Malcolm Johnston, a private citizen, has studied and written about rail transit for years. He does not have a lucrative consulting contract to promote Sky Train, the ourdated and costly beast that has for decades been rejected by transit experts around the world. Nor is he paid to promote any competing system.
Malcolm Johnston is a near perfect example of a citizen activist (sorry Keith Baldrey) who wants to see public money spent with maximum efficiency. He is convinced that legitimate transit planners are pushed aside by spin doctors, consultants and other lobbyists working for vested interests, like the discredited briber, SNC-Lavalin, a BC Liberal favourite…
Alex Tsakumis reported that Christy Clark and her backers orchestrated a virtual coup d’état, seizing control of the BC Liberal Party, sabotaging the leadership contest with phantom voters. Tsakumis also questioned her truthfulness about the relationship with would-be political assassin Jaspal Singh Atwal¹ and Tsakumis reported that she was “a person of interest” — thought to be leaking confidential information to friends — in the RCMP’s investigation of the BC Rail sale, until police management shut down examination of senior BC Liberals. Premier Photo-Op long ago went beyond stretching the truth and exaggerating. She grew accustomed to wilful and conscious lying and now relies on a continuous stream of falsehoods to promote herself and the government she leads. The corporate media assists by ignoring fabrications, even when they are readily apparent.
Province defends Massey Bridge as top pick for federal grants, Jeff Nagel, Black Press, December 21, 2015: Transportation Minister Todd Stone is defending the province’s decision to make the replacement of the […]
More than two year later, almost nothing has changed for people most in need. CBC News The following was first published August 8, 2013: In 2009, Delta South voters decided that one […]
The audio file below is a recording of my time with Ian Jessop May 26. We talk about credit rating agencies, provincial debt, contractual obligations, resource taxation and transit funding but we […]
RossK writes about the Pro-Media Club and its implicit rulebook, which includes a requirement that no one reprove a colleague, even if overstatements and misrepresentations morph into purposeful lies. The blog world […]
When financial numbers involve billions, many of us struggle to gain understanding and perspective. Usually, the beneficiaries of large scale spending are the worst sources of information. Here’s an example. A “fact-check” […]
The following was first posted here December 19, 2012. It is a reminder that TransLink is not always aligned with serving British Columbian workers’ long term interests, despite the present position of […]
The good doctor at The Gazetteer diagnoses a similarity between issues underlying the now debated transit sales tax and the late and unlamented HST. RossK is focused on the tax ‘shiftyness’ involved […]
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//storify.com/Norm_Farrell/new-story/embed?header=false&border=false//storify.com/Norm_Farrell/new-story.js?header=false&border=false[View the story “New Story” on Storify]
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Senior governments download responsibility for delivering services but seldom include taxing authorities to match spending demands. The download trend is demonstrated in a report by The Columbia Institute: British Columbia’s government prefers […]
//storify.com/Norm_Farrell/some-translink-numbers/embed?border=false//storify.com/Norm_Farrell/some-translink-numbers.js?border=false[View the story “Some TransLink numbers” on Storify]
Voters in Metro Vancouver are asked to approve a regional increase in provincial sales tax to generate an estimated $250 million a year for TransLink. The vote is an advisory one, not […]
As a companion piece to the preceding article, I republish another from December 2012: It’s not our fault, we’re awesome Wally Oppal’s report on missing and murdered women runs 1,638 pages. It […]
It’s time for the Liberal government to explain what might happen next. The Port Mann bridge and highway project cost $3.3 billion but we’ve seen that provided no protection from ice falls. […]
Now that Mr. Oppal has delivered his report, let’s ask whether the $9 million spent on Wally and friends was worthwhile. Oppal has been charging $1,500 a day. According to CTV four […]
The BC government claims it “found significant savings” following a performance audit review of TransLink conducted by the provincial Ministry of Finance. Transportation and Infrastructure Minister Mary Polak says, “As we conducted the audit, […]
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