Since actual annual payments are almost 3x the contractual obligation, it looks like the $400 million Sea to Sky Highway improvement project will involve payments to the private partner of $1.5 billion. And remember, the province financed one third of the project’s construction cost while the P3 financed two thirds…
De-Politicization of BC Hydro & ICBC
Richard McCandless, a retired high-level civil servant, is not a partisan for any political group but, for some years, he has been lobbying for more effective governance of British Columbia. In one […]
Sea to Sky Highway subsidy $12-$15 each vehicle
It wasn’t on budget for the public but probably was for the private companies hidden behind the Sea-to-Sky Highway Investment Limited Partnership. Liberals are masters of public finance in one particular way. They deliver opportunities to deal makers and deal flippers, with details of all transactions hidden from view. It wasn’t long before the first flip happened on the Sea-to-Sky project.
Renewal without reform?
A skilled and practised word hunter, Ian Reid can flush out sources from behind stone walls. Thursday, he scooped the Legislature’s press gang and published Mea culpa, mea culpa, the release that Christy […]
Deregulation and death
Government Press Release, January 2012: Finance Minister Kevin Falcon has won the Canadian Federation of Independent Business Golden Scissors award for cutting red tape for business by more than 40% … I […]
From the ‘Rules Don’t Apply to Us’ department
REPLAY, first published Nov. 28, 2011 According to Finance Minister Kevin Falcon’s first quarterly report for the current year, As well, the fiscal plan assumes the current public sector compensation negotiating mandate […]
Liberals dig giant hole in future NDP budget
According to Finance Minister Kevin Falcon, BC will scrap the HST, return to the PST on April 1 2013 and repay $320 million per year to the federal government in each of […]
Economic development whatever the cost!
For me, whatever might be worthwhile in Stephen Harper’s speech is degraded by his choice of location for delivering it. The Prime Minister of Canada flew to Switzerland to join the world’s […]
"The hypocrisy is quite sickening"
Paraphrasing Benjamin Disraeli’s words to the British Parliament in 1845: The BC Liberal government is an organized hypocrisy. I visited the BC Liberal website today and found this homepage. The frame from […]
Falcon: Revenue neutral HST an "urban legend"
When the referendum delivered an unwanted result, BC’s provincial government reshaped, polished and coordinated messages to the public. One particularly troublesome claim, made by Finance Minister Colin Hansen during the July 2009 HST announcement, […]
Liberal truthiness after HST decision
Canucks & Clark fall short in big tasks Premier Clark and Finance Minister Falcon say the return to PST will cost BC $3 billion and warn of required spending cuts and austerity […]
Real messages of the HST vote
In response to the vote rejecting the massive shift in consumption taxes from business to consumers, Christy Clark seems to have learned nothing, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon only a little. Falcon today […]
Not a chance in the world of interference
Talking about the HST referendum, BC Liberal highbinder Kevin Falcon assures us that: “. . . he has confidence in Elections BC to oversee the vote. “This is getting increasingly ridiculous,” said […]
Efficiencies or surrender?
Cuts announced in Tuesday’s federal budget are “the result of identifying efficiencies in operation“, says DFO Minister Gail Shea. By 2014, almost $57 million will be trimmed from Fisheries and Oceans. Read […]
Is he or is he not? REPLAY from 2009
A comment by a person known only as MONTY, titled “Mr. Campbell is not a well man”, showed up on a Rafe Mair article published in The Tyee: As a psychologist I […]
Falcon, Clark and Libs phony as three-dollar bill
Highly regarded writer Will McMartin uses a fine brush to paint a picture of Kevin Falcon’s duplicity. The result is another part in The Tyee series on leadership candidates Do not miss […]
Dumbocracy
The BC Liberal Party claims almost 50,000 new members since its leadership race began with a total membership now approaching 90,000. Kevin Falcon’s camp accuses Christy Clark’s camp of bypassing membership sign-ups. […]
When profit ranks before morality
News item: Kevin Falcon, former BC Liberal Minister of deregulation, applauds Prime Minister Harper on plan to reduce business regulations. Falcon says, “. . . regulations are job killers, plain and simple, […]
Palmer gives us laugh lines and party lines
Vaughn Palmer remains respected by many of his colleagues in the mainstream media. At times though, I wonder if he stood too long near the mosh pit at an early eighties Motörhead […]
Objectives of statements are less clear than they appear
Liberal leadership candidate Kevin Falcon applauds the federal Red Tape Reduction Committee. No surprise there since it is a program of deception and misdirection, a specialty of Falcon, who claims he reduced […]
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