10 replies »

1. There's no doubt the LNG miracle has faded and may not come to life for a few years. Yes the Liberals have spent huge amounts telling us how great LNG will be despite it's non existence.
   However, I believe the next wave of good news from Christy will be ” Statistics Canada found that employment has experienced an upward trend since spring, bringing year-over-year gains to 60,000 or 2.6 per cent, which is the highest employment growth rate among the provinces.”

   I'm a bit surprised by that conclusion when it seems that throughout the year we read various months where BC lost thousands of jobs. So Norm, my question is, Am I missing something here or is BC ahead of other Provinces in job growth “
   ( I ask this because when such announcements are made, you usually come up with graphs & numbers suggesting it's wrong )

   Guy in Victoria

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2. She may be reluctant to mention it because all the new jobs are in her PR department.

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3. The latest unadjusted labour numbers from Statistics Canada show a loss for British Columbia during November of 36,000 full time jobs and a gain of 10,000 part time positions. The employment rate dropped from 60.5% to 60.1% in one month.

   Unfortunately, Harper Government worked to politicize Statistics Canada and reports that are adjusted for seasonality and/or trends are questionable. My preference is to look at unadjusted numbers that are less subject to purposeful manipulation.

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4. Did you read this from today? These people are crazy:

   http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vaughn+palmer+site+creeps+clean+solution/11564041/story.html

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5. Thanks Norm…. we can always count on you.

   Guy in Victoria

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6. The B.C. Labour Market Outlook produced by the ever-reliable BC government (with the aid of the also ever-reliable consulting firm KPMG) says that there will be one million job openings created in BC by 2022 by “confirmed or planned economic activities”. According to the report, economic activity includes retirements and 669,800 of the one million new openings will be due to that factor. The remainder, plus an anticipated 100,000 due strictly to LNG activity (found in the fiction section of the report), will be from “economic growth”.

   So my question related to Guy’s observation is whether BC is leading the country in economic growth, or is it simply leading in retirements?

   With regard to buying a government, we should remember that Gwyn Morgan was waiting in the office for Christy when she arrived. He came with the title of “transition advisor” and had a pocketful of cheque stubs from massive campaign contributions to the BC Liberals in general (over $160K) and one of $10K to Christy Clark’s leadership effort in particular. That’s not counting much more from associated corporate interests.

   Transition advisors are essential when there is a change in government, and less common when just the leader changes and the government remains. The reasons are obvious, and relate more to matters of government policy than process.

   So it is not unreasonable to ask what experience in formulating government policy Mr. Morgan brought to Christy’s ear, what transition in government policy he was assisting with, and whether the change of fortune in BC’s finances related to the oil and gas industry (his core business interest) was coincidental.

   Nor is it unreasonable to ask whether he came alone.

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7. Did you notice that nowhere in his article does resource industry partner Vaughn Palmer mention the cost citizens would face?

   “…ensuring that BC Hydro is able to commit to supply contracts that provide, on reasonable commercial terms used in other jurisdictions in similar circumstances, for damages in the event of failure to deliver new supply within agreed upon time frames and, in the case of LNG, for liquidated damages in the event of interrupted supply. “

   “Reasonable commercial terms” is code for subsidized rates. In last two fiscal years, BC Hydro sold power to industry for 5.1 cents a KWh. It bought power from IPPs at 7.8 cents a KWh.

   New power from Site C will cost about 12 cents a KWh.

   It is reasonable to match marginal consumption with marginal costs so, even if BC Hydro sells power to the LNG processors at the industrial rate (they want to pay less) residential ratepayers and/or taxpayers will be paying half the cost of delivered electricity.

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8. Gas operators should understand that for less than $10,000 a night, helpful columnists can be hired to talk about how to get appropriate coverage in pages of Postmedia newspapers. Being partners with the publisher may not be sufficient.

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9. Amazing the number of mistruths and outright lies that seem to keep popping up with this particular BC government. Manipulation and obfiscation has been taken to an art form by these miscreants..
   There has to be a way, given the often complete misrepresentation of the facts and figures in most of these projects, to nail these people with collusion , or at least some form of fraud or corruption charge. It makes no sense, that the people of this province have no “legal” way to remove these con-artists from power, short of out right rebellion, in my “humble” opinion.

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10. They want to stop BC Hydro from using Burrard Thermal, supposedly because it emits GHGs.

    But apparently it's ok for BC Hydro to supply clean, renewable electricity to LNG plants.

    One of the uses for LNG, once it is shipped the 7,000 km to Asia, is to generate electricity, in plants like Burrard Thermal. Doh!

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