…After BC Hydro made all the IPP contracts Premier Campbell found that California did not consider “run of river” generation green. Not asking California first means BC Hydro made a $40 billion mistake that we are all paying for now.
BC Ferries is another example of gross economic and financial incompetence. The three ships built in Germany were wrongly powered, a fact pointed out to President Hahn by a former and respected BC Ferries design engineer and the German builders. Because of getting the “ship scale” wrong, a transport term used to describe the matter of sizing the vehicle, ship or airplane to the specifics of the job, we have three too large boats in service that operate with one complete deck taken out of service. That is the equivalent of about 15% of the total ships’ weight that produces no revenue but has its costs as depreciation and fuel burn. This penalty is for the life of the ships which is maybe 75 years…
Famed commentator Rafe Mair asks why BC Hydro news has been unreported by British Columbia’s mainstream media. Rafe poses questions to Postmedia:
Where have Vaughn Palmer and Mike Smyth been? Where have your reporters been? Where have your energy experts been? Where the hell has your Editorial Board been while the Campbell/Clark government through an enforced “sweetheart” deal between BC Hydro and large International Power Producers have bankrupt the former and unjustly enriched the latter?
IN-SIGHTS 
A good friend of mine took early retirement instead of working on the “Die Zitronen” as he called them. There is much wrong with these boats and a lot of money has been spent to accommodate their operation
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I suspect many readers here — and, by extension: most British Columbians — will not invest the time to watch this interview… but it is well worth the effort. This current government needs to go and the next one needs to start reversing the crimes that have been committed under the BC Liberal watch.
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Might be a good time for friend and others to provide the public with information. Unmarked envelopes always welcomed by commentators who prefer truth to spin.
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It is an hour well spent and the subject matter has grown even more urgent by the passage of time.
Maybe Damien could edit a nice tight 5 minute highlights version. He's a busy guy though, taking his new film through the hinterlands, doing what Liberals dare not do: talking to ordinary people.
Fractured Land, a Rayher/Gillis production
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We all know why el gordo wanted those ferries built in Germany and their bankers were happy to accommodate him. they are gas guzzlers and those who worked on them from the get go were well aware of it as were those who travelled on them.
of course the media isn't going to report on any of it. Postmedia owns the Vancouver Sun and Province and they make a lot of money on provincial government advertising. 48% of PostMedia is owned by an American hedge fund which supported harper. Does any one really think they will say anything negative about Christy clown and her cabal? Not so much.
One can understand a journalists needing to make a living, but really, there are other ways besides “whoring”, because that in my opinion is all guys like Baldrey, Palmer, Symthe do.
The people of this province have no one to blame but themselves, they have voted the B.C. Lieberals into office for 15 years so I think it reasonable to conclude they don't care about 4 dead kids in care, child poverty, schools not up to earthquake standards, long wait lists for surgery, etc. Eventually this will hit the middle class also but by then it will be too late. we will be Detroit North
The Albertans at least are smarter than us in B.C. They, when they decided there was too much sleeze in their provincial government, voted them out of office.
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Fast Cats part “duex”, the irony is staggering, the new fast ferries, so much more costly and flawed. Such is the world of those that know nothing of which they speak. Incompetance? You bet. The taxpayer, continues to be shafted, by the malfeasance known as the BC Liberals. Gordo or Christy, makes know difference. The intent has always been to “control” the taxpayer monies. The benefit, to that special inclusive group of “theives” that maintain the corruption within the party, has always been the goal. Our system, of governance lacks the controls and both legal and by accounting methodology at source, to prevent the manipulation of a democratic government. It seems, this “con” has been “engineered” by a select group of “professionals”, whose sole purpose is to subvert a democratic method of governance, while systematically enriching themselves and their select inner circle.
Thank you Norm for your great work in compiling what will surely be part of the evidence in future procedures, in order to deal with the corruption, in what is becoming the premiere textbook case,
for gross political corruption in Canada.
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This is what BC Ferries also offers consultant work for retirees, though many do not take up the offer. Still, one doesn't want to bite the hand that feeds it.
The one story completely ignored by the MSM, was that the massive prop-wash from these boats completely exposed the pilings at docks and hundreds of millions of dollars were spent reinforcing dock pilings. They are also voracious gas guzzlers (at the current schedule), and are only profitable if over 70% of the car space has been sold.
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