This Day's Prediction In Clarkland: Why Cookie Dough Mike's MSP Relief Initiative Will...

...Be A Sham.

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Update: 6pm Budget Day...Why it is, indeed, a sham

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First, the real thing, brought to you by the MoCo:

The idea of collecting medical premiums is dated but one that persists because governments don't like raising taxes, especially not for the wealthier portion of the population, says one health policy expert...

Then there's this, from the Deflector Spike Word Salad Spinner-In-Chief herself:

..."Here is the thing about the MSP system. It is antiquated. It is old, and the way people pay for it generally doesn't make a whole ton of sense, so therefore it is really hard to try and make the sensible changes that we need to do."...


In other words, despite the small amount of relief that will come for a sliver of single parent families later today, this is really all about the small percentage of folks in this province that are well off.

Which has me wondering what it would take to get the majority of the BC Liberal's electoral base to understand that they have been voting against their own best interests, lo these many years.

Gosh.

Did someone say something about a 'Club'?


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This Decade In Clarkland...The Long Tail Of Bad Policy.

ChasingInvestmentAwayAt
TenBillionAPopVille


From Nelson Bennett's latest in BIV:

...Industrial demand for power in B.C. is falling, thanks to the closure of mines and pulp and paper mills, which are both big electricity consumers. Moreover, the B.C. government and BC Hydro decided to put all of their eggs in one basket in meeting future energy demands with a single megaproject: the $9 billion Site C dam.

That has effectively killed the prospects of new wind power projects being funded for at least a decade, according to (the Canadian Wind Energy Association) CanWEA .

“In B.C., I would agree with CanWEA’s assessment that the opportunity is, at a minimum, uncertain and seems to be relatively far out in time,” said Dan Woynillowicz, policy director for Clean Energy Canada. “Over the past several years, I would concur that [based on] the signals from the provincial government and from BC Hydro, there’s fairly limited near-term opportunity.”...


But, then again, I suppose sending all the big guys packing just might open things up a little more for those who could benefit from the shoveling of more of our money off the back of makeshift podiums.

Or some such thing. 



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This Week In Clarkland: The Magical Artificial Insemination Of...

...A Non-Existent Sparkle Pony.

All is detailed in Rob Shaw's latest 'scoop' in the VSun:

The B.C. government will announce the creation of its long-awaited liquefied natural gas prosperity fund in Tuesday's budget, and kick-start the account with a deposit of up to $100 million, The Vancouver Sun has learned...


'Has learned', indeed.

Meanwhile, as Mr. Mair makes clear, the tens of billions we will have to pay for the destruction of BC Hydro is entirely off the books.

It's magic I tell you.

Magic.

Especially when you consider where that $100 million is actually coming from.



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Mr. Springsteen explains what this type of thing is really all about...Here.


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The Keef Report...Yawning Through The Hyperbubble.

Hmmmmm....

Think that former Bash Brother and current economic genius Jose Canseco took care of Mr. Baldrey's 'So?', at least in part, recently on the Twittmachine.



Meanwhile, this just in from one of the Lotuslandian proMedia's young Anti-Keefs:

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Previous Keef Reports can be found...Here.



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Former Bash Brother Weighs In On State Of Vancouver Real Estate Market.

TheOutlaw
Jose(Not)WalesVille



Speaking words of wisdom?

" I use 5:1 ratio of housing value to household income - above that can't be sustained...Vancouver at 11:1 is a hyperbubble. Boom."

Jose C., Las Vegas NV, Feb 10/15

Yes.

It is THAT Jose C.

Or, at the very least, someone who tweets for him.

And, regardless the true author, the thread below the thing is a laugh riot.


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This Weekend In Clarkland...Some Announcements Are Less 'Historic' Than Others.

PR
AsPolicyVille


So.

Was yesterday's Clarklandian announcement on affordable housing (that actually buried a much bigger late Friday document dump) really 'historic'?

All kinds of British Columbians who have been paying attention have come to the fact-backed conclusion that it most definitely was not, including the good folks at the Carnegie Community Action Project:

Yesterday, Feb 12th 2016, the BC government announced that it would spend $355 million over the next 5 years to build up to 2000 “affordable” housing units. The government claimed that this was an “historic” announcement. However, the money referred to in the announcement is not a new investment by the BC government, it is the expected revenue that will be gained from the Non-Profit Asset Transfer Program i.e. the sale of BC Housing buildings to non-profits in the coming years. 

This reinvestment was already announced in the 2015 BC housing Service Plan. At that time it amounted to $418 million spread out as follows: $35M for 2014/2015; $174M for 2015/16; $140M for 2016/17; and $69M for 2017/18...


But it's not just the fact that this was a re-purposed public relational project announcement off a less than optimal program that actually has less money in it now than it did when first announced a year ago (which the proMedia mavens around here, Bob Mackin excepted, pretty much missed entirely) that makes it 'a'historic.

It is also this:

...Building up to 2000 “affordable” housing units over the next five years is not “historic.” In the 1980’s between the mid 1970s and early 1990s, BC built between 1000 and 1500 units of social housing a year...


But nevermind all that.

Because, according to top Lotuslandian opinion makers like Mr. Mason of the Globe and Mr. Palmer in the VSun (and/or his header writer), none of this over-hyped PR-masquerading-as-policy-type stuff that never actually comes to fruition as originally planned/announced really matters anymore now  that Ms. Clark can now feel the 'wind at her back'.

Or some such codswallop.

Sheesh.


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And Where, Exactly, Was Mr. Cheney Yesterday?

BigTimeHe'sOnHisWayHe'sMaking
ItVille


From the Guardian (and every other media outlet in the known universe):

...The San Antonio Express News reported that (former US Supreme Antonin) Scalia was found dead on Saturday morning at a ranch in the Big Bend region of Texas, south of Marfa, and said he had been discovered to have died after not attending a breakfast.

Local ABC affiliate KVIA reported that Scalia died in his sleep after a day of quail hunting...



Inconceivable!

Right?


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At The End Of The Day...

...Sometimes It Is Time To Say Good-Bye.

Mr. Beer 'N Hockey had to say a very hard good-bye earlier today.

All is explained...Here.



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This Day In Clarkland...But Are We Doomed To Repeat It?

And the salad, it is word.

Or some such thing.


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And as for 'doomed' governments and all that....Well....Keef!


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At The End Of The Day...

...Somebody Has To Walk The Whackadoodle.

Even if it is late and raining.

And those eyes might scare the heckfire out of a young LBlair.



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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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This Day In Clarkland: The Advance Man, His Name Is...

...Obvious.

Nevermind those Johnny-Come-Latelys to the LNG stenography club like the good Mr. Palmer of the VSun.

Because it was Mr. Mason of the Globe who was way out in front of 'The Death Of The Sparkle Ponies Means Absolutely Nothing!' curve weeks ago:

...The future of LNG remains at best uncertain, at worst dead, thanks to nasty turbulence in the global energy sector. There will not be a single major LNG venture up and running by the time voters head to the polls in the spring of 2017. The best the Premier can hope for is that some time this year Petronas, the Malaysian energy giant that is closest to making a final call on LNG in the province, announces it is going ahead...

{snip}

...That said, I doubt Ms. Clark is overly worried that her re-election prospects might be dimming because of LNG. The fact is, she has the No. 1 economy in the country, a privileged position B.C. is expected to hang on to for at least a couple of years, according to the Conference Board of Canada. Her government has tabled three consecutive balanced budgets, driven in part by a real estate and construction boom, making it the envy of the country...


Meanwhile, rumour has it that the number of British Columbians who are having trouble paying their jacked-up MSP regressive tax is now approaching the million mark.

Envy of the country, indeed.


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A man named Obvious, you ask?....Well, Chichester Cathedral and all that.


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Lotuslandian Pro-Media: There Is A Club...

...And Stephen Hume Is Not In It.

Mr. Hume's lede, in today's VSun, says it all:

Environment Minister Mary Polak says I was reckless to compare her government’s secrecy about tainted drinking water in the Interior with public health disasters at Walkerton, Ont., and Flint, Mich.

No, what’s reckless is government secrecy. Particularly in response to public concern over the possible health consequences of spreading millions of litres of liquid manure on an aquifer from which hundreds of people at Spallumcheen obtain drinking water.

That water is unsafe for babies, seniors and people with compromised immune systems. The government’s health officers say so. It’s contaminated with nitrates, often associated with agricultural run-off. Testing shows nitrates in the aquifer trending steadily upward.

Here’s what Polak said:

“The essential information is getting to the right people to make informed decisions about water quality, so people’s health is not put at risk.”

First, if tap water’s not safe for at-risk populations to drink — infants, the elderly, the sick — then by definition some people’s health is already at risk.

Second, who are these “right people?” Not, apparently, citizens with unsafe tap water...

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There is a Club?....You bet there is.
Now...Can you just imagine if every Lotuslandian proMedia member went after demonstrable malfeasance by the Clarklandians the way that Mr. Hume does?


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This Day In Clarkland...Is That What They Teach At The Sorbonne?

AllTheDegreesThat
FitVille


Via Mr. Smyth of The Province, our fine Premier explains why the Real Estate Board should just keep on keepin' on:

...Should the real estate industry now be trusted to investigate itself?

“They’re a self-governing profession, just like doctors or dentists,” Clark said. “We’re giving them a chance to fix it themselves.”...


Hmmmm...

And what are the pre-requisites, exactly, for getting into Real Estate School?

And what does the actual 'degree' consist of, not to mention the post-graduate training?



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And isn't it funny that the good Ms. Clark did not mention teachers and self-governance and all that.
The piece by Tomlinson, Stueck and Hunter in the Globe is actually far superior, and gets much closer to the heart of the anti-regulatory matter, than does the usual toss-off from Mr. Smyth...Thing is, the header atop the Globe piece is likely all the Clarklandian Wizards care about ('BC promises action on 'shadow flipping' by province's realtors') because in a land filled with deflector spike spin that need last only 36 hours, max,  nobody really cares about the 2.6% of the electorate that actually reads the articles anyway, right?


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This Day In Clarkland...Which Hand Is Which?

TwoFakeRightsDon'tRightA
WrongVille


On the one hand...

The provincial government will pay for an external study on the impacts of foreign investment and ownership in B.C.’s property market, The Province has learned...

{snip}

...In an email titled “Foreign Investment Research Initiative,” (BC Housing's manager of research Deborah) Kraus writes that, “B.C. Housing has issued a request for proposals for a consultant to conduct research on this topic and expects to engage a consultant by the end of January 2016.” ...

Sam Cooper,
The Province, January 30th, 2016

On the other hand...

Premier Christy Clark said Monday that B.C. has been researching the impact that foreign investment might be having on the local housing market for about a year.

The disclosure suggests her government is more concerned with the role offshore funds could be playing in Metro Vancouver’s red-hot real estate market than it had previously indicated...

Cassidy Olivier

The Province, February 1st, 2016

All of which, of course means absolutely nothing for a leader who doesn't have the guts to actually govern.


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And then, as Laila points out, there is also....This.


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