An In-Sights reader identifies the true winners in British Columbia’s October 24 election.
Categories: NDP BC
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in-sights.ca 
Very impressive.
The former government continues to exceed my expectations. I knew Rich Coleman was stupid and uninformed, but his crimal inactions wrt money laundering definitely exceeded my expectations. I’m sure that further revelations about Christy will probably exceed my expectations.
Now, I fully expect our government to be stupid. I also know that our civil servants are corrupt (Les Maclaren and SNC Lavalin). Let’s just hope the new NDP government isn’t going to exceed my expectations again with criminal actions or inactions.
Love to hear what you all think the probability is that Coleman will serve jail time for aiding and abetting organized crime…. my call is there’s a 5% chance.
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I’d wager there’s a 95% chance that he’s guilty, but less than 5% chance that he’ll be held to account.
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Hydro has spent/wasted about 5 Billion dollars so far, and we would lose as much, or more, value in the valley than would be gained by a reservoir. We are looking at spending an additional 8 Billion just to trying and finish it, on a project that we don’t need and will lose money on. So this is big money, and some percentage of it is being spent here. But I expect that the NDP could take that unconfirmed debt, and produce their 1000 dollars election pledge, and do it per person, and have much more economic impact, and develop local industries that would be around a long time. At the same time it would be a quick forgiveness for having gone the wrong direction for so long.
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It is just not site C or BC Hydro that is facing grand economic ills, TransLink is on the verge of self immolation.
Currently the government (Liberal, Provincial Liberal, NDP and regional mayors) have funded $4.6 billion to extend the Millennium and Expo Lines a mere 12.8 km of which 5.8 km will be located in a subway under Broadway. both projects will not take a car off the road.
Now the Broadway subway is being built on the “big lie” theory that if one repeats a lie often enough, the public are bound to believe it. The “big Lie” of course is that Broadway is the busiest transit route in Canada, no North America.
It isn’t, not even close.
The only metric one can use is the Broadway 99B Line bus which operates at a maximum 3 minute headway’s, providing a maximum hourly capacity of around 2,000 persons per hour per direction. The North American industry standard for building a subway is a transit line with hourly ridership in excess 15,000 pphpd!
In the late 40’s, Toronto was operating coupled sets of PCC streetcars offering a capacity in excess of 12,500 pphpd.
here is what TransLink is facing in financial demands to the regional light metro system.
Funded – $4.6 billion for 12.8 km of R/T Line
Unfunded
– $1.6 billion+ To complete the Expo Line to Langley.
– $3 billion to rehab the aging Expo Line (needed before the Langley extension is completed).
– $1 billion+ – New SkyTrain cars to replace the aging MK.1 stock.
Wish List:
– $4 billion+ – Completion of the Broadway subway to UBC
– $5 billion+ – Sending R/T to the North Shore.
– $2 billion+ – Rehab of the Canada Line to increase capacity beyond its current limit of around 9,000 pphpd.
Honourable mention:
$70 million+ in extra annual operating costs for the funded subway to Arbutus and Fleetwood extension.
Pandora’s Box of costs, the 50 year rehab, maintenance and operational costs of the current 12.8 km of about $550 to $1 billion per km.
Current transit planning in metro Vancouver is dwarfing Site C in costs and guess what all the main players with Site C are playing Trains with TransLink and the metro mayors.
I think draft horses would be smarter.
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Mr. Eye,
It’s time to name names and expose the wrongdoers behind these breaches of trust. If you know of incompetents or corrupt executives in Translink, expose them.
We will only be able to start correcting the problems if we remove the people who’s job it is to ignore that there is a problem.
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I wrote a lengthy letter to David Eby just over a year ago, listing problems and and future issues.
He wasn’t interested and said TransLink was free to do as it wishes.
Let us look at the big lie favouring the Broadway subway, that: “Broadway is the busiest transit route in Canada, no North America” and repeated ad nauseam by politicians and boosters.
I wrote to several professional transportation engineers asking if this were true and its not, not even close. Toronto, Boston, New York and Ottawa are just a few which have far busier transit corridors than Broadway.
But my letter raised eyebrows at TransLink and they sent me a terse letter that they did not sate this, rather, “Broadway is their most congested bus route”.
Sounds like more of a management problem and not a $3 billion subway problem.
It goes on and on.
The big problem is TransLink’s executive are so far into the corruption glue, everyone is afraid to deal with it. And, with the mayor’s Council on the gravy train, nothing will happen.
Oh yes, Geoff Meggs, former Vision Vancouver Councillor and big booster of the Broadway subway, is Horgan chief advisor.
Now, newly installed TransLink CEO, Kevin Desmond, is leaving almost tout suit, why?
My guess is Translink is on the verge of bankruptcy and he doesn’t want to be around when the entire charade fails.
The NDP, ever the peoples party, treat public transit as mom and apple pie, so they will not change a thing.
Finally, Meggs and crew has TransLink’s top two planners fired because they stated the obvious by saying there wasn’t the ridership on Broadway to warrant a subway.
Corruption is so entrenched, nothing more than a complete fiasco will change things.
By the way, the figures posted in my first post come from transportation Engineers back east in Ottawa and Toronto. I cannot even come close to print the malfeasance that is happening inn Vancouver.
So TransLink and rapid transit, Metro Vancouver’s version of site C is also on an unstable foundation of slippery financial shale.
The NDP and their FastFerries, tch, tch, tch.
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So easy to be hyper critical. I understand people always want more, and I for one did not like the election called, a real slam at the electorate.
However, i would not want a Liberal government.
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If you read through this site, you might find that what is wanted is less, not more.
I favour government spending on worthwhile projects when stimulus is necessary to move the economy forward.
First though, schemes financed by taxpayers should make long-term sense, which means placing environmental protection ahead of short term financial gain.
But, what has happened during 16 years of Liberal reign, and continued in 3.5 years under the NDP, is that a large segment of the economy has become primarily dependent on government spending.
Public money financing Site C would be far better spent on the things promised by the NDP’s PowerBC program (something the party has tried to erase from the Internet). Those things included a province-wide expansion of retrofit programs to boost energy efficiency, plus investments in developing new renewable sources of energy.
Current government spending on BC megaprojects is not particularly strategic. It’s keeping large corporations, often by companies owned outside the province, busy on projects prioritized by politics, not by utility,
A diverse group of BC companies used to build dams, bridges, highways, ferries and large public and industrial projects. No longer.
In my opinion, every billion dollars spent now ought to be of more value to future generations than to the people of today.
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Well said Norm!
Everyone who reads through your blog can only conclude that there must be corruption or unprecedented and durable stupidity behind our government, civil service, crown corporations and corporate media.
I have met these people behind the curtain. I can attest that they are not the Wizards of OZ. They are people who are not exceptionally intelligent, nor are they well read or critical thinkers. For most of them, their super power is being happy about keeping their blinders on, like good draft horses.
The reins, and the benefits of their misdeeds acrue to entities that are not in BC (other than when they need to check on their stable of draft horses).
Show me one, just one, politician or employee of BC Hydro who states the fact that more power was sold in 2005 than in 2020. They would also have to answer why the load forecast was wrong for 15 years.
Look into the background of the senior manager of transmission rates… tell me if this person is qualified to implement a rate that has killed all industrial load growth in BC.
Look into the background of the manager of revenue metering… see if this person understands anything about metering or electricity.
Look into the background of the VP of integrated planning… is this person qualified to understand how to plan for the future of a utility? Do they understand the fundamentals of electricity?
It’s easy to tell a draft horse what to do if they don’t have any ideas already in their head
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Can’t argue with that.
In some cases, the “winners” don’t even know that they are losers. BC Hydro will bankrupt itself if it continues on its course. LNG Canada has no hope of making money with future price spreads non-existent.
Very strange times where some companies insist on self harm… if we only knew why.
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Self harm ? It’s their business plan. Sucking off the government teat is what Corporate Canada does best. And there is no “teatier” place on Earth than BC.
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BC Hydro was well on the road to bankruptcy 15 years ago. The BC Liberals drove a once great crown corporation into the ground and then forced it to eat more dirt as it was in its last death throws. I was at a meeting with Bruce Ralston ( then NDP finance critic) around that time where he pointed out Hydro was already then in technical bankruptcy. Which makes it only all the more bewildering that they continued on with site C.
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The sad side of this is that most of that list could also apply to the winners of the 2013 election. Some of us are in the death hold of stupid, others of greed, and those who see are seemingly doomed to watching painfully as the whole system comes crashing down on our COVID-infested heads.
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