I notice today the BC Business Council summoned Colin Hansen to receive instructions today on new policies. In the new compact Liberal cabinet, Hansen is Minister of Finance, Minister of Small Business and Minister of Health. Does that tell you anything about the strength of the Liberal backbench? Luckily for Gordon Campbell, Mr. Dependable’s loyalty to the Premier goes beyond dedication to the public interest. That amorphous concept is too old fashioned for this gang.

News from the event today reports the Business Council is complaining about the lack of worker productivity in British Columbia. Finally these experts discovered the problem with British Columbia`s economy. It is not declining purchasing power, lack of business competition, high consumer prices, inadequate education and training resources or globalization. It is lack of productivity among workers.

The problem, my friends, is you and your lack of productivity.

Of course, the Liberals are exempt from productivity ratings of the Business Council. They must be exempt because, if Jock Finlayson and friends checked government productivity, they would reconsider the immense financial support they provide to BC Liberals.

For example, the Liberal Ministry of Children and Family Development is still struggling to implement governance and efficiency recommendations the Auditor General made four years ago. However, no ministry is worse than the Attorney General, a department with a horrendous record of effectiveness, despite employing some of government’s highest paid professionals. In the worst of the worst cases, the AG has had the file open regarding Frank Paul‘s in-custody death for more than 12 years. Following is a list of cases from a Northern Insights article in March 2010. Unfortunately, the list is not complete:

• MV Queen of the North, a single charge for criminal negligence laid four years after the sinking.

• RCMP Cpl. Monty Robinson was charged with obstruction of justice, but not impaired driving, 13 months after the traffic death of Orion Hutchinson. His defense was accepted by the CJB despite rejection of it by a judge reviewing an administrative suspension of Robinson’s license for driving while impaired.

• A decision to lay no charges was made 27 months after Vancouver PD shot and killed Paul Boyd even though Boyd was shot repeatedly while disarmed, on the ground, not resisting.

• A decision to lay no charges was made 82 months after a Special Prosecutor was appointed to review possible charges against people associated with the defence team of Inderjit Singh Reyat.

• A decision to lay no charges against RCMP Cst. Ryan Sheremetta was made 52 months after the shooting death of Kevin St. Arnaud.

• An independent prosecutor made no decision for more than 24 months after appointment to review the investigation of former Solicitor General John Les. No charges were laid against Les.

• After 39 months, no charges have been filed against RCMP officers involved in the death of Robert Dziekanski even though the Braidwood Inquiry made clear the homicide was unnecessary.

• In 1998, Frank Paul was dragged by constables from Vancouver City jail and dropped in a wet cold laneway, propped against a wall, where he was found dead of exposure the next day. The Attorney General’s Criminal Justice Branch refused to approve charges against the police officers who contributed to Paul’s death. The Davies Commission of Inquiry sought to compel evidence about the CJB’s decision. The Branch argued against explaining its actions, appealed to the Supreme court, lost and took the case to the Court of Appeal. It lost there and appealed again, this time to the Supreme Court of Canada, where they lost again. More than 12 years after Frank Paul’s death, the BC AG continues to battle against disclosure of information that might be embarrassing to the Department. The Paul Family and natural justice continue to be abused.

• Of course, the infamous BC Rail case dragged on for almost seven years after RCMP raided the Ministries of Finance and Transportation. It ground to a halt without satisfactory resolution when the government paid the defendants $6 million and allowed them an extraordinarily inconsequential non-custodial sentence, an unprecedented act given sentencing guidelines for the offenses.

The BC Business Council is mostly worried they will lose the HST windfall provided by the Liberals so, in reality, discussion of productivity is only a diversion to make us feel sorry for the bastards.

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