The Keef Report...Charlie Smith 14 Point Site C Edition.

MyJobIsDone
HereVille


First, the Keef:

Link

And in response, Mr. Smith's 14 points:

1. The Site C dam was a voting decision for this so-called tiny constituency whom Baldrey has berated.

2. Many of these people voted for NDP candidates across the province because they believed, in their hearts, that a government led by John Horgan would halt the project.

3. This belief was rooted in the repeated pre-election criticism of the project from Horgan, Energy Minister Michelle Mungall, and Environment and Climate Change Strategy Minister George Heyman.

4. These Site C voters were confident that an independent evaluation by the B.C. Utilities Commission would show that the power from the Site C dam wasn't needed. Moreover, anyone following the renewable-energy field knew that clean power could be generated less expensively and with far more job creation through methods other than the Site C dam. And this fact would provide these NDP politicians with the justification to halt construction.

5. Indeed, the B.C. Utilities Commission review provided NDP politicians with these justifications. Domestic demand for electricity has been flat in B.C. for a decade.

6. Critics of the project are fully aware that some of the brightest progressive minds in the province think the decision to proceed with the Site C dam was stunningly stupid. These critics believe a major factor in the decision was more than $120,000 in political donations to the NDP from the union representing the operating engineers in the period leading up to the 2017 election.

7. Moreover, the NDP promised to follow the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which has never been an issue of much concern to Baldrey and some of his friends in the press gallery.

8. The hypocrisy of proceeding with completion of the dam while professing fealty to UNDRIP is, in the view of some, even worse than the B.C. Liberal approach, which was to simply pay no heed to UNDRIP and let the chips fall where they may in court. Writer Andrew Frank summed it up best when he referred to the NDP cabinet as "heavy-hearted colonizers".

9. Tremendous advances are being made in the storage of renewable power, which has always been the knock against investing in solar and wind energy. These advances in the storage of renewable power have gone largely unnoticed in the press gallery, but they were given a fair amount of attention in a recent book, Just Cool It! The Climate Crisis and What We Can Do, by David Suzuki and Ian Hanington. Anyone who's curious to learn more can read this article. The mainstream media's failure to cover this issue was a serious shortcoming in its overall approach to the Site C dam. Had this been fully explored, perhaps the NDP government would not have chosen to complete the dam.

10. Municipal and regional governments are making enormous strides in generating their own renewable electricity. Much more can be done in this area at a lower cost than producing Site C power. This point has often been made by one of the foremost critics of the Site C dam, Richmond councillor Harold Steves.

11. Steves has argued that the premier's decision to complete the dam is to provide the energy to power the liquefied-natural-gas industry. If he's right, this will bring the world one step closer to climate-change hell. Anyone who believes Steves on this point can only conclude that the NDP government wasn't being truly honest with the public in explaining why it was going to complete the dam.

12. The NDP's decision to flood massive amounts of farmland in the Peace River Valley is seen by critics as especially foolish, given that there's been no increase in domestic demand for the electricity. Farmland is the new gold, according to former CIBC World Markets chief economist Jeff Rubin.

13. Site C dam critics believe that B.C. Hydro will have trouble servicing its ballooning debt in a world where renewable energy becomes far cheaper and far more plentiful. This debt will then be transferred from ratepayers to provincial taxpayers, crowding out spending for hospitals, schools, and other necessary public services.

14. Some critics of the Site C dam believe that the changes taking place in the energy industry are akin to the transformation in telecommunications from landlines to cellphones. That was a dramatic and quick transition, making the old technology far less appealing. Hydroelectric dams are so 1950s. Distributed renewable-energy generation and storage, including in people's homes and businesses, will be the way of the world in the 21st century. The unions will hate this, but they won't be able to stop it from happening.


And, finally, from literally anyone who has been paying attention because they care about what happens in and to this province:

"This is NOT a game."

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The Keef Report...I Told You (Idiot Bloggers) So.

HindsightIsTweefy
KweefyVille


Looks like one of Keef's latest offerings on the Twittmachine aims to rub some folks' noses in it by simultaneously calling back to....

...Himself.

So.

What did the Keef have to say back in January that we, the great unwashed need to read?

Well...

How about, this:

One of the more intriguing demands by those opposing the Site C dam is that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau step in and block its construction, using the argument that the dam infringes First Nations' rights and poses environmental risk.

The odds of the Trudeau government taking such an extraordinary action are, of course, fairly remote. But the root of the argument -- that the dam tramples on First Nations' rights -- remains very much alive even while the dam's construction proceeds every day.

Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, a leading First Nations leader in B.C., has tried to make the case that only by killing the dam will the Trudeau government show it cares about First Nations. Other dam opponents -- notably environmental and aboriginal activists -- have echoed his demand.

But politically, the argument is a non-starter. There is no way a federal government will override a provincial government decision that is constitutionally protected (provinces have power over non-renewable natural resources, and section 92(a) of the Constitution Act specifically gives provinces power over electrical energy projects, which is precisely what the Site C dam is).

If Trudeau were to indeed try to shut down the dam's construction, he would create a constitutional firestorm that would mortify all provincial governments. Provinces always look askance (or worse) when a federal government tries to stick its nose in their constitutionally-protected business, whatever it might be...

Now.

Here's the thing.

The real issue at hand, as Laila and others have pointed out many times (and which we discussed here the other day) is entirely procedural in that any and all provincial decisions on Site C have been exempted from oversight by the province's own watchdog the BC Utilities Commission.

Therefore, on that basis alone, separate from any and all First Nations and constitutional issues, Mr. Trudeau could have and should have rejected the permits.


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Oh and, for the record...The Keef just waves away environmental concerns given because they don't concern the provincial government....Therefore, ipso facto Neener! Neener! Neener!...Or some such thing.
A very sharp Anon-O-Mouse on the comment threads the other day suggested that Mr. Trudeau may actually be betting that the courts, ruling on the First Nations issues, will ultimately get him off the hook on this one.
Previous Keef Reports can be found...Here (scroll down).


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The Keef Report: Turns Out That...

...He Does Need A Weatherman To Know Which Way The Wind Blows.

And it looks like that weather personage is neither Global's Mark Madryga nor the MoCo's Joanna Wagstaffe.

Instead, the wind whisperer of choice appears to be a new government.

Case in point...

The latest cannonading bit of column making from the good Mr. Baldrey in the Black Press, ostensibly about why the Dipper's toll removal strategy was a winning bit of retail politicking, starts like this:

There were two reminders on display last week of why the NDP is in power in this province and the B.C. Liberals are not.

First came the official confirmation by the auditor general that the last fiscal year ran up a huge $2.7 billion surplus. That’s right: “billion.”

Then came the NDP government making good on a key – perhaps “the” key – election promise by scrapping the tolls on two Metro Vancouver bridges by the end of this month...


And then later, deep in the middle of the piece before he returns to his toll kicker, Mr. Baldrey buries his real lede:

...The B.C. Liberals were more than happy to simply allow the $2.7 billion to be applied to the province’s direct debt, as if that was what voters were clamouring for more than anything else. Funny, I don’t remember anyone, anywhere, in that election campaign, demanding that the direct debt be paid down as the top priority facing the province.

Rather than provide help for those struggling to keep pace with the high costs associated with living in Metro Vancouver, the B.C. Liberals repeated their mantra that “if the economy grows all will be well” and that creating a job was the end-all and be-all of a government’s responsibilities.

But the economy is growing faster than anywhere in Canada and this province has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

And yet the affordability situation remains profound: there is a rental crisis, a homeownership crisis, a mass of people living well below the poverty line, overcrowded transit, high tuition fees, an underfunded education system … the list goes on.

Yet none of that massive $2.7-billion surplus was spent on trying to solve some of those problems. Instead it was applied to paying down a particular and somewhat abstract portion of the province’s debt (which, overall, continues to climb).

In retrospect, I’m sure the B.C. Liberals are realizing what an obtuse, out-of-touch choice they made...


Gosh.

Don't know about you, but I, for one, don't recall Mr. Baldrey driving that last bit home with his audience anytime before the wind changed on May 9th.

Did I miss something?



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Previous Keef Reports can be found....Here (scroll down).
Tip O' the Toque to Jen Stewart on the twittmachine for the directional wind blowing concept...
Sub-header-induced Earworm raging?....This oughtta take care of it.


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The Keef Report...Dad!!!

Why'sEverybodyAlwaysPickingOn
MeVille


Gosh.

The Keef's skin sure is thin.

Because after months and months of deriding them he figures teachers should be all thankful and worshipful because of a one-off he has written in the BurnabyNow.

Thing is, it looks like most of the comments that the Keef is complaining about on the Twittmachine are actually pointing out something legitimately problematic (i.e. something that is neither credible nor established) with his BNow piece.

To wit:

...Last week's innocuously entitled Education Statutes Amendment Act (Bill 11) took an easy swipe at one vulnerability of B.C.'s teachers: their mysterious professional development days, which seem to have grown like untended weeds over the years...


Uh, actually...

No.

Because while in the Keef's conventional wisdom mind's eye Pro-D days may have 'seem(ed) to have grown like untended weeds over the years', they have not.

There are actually six such days per year and that number is mandated under the provincial school act.

How do we know this?

Because fine folks such as those that run school district 45 explicitly state it on their on their website:

...Under the School Act, British Columbia’s annual school calendar allows for six (6) non-instructional days for teachers to pursue continuous, career-long professional development.

One is a Provincial Professional Development Day, shared by all schools in the province. The other five dates are District Professional Development Days, which are established by each school district, in consultation with teachers, support staff and parents...


Perhaps if the Keef were to start actually, you know, start showing his work it might help.



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Previous Keef Reports can be found...Here.
And if this one-off, which does contain some serious fact-based opinions, were to becom a real honest-to-goddess follow-up two- and/or three-off?...Well, maybe then the established tone of our highly credible, but truly idiotic, reports might just change....


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Pay-To-Play proMedia Pundit Round-Up...The Good, The Bad And The Keefly.

ThereIsA
ClubVille


First, the good, from Kate Webb in Vancouver Metro:

I’ll admit it. The first time I read about Christy Clark’s $20,000-a-plate fundraisers, in which donors pay for access to B.C.’s most powerful politician, I shrugged and thought, “What else is new? Isn’t that just how politics works? How else would parties raise enough money to win an election?”

But it’s not “just how politics works,” and there are other models, and my initial apathy is indicative of how normalized B.C.’s culture of corruption has become. As I learned after some digging, most of the provinces in Canada, as well as the federal government, have banned these types of payments for access, because they create clear conflicts of interest.

Like Ontario — whose Premier is currently caving (wisely) to similar pressure to reform her province’s campaign finance laws — British Columbia is one of the few jurisdictions left in Canada with absolutely no limits on how much individuals, corporations and unions can donate to political parties. What’s worse — they can do it anonymously.

The good news is that, with the 2017 provincial election one year away, we are about to see a huge resurgence of the movement to get big money out of B.C. politics.

Democracy Watch, a non-partisan advocacy group, issued a press release last Thursday calling these private fundraisers attended by B.C. politicians “a clear violation of conflict-of-interest laws that prohibit politicians across Canada from accepting gifts connected with their positions.” The group is urging B.C. to adopt Quebec’s model, which limits individual donations to $100 a year plus another $100 in election years, and bans union and corporate donations...



Next, the bad, as reported by longtime reader Lew:

(Yesterday) afternoon just after one o’clock on CKNW, Assistant News Director Charmaine de Silva was chewing the fat with Simi Sara about Christy Clark’s fundraising activities. In the face of numerous NDP attempts to introduce a bill banning union and corporate donations (the latest well advertised for this afternoon), and the fact it was one of the planks in the NDP’s last election campaign, they offered this:

Assistant News Director: “What’s interesting to me is I think this is a real opportunity for the NDP…if the NDP wants to jump on this and say they’re in support of banning union and corporate donations...but remember, the NDP has played on this side of the fence as well...they don’t want to ban union donations…”

Simi Sara: “They have to! Come on! Plum opportunity here!”

Assistant News Director: “That’s what I’m saying. I mean this is an opportunity…if you want to say that you’re on the right side of this...you can do this as well, but I...you know what… I heavily doubt that’s gonna happen because the NDP without…without…you know, they get a fair share of corporate donations as well, plus union donations...that’s gonna be a…a big problem for that party also…”

Simi Sara: You know who loses? We do. We lose with all of this. It’s just ridiculous!”...



Finally, the Keefly, from the Keef:

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And, lest you think I have been selectively exclusionary on pay-to-play (or even secret big money hook-up tweets sans pay-to-play) tweets from the Keef, feel free to scan his Twitmachine feed (if you must).
This has been a special kinda/sorta edition of 'The Keef Report'....Previous editions can be found...Here.


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The Keef Report...Sometimes A Lake Is Just A Lake.

AndSometimesItIsSoMuch
MoreVille


First, this, from the Keef back in January:

Next, this, from today, via CTV News Vancouver Island:

The BC Supreme Court has ruled that a controversial soil dump positioned above Shawnigan Lake’s drinking watershed is not a permitted land use for the site.

It’s a key victory for residents who have been fighting to stop the site from operating in their community...


And as for all that W5 digging and investigative journalism 'n stuff that happened in the interim that was driven by area residents?

Well....

That wasn't on the Keef's network, so who cares, eh?


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Tip 'O the Toque to reader Lew on the Twittmachine.
Previous editions of the Keef Report can be found...Here.


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The Keef Report...Turtling On Captain Kirk.

BeamHimUp
(Would'yaPlease)ScottyVille


A Twittmachine denizen by the name of Shatner responded to someone without so many followers and the Keef felt compelled to comment in a most Keefian way:

And then the Shatner responded to the Keef's comment in a most 'interesting' manner:

Which led to some mighty fine turtling, not to mention Chamber of Commercing, by the Keef that seems to have since disappeared. However, the retweeting of the Shatner's fan club exhortation remains:

And, just to be clear, according to the timestamps none of this happened after 9:00 pm, at least not on a weekend.


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We have noted the Keef's penchant for being dismissive of those with not enough followers to please him in the past....
Tip O' The Toque to reader Lew for the heads-up.
A compendium of previous Keef Reports can be found...Here.


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The Keef Report: When Are 'Rumblings' Not Wild-Eyed Rumours?

Well.

Apparently.

When the Keef says it...

Link.

Not that we would ever dare to suggest that a phone call or three from Marky-Mark would ever constitute a rumour or anything.


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Did anyone else notice the vagueness in Mr. Baldrey's 'report'?...Specifically, what the heckfire, exactly, does 'firmer' mean?...Interestingly, when a Twittmachine reader rejoiced at the 'good news' Mr. B. replied that there won't likely be an announcement for 'weeks' and noted that, regardless, this is 'reason to hope'...So, given all that, one can only wonder if Global's man in Victoria ever stopped to consider the possibility that he was/is being spun as an advance man of inevitability?
Why make a fuss about this particular tweet, at all?....Well, when someone else with their ear to the ground suggests that they have some inside info on a matter of import....Ya...You guessed it.
Norm Farrell points out a little bit of source-backed reality...Here...As does Grant G in the comments.
Finally, as always, previous editions of the Keef Report can be found...Here.

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The Keef Report....The Tipping Of The Dippers.

ExileOn
KeefStreetVille


It's not often that we have two Keef Reports in one day, but the following was impossible to ignore:

 Link

Now, based on the time stamp, one can only assume that the Keef banged this out after he learned of the Conservative victory in Manitoba last night.

Interestingly, I don't remember him tweeting anything similar about the Cons after they got stomped in the Albertalands and Fed-Gen elections recently.


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Previous editions of the Keef Report can be found....Here.



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The Keef Report....Ire, Matey! (sic)

HaveMemory
WillTravelVille


First, a note from the coiffuraltory doppelganger of the new Dipper Education Minister Rob Fleming....

Link

Next, at the risk of raising the ire of the Keef, the following are the fabulous bleatings of 'former' Transportation/ICBC Minister, BC Liberal MLA, Mr. Todd Stone, as reported by Greg Fry of CFJC:

Shameful.

The reaction of Kamloops - South Thompson Liberal MLA Todd Stone to the NDP's decision to hike ICBC rates.

Yesterday, B.C. Attorney General David Eby confirmed ICBC is asking the provincial utilties commission to raise rates by 6. 4 per cent this year to cover losses totalling over $500 million last year. Eby said optional rates will also rise noting the average driver will see a blended increase of eight per cent.

"I think it's very disappointing," said Stone. "The vast majority of motorists in this province have both the basic and the optional insurance coverages and they're going to pay an additional $130 more now because of this decision the NDP has taken."

He said the move to hike rates comes on the heels of "an array of intitiatives the BC Liberal government implemented the last four years to keep rates as low as possible."

Those initiatives included cracking down on fraud, targeting distracted driving, implementing a new IT system (which he says saved ICBC $90 million) and reducing management and salaries by 50 per cent...

Gosh.

Don't know about you, but I sure was surprised that the good Mr. Stone did not mention the following, as reported by many last fall, including the VSun's Rob Shaw:

...The government has taken $1.2 billion in profits from the optional insurance side of ICBC’s business since 2010, when it changed the law to allow itself to siphon money from the corporation and use it for general revenue...

Surprise!


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And, as mentioned yesterday, despite the kerfuffle on the Twittmachine, I think we should actually give Mr. Baldrey a break re: the Fleming hair thing, because it really does look like he was joking (note the Keefly re-tweet)...


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The Bleatings Of Bill Bennett...Not Just For Domestic Consumption Anymore.

InternationalIncidents'RHim
Ol'TurdstormerVille


On February 24th, Clarklandian Mining Minister Bill Bennett gave it to the Juneau Alaska Empire for what he saw as a misrepresentation of the facts:

It’s unfortunate your editorial has seized upon the Mount Polley mine tailings storage facility failure to undermine the long tradition of respectful relations and co-operation between British Columbia and Alaska on mining development and environmental protection.

A breach of this magnitude is unprecedented in British Columbia in over 160 years of mining. Major breaches of tailings storage facilities have happened all over the world, including in many U.S. states. Your suggestion, based on the Mount Polley failure, that in B.C. we are somehow less responsible in developing our mining industry than you are in Alaska, or that we’re charging forward without due care for environmental protection is based on a misrepresentation of the facts...


Well.

The fine folks who run the little newspaper in the city sometimes mistaken for Ellen Page these days were not amused.

The following is from their response published March 22nd, 2015:

It’s not often the Juneau Empire offers a rebuttal to an submitted column. Waging a back-and-forth war of words isn’t fair for the other party. We buy ink by the barrel and have dedicated staff to get the word out online as well.

However, we must respond to the Feb. 24 'My Turn' penned by Bill Bennett, the Minister of Mines for British Columbia.

Let us start off by addressing the first portion of Mr. Bennet’s piece when he states it was “unfortunate your editorial has seized upon the Mount Polley mine tailings storage facility failure to undermine the long tradition of respectful relations and co-operation between British Columbia and Alaska on mining development and environmental protection.”

Perhaps Mr. Bennett has forgotten about the Tulsequah Chief Mine. Southeast Alaska has not forgotten.

The Tulsequah Chief Mine, located south of Juneau on the Taku River just across the Canadian border, has leached acid runoff into the Taku River since its closure in the 1950s. The Taku boasts notable salmon runs, the same runs which in turn give jobs to many commercial fishermen. There were efforts to revitalize the mine, but those failed for financial reasons and to this day acid continues to taint the Taku...

{snippety doo-dah}

...In the next section of your piece you state the Empire suggested “in B.C. we are somehow less responsible in developing our mining industry than you are in Alaska, or that we’re charging forward without due care for environmental protection.”

Mr. Bennett, there are a number of mines in B.C. that have not done good things for the surrounding environment. The concern from Alaskans stems simply from the desire to not have history repeat itself.

Take the Mount Washington Mine. This 32-acre mine was operational in the 1960s, but beginning in 1966, after the mine’s closure, the population of coho salmon that swam in the adjacent Tsolum River began to suffer. What was once a run of 15,000 fish dwindled to a low of 14 in 1987. According to the British Columbia government watershed assessment in 1995, “the fisheries resource is believed to have declined (by 90 percent) predominantly because of acid mine drainage from Mount Washington.” At one point, the fishery in the Tsolum generated as much as $2 million per year for local communities. Today, the fishery isn’t worth the cost of bait...

{snippety doodle-dandy}

...We read the Mount Polley Report, Mr. Bennett, and we hope you did, too. It clearly states the best way to ensure no tailings dams fail is to discontinue their use. At our neighboring Hecla Greens Creek Mine, a dry stack tailings facility is used. This technology, as noted in the report, is not only recommended but proven to work. Today, Greens Creek is a profitable facility and one Alaskans can be proud to support because our environmental concerns were addressed.

That said, Alaskans are reasonable. We understand that every mine is different. We understand each facility demands a unique solution for tailings storage. But we are concerned that solutions to prevent or completely eliminate a dam breach seem to be going unexplored. Red Chris, for instance, is already filling its tailings facility. Meanwhile, we have heard nothing on whether additional environmental protections have been put in place since the Mount Polley disaster.

Furthermore, you state Red Chris “has not received a permit to go into production.” Yet, a press release from the parent company Imperial Metals on March 2 stated “the plant’s full 12-hour operating shift, without stoppage, took place on February 22,” two days before we published your piece. “The plant milled approximately 15,500 tonnes during that 12-hour period,” the release stated. In February, Red Chris processed just over 193,000 metric tons producing about 2,400 metric tons of copper concentrate.

That sure sounds like “production” to us...

****

Bring it on, indeed.


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And we await, with bated breath, the call out of the Alaskans by the Keef for their lack of standards and/or credibility...Because everybody knows that small time newspaper editors are only a cut above idiot bloggers, right?


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Minimal Minimum Wage Increase...The Keef/Not Keef Report

AllTheTweetsThatFit
EstablishedCredVille


First, the Keef:

Second, the not Keef:

Gosh.

Would a thunk that the Dean would turn out to be the not Keef.

If only for a moment or five.



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Previous editions of The Keef Report can be found....Here.



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Health Care Research Inquiry...Vaughn Palmer, Policy Maker?

Who'sIdeaWasThis
AnywayVille


Which came first, the column or the Minister's 'new' idea?

Both were published today, Thursday June 25th, in the VSun (sans time stamp so I'm not entirely sure who was first as I'm just catching up now, at 7pm, due to busy sci-geek day).

Here's a bit from the 'double-happ(il)y' column by Mr. Palmer under the header 'Public Inquiry not always the best option':

...Happily, there are other options for getting answers and holding the government to account. The keys are independence, coupled with the ability to seek documents, summon witnesses, take testimony under oath and then to write a report that lets the chips fall where they may.

The independent officers of the legislature have the power to do all that and they exercise those powers whenever the need arises. They do so without the spectacle of public hearings and report back to the legislature in timely fashion.

Granted they sometimes incur substantial legal billings as well, though rarely to the extent of a public inquiry. In most instances, they complete their work on budget and in a matter of months.

Mindful of those possibilities, there have been suggestions — from Health Minister Terry Lake among others — to call in the auditor general on the health firings.

In an open letter to Lake Wednesday, seven fired researchers and the sister of an eighth who killed himself expressed a “strong preference” against the auditor general because of the office’s role in passing on the whistleblower complaint that led to the firings in the first place.

Happily there is another option, namely the provincial ombudsman. The leading precedent for that office to inquire into allegations of government wrongdoing was set back in the 1980s, when then ombudsman Stephen Owen reached some damning findings on political interference in the awarding of a pub licence on Knight Street in Vancouver....


And here's a bit from the happy Minister as reported by Rob Shaw:

...B.C.’s health minister says he’s considering asking the province’s independent ombudsperson to investigate the health firings scandal that has plagued the government.

Terry Lake told reporters Thursday that a probe into the botched firings of eight health researchers by the ombudsperson’s office is one way to conduct an independent inquiry without spending too much money or taking too much time.

Lake said asking for an independent watchdog to investigate the file would also address any conflict that exists between having members of the civil service, who were involved in the 2012 firings, continue to decide what information about the case can be released publicly.

“The office of the ombudsperson is potentially that,” Lake said, when asked Thursday...

*****

So.

Regardless who thought of this potential 'solution', (which the Keef has already given his blessing to, btw), all of this has me wondering...

Why?

As in why, suddenly, are the previously stonewalling Clarklandians now bending over backwards to pretend(?) that they are actually amenable to some kind of independent inquiry?

Well....

There is the following, which definitely did come out after both the 'column' and the Minister-babble late today, to consider:

Does anybody not understand the significance of this?

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The Keef Report: Who Needs Triple Delete...

...When You've Got Cookie Dough Mike?

Link

What's it all about this time, Alfie?

Well...

This:

And then, as you might expect, the following response to the Keef has come in from a second Minister of Clarklandia (please note the emoticon):

Gosh.

Do you think these fine folks even know that we're paying attention?

Because, you know, it's all just a game of 'inside baseball' that the real insiders like the Keef know all about and we, the great unwashed, should just shut the heck up about given that this is just the Minister who was in charge of the Health Ministry when all the deals were getting set to go down, deals that are now being investigated by the Ombudsperson (allegedly) because nobody knows what happened when the decisions about said deals were being made (and who made them) because there is no record of the what was actually going on when it was all being planned prior to its execution by the next (and now fully scapegoated) Minister down the line.

And, need I mention, that what went down as a result of those deals ruined peoples' lives for absolutely no good reason at all.

So Ms. Polak can take her emoticon and stick it where the sun doesn't shine.

Which is probably the same place where Mr. de Jong hides all his flaming post-it notes.

Or some some such place.

Sheesh.

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Previous Keef Reports, none of which has been written on a post-it note or, as reader MCG suggests, '4 ply', can be found....Here.

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The Keef Report...Face Value Analysis Of The Clarklandian Budget

What,Me
Dig?Ville


Let's go out past 140 characters this time and have a look at the lede of Keef's latest for the fine folks at Global:

To understand what drives the B.C. Liberal government more than anything, look no further than the budget it tabled last week.

I’m not referring to any particular service or program, or tax or tax break. No, the B.C. Liberals’ priority is zeroed in on one particular line in the budget.

That would be the bottom line, also known as the projected budget surplus. Everything else comes a distant second to the paramount importance the government attaches to balancing its books.

All spending and tax measures flow directly from the zeal with which the B.C. Liberals attach to achieving a balanced budget. The government continues to bet that the voting public backs its fiscal discipline over any kind of spending spree of tax dollars.

This conservative approach does little for those on the margins of society. To take just one example, social assistance rates continue to be frozen, as they have been for years now...


Conservative approach, indeed.

And unlike the Dean, Mr. Baldrey didn't even bother to explain what is really going on re: the massively rising accumulated provincial debt by babbling on incoherently about grocery bills or some darned thing.

Sheesh.


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Further on in Keef almost, but not quite, takes off his yoke when he states that, "...some kinds of taxation, as well as natural resource revenues — are flat-lining or declining..."...Gosh...Wonder if that last bit was actually an admission that Norm Farrell just might have a point or seven hundred what with all his pesky graphs based on publicly available data.
One last thing...Couldn't help but note that Mr. Baldrey got $77 per month disability pre-clawback number wrong (Keef said $72)....Geez...Don't those Global people even have editors anymore to keep sloppy on-air faces in check?...Not that I would want to all Ledgie Boy crazy/derogatory on sloppy on-air faces or anything.
Previous Keef Reports can be found....Here.



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The Keef Report...Keeping Uppity Club Members Down On The Farm.

AllTheFeignedWorldWearyProMediaCynicism
ThatFitsVille


It started when, early on in the process (note the date stamp), CKNW's Shane Woodford had the audacity to tweet-up his shop's story about the Dippers calling for an investigation into Lotuslandian Real Estate practices:

Which brought a pretty swift response from the Keef:

After some back and forth Mr. Woodford did not back down, citing the original Globe story from KTomlinson published on Feb 6th and the subsequent chatter on social media:

Which led to a further response from the Keef:

So...

Given what the BC Liberal government ultimately decided to do re: 'investigating', etc., some might be thinking that Mr. Baldrey will be excoriating the Clarklandians from here to May of 2017 and repeatedly telling the public that said Clarklandians are 'doomed' for running a social media-driven, word salad spinner deflector spike-spun PR....errrr...policy machine.

Which is entirely possible, I suppose.

However, I would suggest that those thinking such a thing should not hold their breath for the duration.

OK?



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You can go have a look at the entire Twittmachine thread....Here....It is rather illuminating that Mr. Baldrey later responds to Rod Mickleburgh's denunciation of the sham inquiry by stating that 'somethin's better than nothing I guess'....Hmmmmm....Does this mean that purposefully obfuscatory 'spin' is actually better than nothing in Keef World?....Gosh, that can't possibly be the case can it?....Except for, well....You know.
There is a Lotuslandian proMedia 'Club'?....You bet there is.


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The Keef Report...Idiot Paywallers!

Link

So.

What's it all about this time Alfie?

I mean...

Is it just that the Keef doesn't like folks that might be smart enough to figure out a way to chop away at the decaying base of his paymaster's debt pile while making a go of it themselves?

Especially given that, as Sandy Garossino of the NatO points out, the paywall concerned is not actually built in the manner described by the Keef:

Or...

Is it possible that the Keef is just really riled by Ms. Garossino's latest NatO piece on the price that the entire public (really) pays for private schools for the few.

Not that those two things are necessarily mutually exclusive or anything.


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Idiots, idiots, everywhere!
Previous Keef Reports can be found...Here.


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The Keef Report...The Commercialization Conflation.

Somewhat bizarre pretzel logic-assisted conflation of hypocrisy and a desire to prevent the commercialization of public schools from the good Mr. Baldrey it would appear.

But even if you are OK with the commercialization thing in general, there is the specific fact that, when things do not go its way on the ground in municipalities it wants to control, Chevron does throw its weight, and its money, around to partisan effect.

To wit, Chevron has gone bonkers in Richmond California, a refinery town where the city council has decided it wants the company to actually play by the state's health and safety rules in the wake of a 2012 refinery fire that generated a toxic plume that sent 15,000 residents to hospital.

Michael Hiltzik of the LA Times has the story:

...A few weeks ago, we described how the giant oil company Chevron was barraging little Richmond, Calif. (pop. 107,000), the site of one of its major refineries, with corporate PR disguised as community "news." Its instrument was an objective-looking website, known as the Richmond Standard, purporting to be a news portal for residents of Richmond.

Now we have more to say about how Chevron (2013 revenue: $220 billion) is trying to influence the upcoming municipal elections in Richmond, which pit a pro-Chevron bloc of city council members against an anti-Chevron bloc.

So far this year, Chevron has poured an astounding $2.9 millioninto three campaign committees in Richmond. Of that, at least $1.4 million has gone to a committee supporting the pro-Chevron candidates and $500,000 to a committee opposing the candidate critical of Chevron, including the current mayor, Gayle McLaughlin. The figures suggest that Chevron is preparing to spend at least $33 for the vote of every resident of the city 18 or older...


And how does this the world know all this?

Well, mostly it's the work of a lowly blogger (you know the folks Mr. Baldrey likes to call idiots without credibility) named Harriet Rowan, a graduate student at nearby UC Berkeley.

Interesting all that, no?


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Previous Keef Reports can be found....here.


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BC Ferry Fares...The Hahn In The Seawest Lounge Machine.

ProhibitivePricePoint
UberAllesVille


I remember a time, back when the man with the gold brick lined parachute was still in charge, when it was almost impossible to get the BC Liberal government minister kinda/sorta responsible to even consider the possibility that 'fares up = ridership down' was a valid equation.

But...

It would now appear that the current CEO of BC Ferries, Michael Corrigan, has jumped all the sharks in the toll booth.

Why?

Because Mr. Corrigan figures the real problem is the fact that folks are actually talking about how high fares are causing less people to take a ferry.

Seriously.

John Gleeson of the Coast Reporter has the story. Here is his lede:

BC Ferries CEO and president Mike Corrigan says the public campaign against high ferry fares is keeping tourists away and could become “a self-fulfilling prophecy” that hurts coastal economies along with the ferry system they rely on.

“At some point in time it becomes almost a pile-on effect,” Corrigan told Coast Reporter in an hour-long interview last week in which he also defended the current BC Ferries business model.

Corrigan said he knows of potential tourists who are avoiding the coastal ferry system due to the negative publicity...


Gosh.

If the good Mr. Corrigan really wants to get some proMedia traction on this latest bit of shim-sham-flimmy-flammy-jambalaya, perhaps he should call up the Keef and offer him a fun-filled plane ride to all the terminals in the realm rather than talking to folks like Mr. Gleeson.

Why would I say something like that?

Well....

You know.


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Do not get the wrong idea based on the link immediately above...This is not an official 'Keef Report'....However, if you would like to read seven or twenty of those they can be found...Here.


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The Keef Report...Savvy Is As Savvy Does.

AllTheCynicalWorldWeariness

ThatFitsVille


As far as Keef-the-Savvy is concerned, it's all about absolute winners and losers in the political power game:

****

Meanwhile, Aaron Wherry, courtesy the MoCo, gives us an actual  sober assessment of what the federal Lib/Dib 'pact' is all about and what it could/might/might not mean in terms of actual political outcomes that could/might/might not affect actual people:

...A governing party that lacks a majority of the seats in the House of Commons essentially has three options. It can attempt to form a coalition government with one or more of the other parties. In that case, the parties would share the responsibility of government, with ministers from each party sitting in cabinet.

Conversely, it can attempt to negotiate with the other parties on a case-by-case basis to pass individual pieces of legislation.

Somewhere in between those two options is what the Liberals and NDP have chosen to pursue. In a confidence-and-supply arrangement, one party agrees to vote to keep the other party in power for a certain amount of time. In return, the party in power agrees to pursue certain priorities and initiatives — typically with some concessions to the smaller party's desires....

{snip}

...The NDP will want to establish that it made certain things happen — things like expanded dental care and the foundation for a pharmacare system. But the Liberals now have some assurance of stability and some reason to believe they will be able to go into the next election with a record of having done things.

Another three years in office also ensures that the big things the Liberals have been working on — climate policy, child care — will be more established by the time any other party gets a chance to make changes...


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Jay Rosen explains the penchant of a certain segment of the pro-punditry to be seen as stylistically savvy...Here.


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