Mea Half-A-Cuppa regarding the recent relative dearth...of....well...you know...The usual stuff...

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The New Project Is....

Fifty-FirstStateOf

MindVille

Songwriting.....

I have no idea if any of the results will ever see the light of day.

But the first offering, called 'Where The Open Doors Go', debuted today at Trout Lake.

And nobody screamed or covered their ears.

And that included the dogs too.

_______

Last year it was 'Busking'....The inspiration for this new project comes from these folks who played at our house recently and who, get this, wrote a song a day for most of last summer....

Now, it might seem weird for somebody to pick up such a new found musical obsession, especially when you're my age and your voice is at least hundred times as shakey as, and maybe a hundred times less real than Bruce Berry's ever was...But, as I explained to my old friend G., who taught me few Neil songs (and a whole lot more) way back when we worked at summer camp together, it's actually kind of exciting in that weird, dive-right-in-because-you-don't-know-any-better teenagery kind of way...

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George Abbott's Limited Hangout On RailGate

SafetyValves'RUs

ProgressiveHorse1AVille

Well, well, well....

If you weren't really paying attention you may have come to the conclusion that one of the horses running in the middle of the BC Liberal Party Leadership Race pack, Mr. George Abbott, actually called for an inquiry into the selling-off of BC Rail yesterday.

However.....

Mr. Abbott most definitely did not call for a wide-ranging inquiry into what really went down when the real deal was done.

Instead, Mr. Abbott suggested that he might be amenable to a narrowly-focussed inquiry that looked ONLY into the 6 million dollar pay-off that put a sudden stop to the Basi-Virk-Basi trial just when it was getting down to brass tacks.

Dharm Makwana best described what Mr. Abbott really said in 24 Hrs. Here is his lede:

George Abbott is only willing to dig so deep into the B.C. Rail scandal.

At a press conference announcing his policy platform in Vancouver Tuesday, the B.C. Liberal Party leadership hopeful said he would not entirely close the door on a full-scale public inquiry on the influence-peddling affair. Instead, he would rather focus government’s attention on the taxpayer funded $6 million settlement paid to cover the legal expenses of David Basi and Bob Virk.....

Now.

There are two things worth considering here.

Number One....The other horse running in the middle-of-the pack is Mike de Jong, who most definitely WAS involved in, at the very least, the approval of the pay-off.

Number Two...Why, precisely, would one of Mr. Abbott's political advisors, a fine fellow named Mr. Mark Jiles, who is also a principal in the most excellent strategic communications firm known as the 'Progressive Group' along with one of Ms. Christy Clark's political advisors, Mr. Patrick Kinsella, counsel his horse to call for a wide-ranging inquiry into anything and everything concerning the sell-off , including the terms and, most especially, the deliverables of this particular contract?

_____

It is worth noting that, according to Mr. Vaughn Palmer, the good Mr. Kinsella advised Ms. Clark during her doomed attempt to win the NPA's mayoral nomination r way back in 2005.

Meanwhile...... Ron Obvious once again attempts to eat Chichester Cathedral AND simultaneously swallow the limited hang-out.... Hook, line and sinker.

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RailGate Remainders...Our Questions Continued...The Demand.

SubJudiceThis!

NoLongerBeforeTheCourtsVille

Number 7.

In the fall of 2010 the RailGate trial came to an abrupt halt just as the former BC Liberal government Finance Minister (and David Basi's last boss), Mr. Gary Collins, was about to take the stand.

Now.

To the best of our knowledge the current BC Liberal government Finance Minister, Mr. Colin Hansen, has not yet answered our Question #8 wherein we asked him, Mr. Hansen, to explain how, exactly, having a former business colleague of Mr. Collins who is now a Deputy Minister assigned to the current Minister (ie. to Mr. Hansen) was not in a conflict of interest when he (ie. the current Deputy Minister) helped put together the deal that ended the trial abruptly such that the former Minister (ie. Mr. Collins) did not have to testify, under oath.

One question we do not have to ask, however, is whether, if he had testified, the former Minister (ie. Mr. Collins) would have been asked about a dinner he had with the then heads of the American railway company OmniTRAX, whose money was being used to bribe Mr. Collins' former aide, the now convicted criminal (as the still current Premier, Mr. Gordon Campbell noted), Mr. David Basi, on Dec. 12th, 2003 (ie. less than three weeks before the Raids on the B.C. Legislature).

Why do we know that Mr. Collins would have been asked about this dinner at the trial if he had testified under oath?

Well, because during the pre-trial, way back in February of 2007 (ie. when there was still no court-imposed publication ban) we were told that the RCMP had surveillance tapes of that dinner. Here is the story from that time according Neal Hall writing in the VSun:

The RCMP conducted a "massive" surveillance operation to spy on a meeting involving former finance minister Gary Collins as part of the investigation that led to the 2003 raid on the B.C. Legislature, according to court documents filed Monday.

An application for disclosure by the defence in the case says the RCMP engaged in a "massive surveillance operation" to document a Dec. 12, 2003, meeting involving Collins and executives from OmniTRAX, a company that had been bidding in the sale of BC Rail but did not win.

"The surveillance included undercover operatives both inside and outside the restaurant and extensive video surveillance and tracking of the parties," read the 32-page application submitted by the defence....

As you can imagine, at the time there was much conjecture about what was said and, perhaps more to the point, what may have or what may not have been on 'offer' at that dinner at the finest-of-the-fine Villa del Lupo restaurant between Mr. Collins and the OmniTRAX executives.

So, given all that, it is not surprising that a few weeks later the good Mr. Collins, through his lawyer Mr. Clark Roberts, demanded the full release of all the Villa del Lupo dinner tapes.

Here is how Mark Hume reported on that story in the The Globe in the Spring of 2007:

Former finance minister Gary Collins yesterday called on the Crown to release any police surveillance material it has of him from a 2003 meeting with U.S. business executives concerning the government sale of BC Rail.

Speaking through his lawyer, Clark Roberts, Mr. Collins said if the police did tape his meeting with OmniTRAX Inc., a company that failed in a bid for BC Rail, it should be made public because it will only prove that he did nothing wrong while handling the $1-billion sale of the state-owned rail line.

"If there is any surveillance, Mr. Collins says it should be disclosed because it will completely reveal that he wasn't involved [in any wrongdoing]," Mr. Roberts said......

Now.

Given that, thanks at least in part to the actions of a current Deputy Finance Minister (ie. the good Mr. Graham Whitmarsh, who not long ago worked with the former Finance Minister at the most excellent, but no longer operating, David Ho-owned Harmony Airlines), the heat is now off due to the pay-off, we would like to ask Mr. Collins the following question:

"Are you, Mr. Collins, still demanding that the Crown Release the Villa Del Lupo Wiretaps, in full, that recorded your conversation with the heads of OmniTRAX, in December of 2003...

....Yes or No?"

______

Still need more background?....Well, despite what he may or may not be saying now, even the good Mr. Vaughn Palmer wondered aloud, in the public prints, about what may or may not have been going down way, way back in late 2006.

Finally, given the timeline, there may (or may not) be some stuff that could come out (very soon?) in certain 'memos', which appear to have, perhaps, been written by the good Mr. Basi himself, that may or may not relate to a certain series of phone calls he (ie. Mr. Basi) allegedly had with co-convicted former government aide Mr. Robert Virk on or about Nov. 17, 2003 that, allegedly, focussed on OmniTrax and certain, potential again alleged 'offerings'....It is worth noting that these alleged phone calls, and purported records relating to them, were reported on previously in the public prints, again based on something raised at pre-trial, back in December of 2007...We wrote about that then un-bylined CP story, and its potential implications, at the time, here.

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Our Busking Year....Week 52....The End.

AllTheSongsThatFit

MyKidsAndMeVille

This is it folks...

This time it's Bigger E and me (with a wandering Rosalita) out at Iona Point as the sun sets on a cold, crisp New Year's Day, 2011.

The song is called 'I Bid You Goodnight' which is a traditional gospel song done by lots of folks, most notably perhaps the Neville Brothers.

Here we do the Mic Christopher/Glen Hansard busking version which was filmed for posterity by our good friend Donal Scannell in 2001 before Mr. Christopher passed away far, far too soon.

Rather than link to it, we offer it to you here because, as you can see by the tagline in the header to this place, it served as a major inspiration for our Busking project in the first place....

_________

Thanks everyone for your encouragement....Damn....My kid sure can sing.

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Three Wishes To Live By....

TheYearOfTheCitizen:NoExcuses

2011Ville

...From Paul Willcocks:

Enjoy every cup of coffee in a warm restaurant, each day your fridge is well-stocked and every walk along the ocean.

Refuse to accept the diminished lives imposed on your fellow citizens, recognizing the shame it brings on us all.

Demand better - and put your money and volunteer effort into making it so.

And consider how important it is to pay attention - really pay attention - to the people around you.

Your laughter, your praise, your concern, your love - those are the most precious gifts. And so easily given.

Happy New Year everybody.

We're going to a house party tonight.

I am taking my guitar.

It is a brand spanking new-to-me black Takamine.

Hopefully, someone will ask me to play.

If not, I will probably play when I get home.

And if not then, I will most definitely play tomorrow with the Whack-A-Doodle.

And maybe with the kids too.

I think we will go here.

Bye for now.

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RailGate Remainders...Our Top Ten Questions Continued...The Pay-Off

SubJudiceThis!

NoLongerBeforeTheCourtsVille

Number 8.

In the fall of 2010 the RailGate trial came to an abrupt halt just as the former BC Liberal government Finance Minister (and David Basi's last boss), Mr. Gary Collins, was about to take the stand.

Both the abruptness and the halt of the trial were facilitated by the sudden announcement of a six million dollar deal that some, myself included, have suggested should be viewed as a pay-off to the defendants and their legal teams.

Now.

A lot of attention at the time was focussed on the roles that then Attorney General Mike 'I Bake Cookies!' de Jong and one of his deputies, Mr. David Loukidelis, played in the brokering of that deal.

However, what was essentially all but ignored by the proMedia was the fact that the current Finance Minister, Mr. Colin Hansen, and one of his deputies, Mr. Graham Whitmarsh, also helped put together that deal and, presumably*, approved the actual dollar amounts paid out in the pay-off (which, of course, were not their monies, but instead were ours).

But wait, there's more!

Which is the part that I find most egregious given that it was, to the best of my knowledge, completely ignored by the Lotuslandian proMedia....

Specifically, Mr. Whitmarsh was recently a business colleague of Mr. Gary Collins.

Here is how I described the business relationship between Mr. Whitmarsh and Mr. Collins (and its potential significance) at the time:

....Former RailGate era Finance Minister Gary Collins once worked for David Ho's now defunct Harmony Airways.

....Current Deputy Finance Minister Graham Whitmarsh, who helped Deputy AG David Loukidelis put together the super-secret $6 million dollar plea-copping bonus-baby deal that ensured that former Minister Collins would never have to testify, under oath, in front of transcripts of RCMP surveillance wiretaps, at the RailGate trial, also worked for Harmony back in the day.

But here's something we didn't know, courtesy of Sean Holman's fantastic archives over at Public Eye.....

.....Current Deputy Finance Minister Whitmarsh was 'relieved' of his duties at Harmony on Nov. 30th 2006.

....Former RailGate era Finance Minister Collins resigned from Harmony just one day later on Dec. 01 2006.

Which, in my opinion at least, means two more things.....

....Mr. Whitmarsh and Mr. Collins know each other because they both worked together as executives at the small, locally-based Harmony Airways at the same time.

....It is not unreasonable for a reasonable person to wonder if the government of British Columbia and, more specifically, the Premier of British Columbia under whose pleasure all deputy ministers serve, placed Mr. Whitmarsh in a conflict of interest by having him help work out a super secret deal that ultimately benefitted a previous close business associate.

****

So...

Here is my question for the current Finance Minister, Mr. Colin Hansen:

"How, exactly, was it NOT a conflict of interest to have Mr. Graham Whitmarsh, who is a former business associate of Mr. Gary Collins, work out a deal that prevented Mr. Collins from testifying in open court, under oath, about his role, or lack thereof, in the (now established) illegal leaking of documents and information to private concerns regarding the longterm leasing of public assets then under the control of BC Rail?"

Thank-you.

_____

*I say, 'presumably' approved the dollar amounts because, despite what Rafe Mair suggested at the time, Vaughn Palmer let us 'know' that this would not have gone to mini-Treasury and/or Cabinet for approval due to a (well-designed?) technicality....Now, if true, wouldn't that have been an oh-so convenient cut-out of plausible deniability?.....For cabinet, Mr. Hansen, and the then (and still!) Premier maybe....But, in my mind it makes the potential conflict with respect to Mr. Whitmarsh's involvement all the more significant.....Alas, as noted above this potential conflict appears to have never been raised by the proMedia at the time....

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RailGate Remainders...Our Top Ten Questions Continued

SubJudiceThis!

NoLongerBeforeTheCourtsVille

Number 9.

In April of 2009 Gary Mason went all Ron Obvious once again and reiterated something that we and others had already brought up, which was the fact that once upon a time (ie. way, way back in 2003) Joy MacPhail asked Mr. Gordon Campbell a very important question on the floor of the BC Legislature. Essentially, Mr. Campbell left the question unanswered when he told Ms. MacPhail to go FOI herself.

Here is the way we originally commented on that exchange, in a very careful manner I might add (for those who like to make a point of accusing all bloggers of being conspiracy nuts who just make stuff up).

And the following is how Mr. Gary Mason described it in the high profile, and very public, prints of the The Globe and (nolonger)Empire Mail:

....During the bid period (for the BC Rail deal), Mr. (Patrick) Kinsella was seen entering the Premier's wing of the legislature with CN chairman David McLean on more than one occasion. The relationship between Mr. Kinsella and CN was raised in the legislature in May, 2003, by then-NDP MLA Joy MacPhail, who identified Mr. Kinsella as a paid lobbyist for the national rail line.

In an exchange long since forgotten, Ms. MacPhail asked Mr. Campbell if he had ever met Mr. Kinsella and Mr. McLean during the bid phase.

The Premier said at the time he didn't have an answer, and that if Ms. MacPhail wanted to know she could make a freedom-of-information request.

The trail went dry after that.....

Indeed.

Except, then, somewhat inexplicably, Mr. Mason, did something rather non-obvious when he 'suggested' the following in the very publicly-printed pages of The Globe in the spring of 2009:

....But now the matter is quite different. There is the appearance that Mr. Kinsella might have been on the payroll of BC Rail and CN Rail during the $1-billion sale of the rail line. And that there were meetings and phone calls going on between Mr. Kinsella and Mr. Campbell and/or members of his office.

Hmmmmm....

Six years later the matter is suddenly quite different?

How, exactly, we could only wonder then, and are still wondering now.

Which brings us to our lingering RailGate Question #9, which is directed specifically to Mr. Gary Mason of the The Globe and Mail:

"Mr Mason, when you suggested in 2009 that there was an 'appearance' that Mr. Patrick Kinsella was simultaneously on the payroll of both BC Rail AND CN Rail at the time that the deal went down in 2003, did you actually have a source to back up such a suggestive assertion....Or..... Were you just making stuff up?"

Thank-you.

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RailGate Remainders: Our Top 10 Lingering Questions We Would Like Answers To...

SubJudiceThis!

NoLongerBeforeTheCourtsVille

Number 10.

Last August, back when all matters pertaining to RailGate were apparently still before the courts, two members of the dastardly Bloggers Cult, Laila Yule and G.A.B. went down to view the proceedings and were the first to report on an item that was later confirmed by Camille Bains in the Canadian Press.

It had to do with an issue raised by defense lawyer readings from personal diaries that were allegedly written by then Pilothouse principal, and current blogger and frequent radio talk-show guest, Mr. Brian Kieran.

Here is what Ms. Bains had to say in the (very) public prints:

VANCOUVER, B.C. (Aug 21/2009) - Emails to and from a political insider show he had a strong relationship with CN Rail, suggesting the company was pegged to win the bid to buy Crown-owned BC Rail, says a defence lawyer.

Michael Bolton told a B.C. Supreme Court hearing Friday he wants to cross-examine Patrick Kinsella about his connection to CN Rail while he was also a consultant for BC Rail.

Bolton read a string of emails from between April and May 2004 showing Kinsella was the conduit between top-level executives for both BC Rail and CN Rail and a senior B.C. civil servant when the sale seemed to be in jeopardy.

"The way in which (BC Rail) gets answers to CN Rail is to go to Kinsella rather than directly to CN," Bolton said in a hearing related to fraud and breach of trust charges against three former government employees.

Bolton, who is defending one of the accused men, said the trio were tasked by their political masters to keep a third company in the bidding process to make it appear that the sale of BC Rail to CN Rail wasn't rigged by the Liberals.

Bolton also said lobbyists at a Victoria firm called Pilothouse, which was representing Denver-based OmniTrax, a third company bidding for BC Rail, had also known about Kinsella's involvement with CN Rail while he was working for BC Rail.

"Kinsella working for CN," said an Aug. 19, 2002 handwritten note in a journal kept by Pilothouse lobbyist Brian Kieran, defence lawyer Kevin McCullough told the court......

So.

Here is a question that we would most certainly like a very public member of the proMedia to ask the good Mr. Kieran:

"Did you ever state that Mr. Patrick Kinsella worked for CN Rail in 2002.....

... Yes or No?"

Thank-you.

______

Why does this matter?.....Well, we know for an absolute fact that the good Mr. Kinsella, a fine, fine fellow who once worked on Mr. Gordon Campbell's election campaigns and who is currently working on the BC Liberal Leadership campaign of Ms. Christy Clark, worked for BC Rail at the time in question.

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Did Erik Bornman(n) Ever Register To Lobby Christy Clark For OmniTRAX?

PeddleUsThis

InquiryVille

That is a question that some folks, especially those who may have been reading the good Mr. Alex Tsakumis lately, may be asking themselves these days.

Well....

To the best of our knowledge Mr. Bornman(n) did not register to do any such a thing during the period in (apparent) question.

****

How do we know this?

Well, it turns out that we had the foresight (and/or were, as a member of that whacky group of cultists, 'crazy' enough) to take screen shots of the old Lobbyist Registry pages before they were disappeared.

Here is the money shot in question.

OK?

_____

And here, for those interested in ancient, if as-yet unresolved, history that actually matters, is the original post from whence that screenshot came.

Oh, and for those that are really interested, we have a screenshot of all those fine folks that Mr. Kieran registered to lobby too, here.....The original post where that shot appeared can be found here.....

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And As Predicted In The Comments....

AllTheSpinning

ThatFitsVille

....Here.

The pro-pundit Wurlitzering of the 'Nettleton Letter', in the form of a pick-up from the Dean himself, has begun!

Liberal leadership Christy Clark has picked up a significant endorsement from former MLA Paul Nettleton, a Liberal-turned-independent who was one of the harshest critics of the decision to sell government-owned B.C. Rail.

Nettleton also supported Clark’s inisistence that there is no need for a public inquiry into B.C. Rail, saying that it is time for the province to “move forward and put the B.C. Rail matter behind us.”

A lawyer and former two term MLA from Prince George Nettleton now lives in Ladysmith on Vancouver Island.

He laid out his endorsement of Clark in a letter to the editor published Sunday in the Victoria Times Colonist Sunday.....

Which, of course, is what the jockeys riding Ms. Clark's 'Candidacy of Joy' really wanted in first place.

Right?

______

And yes, the reference to the doomed candidacy of the hyper-endorsed Hubert 'I Am The Eggman' Humphrey, was wholly intended.

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Paul Nettleton Backs Clark, Opposes BC Rail Inquiry

AllTheApparentContradictions

ThatFitVille

Last week I suggested that lawyer and former Liberal MLA Paul Nettleton would be a fantastic person to head a public inquiry into the BC Rail sale.

Of course, given that I understand the concepts of BOTH conflict of interest and real politick, I was only half serious.

Regardless, Paul Willcocks left a message in the comments suggesting that Mr. Nettleton was actually against such an inquiry.

And Mr. Willcocks was right, based on a letter-to-the-editor from Mr. Nettleton in the Victoria Times-Colonist, today, Boxing Day.*

I am going to reprint the letter here, in its entirety, given its public importance and will then comment below:

I have opposed the sale of B.C. Rail and the subsequent handling of this important file by the Campbell administration over many years. As Liberal critic, I opposed the sale of B.C. Rail and called upon my Liberal colleagues to commit to protecting B.C. Rail employees and their families, northern communities and British Columbians.

As an independent MLA from 2002 to 2005, I marched in Prince George rallies protesting the sale of B.C. Rail with scores of concerned citizens. I stood at the head of these groups and shared the podium speaking with heartfelt passion and concern about the B.C. Rail issue.

More recently, as a private citizen and as a lawyer, I have continued to follow the B.C. Rail issue in our courts in the hope that those responsible would be exposed and brought to justice. I share the concerns that many questions remain unanswered.

Where, then, should we go from here?

I support the position of Liberal leadership candidate Christy Clark, who has rejected the call for a public inquiry, insisting that we move forward and put the B.C. Rail matter behind us.

I have worked closely with Clark over a number of years and have confidence in her integrity, on this and other issues. I also believe that Clark would ensure that her administration provides openness, transparency and honesty.

Paul R. Nettleton

Ladysmith

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/Rail+inquiry+needed/4026465/story.html#ixzz19Ek3lwQq

Now.

In real life job I am a reductionist who takes things apart to try and have a look at what really makes them tick.

So, let's take Mr. Nettleton's letter apart, shall we.....

First - Have a look at the first three paragraphs wherein Mr. Nettleton lays out his bonafides as someone who has always opposed the sale of the public railway, who worked with citizens against the sale when the deal went down, and who still has concerns that many questions remain regarding whether or not all responsible have been 'exposed and brought to justice'.

So, given all that, why doesn't Mr. Nettleton want an inquiry?

Well, based on the last three paragraphs of the letter, it all comes down to Ms. Clark and her integrity, which Mr. Nettleton concludes will lead to a future administration of openness, transparency and honesty.

And, for me at least, therein lies the rub.

Why?

Because, the fact of the matter is that the very same people who are riding Ms. Clark in her candidacy for the leadership of the Liberal Party of British Columbia are pretty much exactly the same people that rode Mr. Campbell to power.

Furthermore, some of those people are the very same people who helped Mr. Campbell sell the formerly public Railway to people that helped bankroll Mr. Campbell's elevation to power.

Thus, in my opinion Mr. Nettleton is flat-out wrong.

Not because Ms. Clark herself may or may not have the utmost personal integrity.

But rather because there is no evidence, at least in my opinion, that her 'administration' would be any different, in terms of how it is actually run, than the administration of her predecessor Mr. Gordon Campbell.

OK?

_______

*Or, as our good friend Mary noted off-line "Knock Me Over With A Feather" Day....

And, try as he might to cleave her off of Mr. Campbell's horsey hide, David Anderson (speaking on Public Eye Radio this morning) cannot magically wave away the fact that Ms. Clark is being ridden by exactly the same jockeys...

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In A World Where Middlemen Rule....

AllTheShystersThatFit

KillingTheCommonsVille

....There is no room for fully funding silly things like public schools and their sillier boards.

Norman Farrell, following up on Laila and NVG's fine work on the Shadow Tolling of everything (Roll On Kevvie....Roll On), has the story:

....(S)hadow tolls are well understood by money people as evidenced by this recent publication issued by the Boston office of RBC Global Asset Management (of course, the initials stand for Royal Bank of Canada). It discusses the appeal of very low risk, long term investments to institutional investors who seek assets to match their long term liabilities and talks of different repayment methods.

"Shadow tolls – With a shadow toll, the government makes a payment to the investor at a rate based on the number of cars travelled, but there is no physical toll booth on the road. Motorists avoid congestion, and there is no collection cost of operating the booth. Often the government funds the payment through fuel taxes, vehicle registration fees or other charges not directly based on who actually uses the road. In some cases, the government is willing to provide a floor of how much it will pay, so there are characteristics similar to an availability payment and revenue, therefore, is not purely driven by the number of cars."

Of course, this is exactly the kind of investing in infrastructure that institutions have always done. Government bonds, largely sold to institutional investors, funded projects including roads, bridges, schools, hospitals and other capital work that served the public over long terms. Government employed its own professional staff who supervising capital projects, arranged construction through competitive bidding by private contractors and financed the projects through direct government debt.

The difference today is the insertion of a layer of private matchmakers and dealmakers. Their main skill is in gaining influence over decision makers, convincing them to discard competitive bidding in return for the RFPs (Requests for Proposals), followed by negotiated design-build contracts. Whether a project is a formalized Public Private Partnership or an extended term operating agreement, government takes almost all risk and financing sits ultimately in the hands of long term investors.

Costs of projects rise of course so that dealmakers, who no longer work for government, take their profits out early. Political operators get rewarded financially. Public information about deals and details is minimized because of 'privacy concerns' for private companies....

Shadow tolls?

More like killer Zombie Tolls designed to walk amongst us while they inexorably suck the life out of you and yours as they strip-mine us of everything we hold dear.

OK?

______

And where are the proMedia mavens on this one?....Well, when Laila first broke this story with irrefutable, in-depth reportage, a number of folks in the Lotuslandian Bloggodome tried to engage the mavens but it barely made a ripple despite the fact that Mark Hume in The Globe briefly gave it the imprimatur of proMedia legitimacy....I did hear back from a couple of folks in the know and was told it was old news...nothing new....everybody knows about that....it was all part of the deal from the beginning...You do 'know' the deal, right?....Meanwhile....If a bunch of people are stranded at airports because of snow for a little while....In winter?!!!....Well.....You will hear about that on every single goldarned newscast on every single goldarned news outlet, public or otherwise, for 36 hours straight until....Poof....the story disappears down the rabbit hole completely....with nary a whisper about how none of it really mattered to anyone at all because, after all, nothing from nothing really is nothing....You know....the more I think about it, the more I think Mr. Beer 'N Hockey just might be onto something...

Oh, and by the way.....It's Christmas Eve and the PAB Bots appear to have the day off....Or, perhaps, they are already in their cups because there has not been one single visitor from the gov.bc.ca domain today....Now, compare that to yesterday when the monitoring was set on something approaching infinity....I guess even the government Scrooge lets them off the hook once a year....Or....Does it just have something to do with the fact that Marty is now off on the hustings shucking and jiving for the folks from Sandals Jamaica?....Who really knows with this bunch given that the last man standing appears to be....And this I cannot believe this given this....John Les...

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Nowhere To Run To Baby....Nowhere To Hide

Press Queries About The BC Rail 'Problem' Catch Up To Christy Clark In Cowboy Country

Or.....

To be more specific, Merritt.

This time it's Dean Morrison, in the Merritt Herald, that turns away from the rest of the proMedia herd*:

Christy Clark has come out of the gate running, with polling putting her clearly in front of other B.C. Liberal contenders for the coveted position of Premier of our province.

Unfortunately for Clark the B.C. Rail problem is not going away.....

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...For a party heralding itself on making B.C. safe for investment once again, I have to wonder how any potential investors in government projects truly feel about putting in costly and time consuming bids if it is perceived to be all for show — the investor with the heaviest suitcase full of money or closest ties having already secured the contracts.

For Clark it is in her best interests to state repeatedly that justice has been served and the only people still concerned are crack-pots and political rivals but maybe this just goes to show how politically out of touch she really is as she reaches for that brass ring.....

Now.

A few days ago I wondered aloud if Ms. Clark's strate(r)gy to run for the hills and court a more compliant regional press would buy her the time needed for all this unpleasantness to blow over.

Clearly, it looks like that most progressive of pundit-avoidance ploys may be back-firing.

Which, in my opinion at least, is a good thing.

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*By my count that brings the number of renegade proMedia runners to three....Mr. Willcocks in the V-TC....Mr. Smyth in The Province..... and now Mr. Morrison in the MHerald....I guess it just goes to show that when the Dean's away the herd really may stray....

Meanwhile, over at Mr. Tsakumis' place, where the proprietor has now taken to comparing himself to Woodstein and his source(s) to Mark Felt, there is a new set of 'Memos' up. ..... As I noted previously, Mr. T. has presented a reasonable body of evidence to suggest that the memos may have been written by Mr. David Basi himself....I also noted, however, that, regardless, one must be very careful to consider Mr. Basi's ability, or, more to the point, lack thereof, to act as a reliable narrator of his own story....There is also the issue of how little was actually really new in the initial batch of memos despite the voluminous, not to mention vociferous, commentary that the good Mr. Tsakumis provided alongside them .....However, in the Memo #7 (or the third of the latest 'release') there is something interesting and potentially new, which is the issue of how important the 'tax pools' appear to have been to everyone involved back in the Fall of 2003....Why is this, if true, interesting and new?....Well, it would move the timeline on what we previously dubbed the 'Tax Credit Default Swap' crisis up by about six months.....Ultimately, this became the insurance policy that CN Rail took out when it 'bought' the old BC Rail's (in our opinion mostly bogus) 'debt' as a tax dodge. The insurance, which we the people of BC provided at inflated interest rates, was apparently critical for getting the deal nailed down when it was jeopardized at the last minute when then [and still!] Premier Gordon Campbell suddenly started insisting, for political reasons in the public prints, that the deal was a lease and not a sale ( the point of the insurance being that the Feds might not grant CN a tax write-off on the debt if CN did not actually 'own' it)....Given all that, it is important to realize that CN Rail still holds that insurance policy, and that it has grown in size, at compounded interest, ever since the deal was sealed in the summer of 2004. As a result, we the people of British Columbia (ie. not Mr. Campbell or his cronies), are currently potentially on the hook for all of it, to the tune of more than $600 million dollars.....All of which has us wondering.....Why the heckfire is no one talking about that bit of fiscal (ir)responsibility?...And of course, some of us are also wondering who brokered that insurance deal and strapped those egregious usurious interest rates on our (ie. not their) backs?

Oh, and given the header to this post, we would be remiss if we didn't point you back towards.....this.

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