This Evening In Clarkland...What Did We Get For Our Million(s)?

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IdeologyVille

So.

What did we get for all that money that the BC Liberals spent fighting to overturn a court decision that itself sought to reverse Ms. Christy Clark's trashing of our public education system?

Absolutely nothing!

Say it again...

A cool single million Cookie Dough Mike?

Sure thing.


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Meanwhile, the amount of money we give to private schools just keeps on going up...And that's BEFORE the additional tax breaks for those who need them least.

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This Day In Clarkland...."It's Before The Ombuds Guy!"

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KrakatoaEastOfSteroidsVille


Remember back in the darkest dark days of GordCo, Inc. when every BC Liberal government member's non-answer to any and all questions about BC Rail, including those that had little or nothing to do with the actual 'trial',  was concluded with  'It's before the courts'.

And just in case you've forgotten, this was taken to a laughable extreme by then Attorney General Wally Oppal when he was cornered by, gasp!, Ron Obvious and the Dean...

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Anyway...

It turns out that those Golden Era days have nothing on what's going on in Clarkland right here and right now.

What am I talking about this time Alfie?

Well, in today's report on the stuff that was being passed by the Ministry of Health to the RCMP  about the fired Healthcare researchers by Andrew MacLeod in the Tyee, a Clarklandian PAB-Botian-type member of the flack-hackery had this to say when asked for an explanation:

“The Ombudsperson has begun his investigation, and I expect any questions will be answered through that process.”


Imagine that!


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The YouTube video above was shot by the invaluable chronicler of all that went down during the reign of GordCo Inc., Sean Holman.


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The Golden Era Re-Visited....He's Baaaaaaaaaaaccccckkkk!

IfGordCoIncFlewInToday
They'dSendALimousineAnwayVille


And just look what he's pushing...

....(Clean Energy B.C.) invited (former premier) Harcourt, and former premier Gordon Campbell, to deliver keynote speeches to this year’s conventions as the “architects” of government policies that enabled private-power producers to establish, and then expand to account for a quarter of B.C.’s electricity supplies, said executive director Paul Kariya...

{snip}

...Harcourt argued that the province should devote more resources into developing other renewable-power sources, including sources such as wood-fired biomass generation, pursue more aggressive efforts on climate action and “cut (our) losses” with Site C.

“You mothball it, you say ‘we’ll put $2 billion in, but not $15 to $17 billion,” Harcourt said, with the latter figures being his guess at cost overruns based on the experiences of other big dam projects around the world.

Campbell, however, maintained that Site C adds to B.C.’s backbone of constant hydroelectric power that can be used to balance the addition of more electricity from intermittent sources such as wind or run-of-river hydro. 

“Full disclosure, I announced Site C,” Campbell said. “I was for Site C and I remain (in favour of) Site C. I think (it) creates (power) storage capacity for us that’s important.”

However, Campbell said he doesn’t want to see Site C built in a way that would preclude further private-power development...


So there you have it, straight from the former Premier's mouth....Cronies in the public trough slopping around while having their cake and eating it too!

Oh boy.


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The quotes above are from a story by Derrick Penner in Monday's VSun....Tip 'O The Toque to an Anon-O-Mouse in the comments for the heads-up.
Also had an off-line tip from a reader who knew that the good Mr. Campbell was in town because they saw him on the street in downtown Lotusland recently...Apparently the willeeeees that ensued took quite some time to subside...


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This #BCL16 Weekend In Clarkland...Sometimes Even The Wizardry Will Just Say Anything.

HowAreThoseLongtermPoliciesAndPriorities
WorkingOutVille

Link

Hmmmmm...

Actually, no.

Metronews' David Ball had that story recently. Here is his lede:

As child poverty in British Columbia climbs, kids are reaching school age more vulnerable than anytime in the past 15 years, a new University of B.C. report has found.

One in every three B.C. children now enters Kindergarten under-performing on a childhood wellbeing index developed by the university’s Human Early Learning Partnership, the Early Development Instrument (EDI)...


So...

It would appear that little thing with the fine folks behind the BCLiberal party's curtain who are so full of 'ideas' is so ideological....errrrr... political.

And that includes child poverty.

Imagine that!


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Longterm policy?.....Indeed.


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This Day In Clarkland...Resource Extractor Families First!

DoNotPayAttentionToTheWizardsBehindTheCurtain
GivingAwayAllYourTreasureVille


Well, well, well...

#BCL16 is done, and a good chunk of the party faithful has voted to make sure FN don't get theirs.

Meanwhile, as Norm Farrell (he's baaaaaaack!) notes that the BC Liberals under Christy Clark are making darned sure that the resource extractors are getting all of theirs.

And more:

...Christy Clark’s Liberal Government turned the resource royalty and rights program upside down. In 2016, BC started paying gas producers to remove and sell BC gas. By ordinary accounting standards, natural gas cost the province more than $400 million in fiscal year 2016.

With the Liberal plan to provide massive amounts of electricity to gas producers at a fraction of the price BC Hydro pays to acquire power, the gas industry is at the centre of a looming financial disaster like no other before it in BC history...

Gosh.

Wonder how many of those credit-raking extractors are foreign leverage-seekers on that BCLiberal party donor list compiled by Dermod Travis and Integrity BC that sits at the bottom of Douglas Todd's piece in yesterday's VSun?

Not that any of that foreign leveraging could have possibly gone directly into the good Ms. Clark's apparently conflicty-free pocket or anything over the last five years.

Right?


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Right?

This Day In #BCL16 Land...Madame Premier, Your Base Is Showing.

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PartyLogoVille 

Link

Which begs the question...

What percentage of the never deplorable, but always faithful (at least as long as there is no viable BC Con party), folks at #BCL16 would have voted FOR a resolution calling for the worsening of such relations?



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And just who, exactly, is working so hard to make sure that the BC Blues stay blowed-up real good, again, anyway? 


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This Day In Clarkland...Are The Socialist Hordes Inside The #BCL16 Gates?

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ScrewOverTheHelplessRightVille

Link

Of course, the devil is always in the double speak-free details.

Not to mention the execution.


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Meanwhile, the ACTUAL bus claw back for the disabled continues...And, now that it has been mentioned... Still waiting, with bated breath, for that scathing VSun OpEd on the BCL Premier's inappropriate use of 20,000 bus passes to pay for propaganda-driven photo-ops....Or some such thing.


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This Week In Clarkland...Of Empty Seats and Hit Pieces.

DoNotPayAttentionToThoseFormerHarperMen
BehindTheCurtainVille


The BC Liberal Party is doing something really, really Yuuuuuuge(!) on 'accountability' with esteemed cabinet members this fine Saturday morning.

However, unlike, those chosen few who are willing to secretly fork out thousands in return for influence....errrr...dinner, it appears that the rank-and-file are just not that interested in what's on offer:

So.

With all that going on in the wake of concerted critical coverage on issues of substance over the past couple of weeks, what's the wizardry to do?

Well, with no local version of a guy named Comey in the fold, it would appear that they've decided to go with their next best thing.

The hit piece.

Gosh.

Would'a thunk it could still happen?

Especially now that their former guy on the inside of the hit piece-making machinery is now fighting humanity's greatest challenge by pretending that challenge, which he has previously disavowed, doesn't even exist (kinda/sorta like upstream emissions don't exist, also).

I you get my Big Muddyish-type drift.

OK?


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Defining What Is Presidential And What Is Not.

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'RUsVille


Presidential, via CNN:

President Barack Obama rebuked a crowd of Hillary Clinton supporters Friday after they shouted down a man holding a Donald Trump sign.

Obama was addressing a get-out-the-vote rally for Clinton here when the man, wearing a military uniform and hat, stood up in the bleachers and prompted the response from supporters of the Democratic nominee.

"Hold up! Hold up! Hold up! Hold up!" Obama shouted over and over as the supporters drowned out his calls for order.

"Everybody! Hey!" Obama yelled. "I told you to be focused and you're not focused right now."
The President then reminded the crowd "we live in a country that respects free speech," adding the man looked like he possibly served in military, saying, "we ought to respect that."...

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Not presidential, also via CNN:

...Trump later on Friday mischaracterized Obama's handling of the protester, accusing Obama of becoming "unhinged" and of "screaming at this protester."

"Frankly, it was a disgrace," Trump said at a rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania...


'Nuff said?


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This Day In Clarkland...The Immaculate eDrive Deception.

TheLastStanding
SparklePonyVille


As Bob Mackin notes it's nothing but a gimmick:

So, get out there and sign up for your Site C electrons!

After all, we've got to do something with all that surplus power that we are going to fleece the rubes in perpetuity to produce.

And as for all those 'upstream' emissions?

Well.

You know....


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And one hundred jobs?....Seems a long way from trillion dollar windfall to me.

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The Health Care Worker Firings (ctd)....The proMedia Shows It Can Still Lead

PrintCanStill
RuleVille


Two strong media pieces today, following up on Cindy Harnett's piece from yesterday.

First Andrew MacLeod checks in with those actually affected. They are not happy about the document-dump driven delay to a 'toothless' investigation in the Tyee:

People wrongly fired from the health ministry in 2012 shouldn’t have to learn about major developments in Ombudsperson Jay Chalke’s investigation through media reports, say lawyers for some of the former employees in a letter sent to Chalke Thursday.

“Given the legitimate concerns they already had about the government’s decision to refer this matter to your office for a toothless closed-door investigation, our clients should not be expected to monitor Committee proceedings to find out about key developments,” wrote Gary Caroline and Joanna Gislason...


Next, a strong OpEd in the VTC:

In the wake of the firings of several Health Ministry researchers four years ago, the B.C. government had no answers, no explanation. The Opposition and those affected by the firings have encountered nothing but roadblocks in their quest for answers. A lawyer asked to review the incident reported she couldn’t get to the bottom of it because she couldn’t find the documentation that would normally accompany such actions.

Now B.C. ombudsperson Jay Chalke’s investigation has been handed nearly four million documents apparently related to the review.

This scandal has gone from the ridiculous to the absurd. But it is no comedy — careers were put on hold or ended, reputations were besmirched and one person took his own life. The controversy has dragged on far too long, and still no end is in sight...

{snip}

...The issue is not what alleged transgressions led to the firings, but the process involved. To call it flawed is too gentle a description. This is one of the worst human-resources blunders in the history of Canadian public service, and yet no one has been called to account; no one has explained what really happened and why...



The thing is, now is not the time to stop with the digging and the prodding. And it is most certainly not the time for bob-and-weave, protect-the-insider-access-pipeline-at-all costs, wet-noodle "columnizing".

Otherwise it will soon by March, Mr. Chalke will announce he can't possibly release his report so close to the election, and everyone will shrug their shoulders and walk away.

OK?


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Health Research Firings (ctd)...What's In A Dump?

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DelayVille


Well, according to Dermod Travis of Integrity BC at least, in the case of the sudden appearance of 3.8 million documents that no one could find for the last four years it can mean only one thing.

Cindy Harnett of the VTC has the story.

Here is her lede:

B.C. ombudsperson Jay Chalke has an obligation to release, in part or in whole, his report into the firings of eight Health Ministry drug researchers before the provincial election in May, said Dermod Travis of government watchdog group Integrity B.C...

On the heels of revelations Tuesday that Chalke’s investigation has uncovered four million related records for review — as compared with the 200,000 the Health Ministry estimated were relevant — critics are questioning the disparity and the delaying of the report until at least February or March.

“I think the government fully expects the report won’t come out before the election,” Travis said.

The “document dump” by the provincial government was “fully intended” to delay the ombudsperson report until after the May 9 election. It was originally due last month...


I highly recommend you read Ms. Harnett's story in its entirety.

Because it is good.


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This Day In Clarkland...Will We Know Who Fired The Healthcare Researchers Before The Election?

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EverywhereVille


Well...

If you go by what the Ombudsperson had to say yesterday you might be a little worried about that.

From Rob Shaw's VSun piece:

B.C.’s ombudsperson says he’s facing delays in his investigation of the firing of government health researchers, and he may release his final report just before the 2017 provincial election.

Jay Chalke told an all-party committee of MLAs Tuesday that he now expects to complete his work in February or March. The election is set for May 9...


And why, oh why will this take so long?

Turns out that suddenly a magical reverse triple-delete pony with sparkly wings has miraculously appeared:

...Chalke told MLAs one of the reasons for the delay was that he has received four million records, instead of 200,000 that the government had initially estimated it would provide his office...


I would say something snarky here if lives and careers hadn't been ruined by the governments words, deeds and actions on this one.


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Interestingly, one of the 'angles' in Mr. Shaw's piece was that this might actually lead to a pre-election Comey if Mr. Chalke's report were to be released just before May 9th, 2017....I'm betting it will instead be a post-election Fitzmas unless, of course, what Mr. Chalke has to say can be spun positively by the Clarklandian wizardry.


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This Day In Clarkland...The Word Salad Real Estate Fixer.

Link

Hmmmmm...

After all, helping scads more first time buyers get into million dollar plus mortgages they can't possibly afford is just what we need 'round here right now.

(or, perhaps three million plus in that particular riding that the good Mr. Lombardi is running in where Ms. Clark so clearly fears to tread)


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The Milburn Report/Audit ctd...The Dean's Lede vs. Reality.

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TheBuryingVille


First, the lede at the top of Mr. Palmer's piece in today's Vancouver Sun:

When the B.C. Liberals pre-emptively fired the Vancouver School Board two weeks ago, they held back a government-ordered (Milburn) audit of the troubled district because of an outstanding concern about privacy...


Next, from Marcella Bernardo's Roundhouse Radio report back in ancient times (i.e. October 18th):

...When he fired all the trustees, Education Minister Mike Bernier said he can't release that (Milburn) report because BC's acting privacy commissioner is investigating a complaint involving the possible disclosure of personal information.

"That report, again, will come out soon and then, you'll be able to see the information in there."

Acting Privacy Commissioner Drew McArthur was later asked if that's true.

"I'm not in a position to confirm or deny anything associated with the VSB."

"So, you can't talk about whether or not you've been contacted by the Education Minister to determine whether or not that report should be released?"

"You're correct."

Staff have now confirmed an investigation is underway, but there's nothing keeping Bernier from releasing the audit results.

They say 'The Commissioner was not involved in the Ministry of Education's decision not to release' it...



Hmmmmmm....

It would appear that one of those things may not quite be like the other.


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The bizarre thing (or maybe not given his proven ability to pull all punches when push comes to insider access/fence sitting shove) about Mr. Palmer's piece is that he acknowledges that the decision to fire the VSB was made BEFORE any of the apparatchiks (and/or the mouthpiece....errrr...Minister) actually saw the Milburn report before waving that most notable fact away with the following... "Still, the more than 300 pages of findings go a long way to show how the VSB has been an outlier — an outcast even — among the province’s 60 school districts."....Because, you know, a government that uses a serially-hired gun's hatchet job as media-splashed cover to the predetermined firing of a democratically-elected school board is not the real story here, right?


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