BC Log export numbers raise questions

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BC Stats, an agency of the provincial government, reports regularly on raw log export. The most recent shows the quantity of logs shipped has grown steadily but the unit value reported has declined steadily. By eliminating civil servants in the forest ministry, BC Liberals reduced government’s ability to monitor quantities and conditions of logs exported but the dramatic drop in revenue declared for each cubic metre suggests the public might have been shortchanged.

Someone is telling us lies

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When BC Liberals said the Site C completion budget was $7.9 billion, the cost of power from the project was stated to be $87 – $95 per megawatt-hour (MWh). Now, with the Site C budget up 26% to $10.7 billion, John Horgan’s NDP government claims the cost per MWh has fallen 32% to $60.

Sunk costs

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Having made the wrong decision, no doubt influenced by Liberal holdovers in the civil service and BC Hydro management, it is not too late for NDP minister to choose the right course. There are many reasons to cancel Site C…

More Energy Ministry duplicity

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That the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources took four months to offer a disingenuous response to my communication illustrates that little has changed since a new government was installed in July. It may also explain why policies contrary to the public interest are still being followed. 

Deceit is still a BC Government tool

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A BC Government “technical presentation” regarding its decision to continue construction of Site C is filled with misinformation, deceit and false justifications. If this is the quality of the advice taken by John Horgan’s cabinet on one rather important issue, we should be concerned about every other policy being considered. Apparently, if truths are inconvenient, Victoria still prefers deception.

TransLink, another victim of inertia

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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.

From Erik Andersen

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In private emails, a number of people with expert economic knowledge exchange ideas about energy in BC. I get copies of some. This example, written by respected and retired economist Erik Andersen, refers to electricity markets in BC…

Transit

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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…

The prosecution rests

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Since 2006, BC Hydro added $20 billion to its assets and paid an additional $12 billion to independent power producers (IPPs). Yet BC Hydro sold less power to BC’s residential and buiness consumers of electricity in fiscal year 2016-2017 than in fiscal year 2005-2006.

Freedom of disinformation

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By any measure, BC Hydro was a success. So successful that pirates made plans to plunder. BC Hydro was a decades old operation that delivered power to British Columbia’s residential and business consumers at prices that ranked among the lowest anywhere. Additionally, a steady flow of money moved from the utility to public treasuries. Since 1989, the crown corporation contributed about $20 billion in dividends, water rentals and grants in lieu of property taxes. With assistance of 21st century Liberal governments, politically connected corporations began treating BC Hydro as a machine for dispensing cash.