Monday, November 26, 2012

(B.C. Ferries, Public Theft Exposed)Premier Gordon Butterfly Campbell`s Legacy of Corruption.



BC Ferries reports $16.5 million net loss due to traffic plunges

People of British Columbia need to read the below story to understand WHY BC Ferries is now debt ridden and losing money...To bottom line this, BC Ferries is paying $60 million per year in interest payments on their debt, paying to German banks, if BC Ferries was returned to crown corporation status they could save $40 million per year, at present BC ferries will never pay anything but interest, their debt will never fall, and here`s the most important issue with regard to BC Ferries....BC Ferries is paying interest on the $500 million dollar debenture, the debenture bought nothing, paid for nothing, the debenture went into general revenue to bump up the BC Liberal 2005 election year budget...

Hear me loud and clear, BC Ferries is paying interest on a $1.5 billion dollar debt, that debt includes the new ferries and.....And the $500 million dollar debenture which BC Ferries is paying debt has ZERO to do with BC Ferries, it was pure trickery and phony accounting, this extra debt is dragging BC Ferries down, ...Enjoy the below read, Gordon Campbell should be arrested....BC Ferries was used as a credit card...


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I hear with my ears that ICBC is advertising on CKNW AGAIN, ....The board of directors at BC Ferries have thumbed their nose at the BC Government....BC Hydro continues to "let" out smart meter contracts even as the public begins to rage over the costs and health issues associated with the dumb meters....Translink demands will raise fuel prices again, more property taxes and a car levy, and even today on the news today the Surrey Board of Trade are suggesting tolling every single bridge and crossing in the GVRD, will it ever end?.....

And let`s not forget the HST.....All of these ticking time bombs that Gordon Campbell left British Columbia are set to blow up..

ICBC, I find it very interesting, where there is competition on optional insurance with the private sector rates have fallen year after year, and when Gordon Campbell and the Liberals lied about the $4 billion dollar BC Debt pre-2009 general election...He took the $1.6 billion dollar bribe from Ottawa, and he also pillaged $970 million dollars from ICBC....And at the beginning of this week ICBC announced that rates are set to rise, coincidence?...I don`t think so, the BC Government has directed ICBC to raise more money because the Province is starved for cash..

Now the spin about the reason for raising rates is where my bone-of-contention lies, for the spokesman for ICBC made this claim on the public airwaves and I quote..

"The reason why insurance rates are going up is because the economy has recovered and that has resulted in more cars on the road" snip

Well, isn`t that interesting, ICBC has turned into economic pundits, or if you like, an "economist".....So now we have Government crowns echoing the BC Liberal Government lies, playing the lying spin game, for perhaps ICBC missed that last Stats Canada Jobs report, for if they actually read the report they would realize that BC lost 12,000 more full time jobs and 20,000 BCers had their EI expire, they are now not even considered unemployed, we were told by ICBC after the Olympics how safe we drivers are, how accident claims and injuries were down and now that the Liberals raided the cookie jar the story has changed, .....The bottom line, ICBC can raise rates, they may or may not justify the increases but when ICBC goes on air and lies about the economy for the sole purpose of propping up a corrupt dysfunctional Liberal Government and engage in pure obfuscation is a bit much...Perhaps if ICBC didn`t sop so much money to CKNW and Global TV they wouldn`t require these increases...

We all know the reason ICBC rates are going up, BC Liberals will be back for $billions more in short order....

BC Ferries have thumbed their noses at the BC Government, ...Double pensions, bonuses,....David Hahn is untouchable, David Hahn can name names and bring down the BC Liberals, Hahn threw down the gauntlet are dared Christy Clark to take action against him, ...Hahn holds all the aces in the deck...What we have is, BC Ferries has a $1.6 billion dollar debt, held by German banks, BC Ferries is being charged a staggering interest rate of 10% and..

And the debt is static, in other words the debt isn`t dropping, BC Ferries is only paying the interest payment, no principle, in other words BC Ferries will pay the interest forever, if BC Ferries was a crown corporation or if the debt was transferred to the BC Government instead of paying 10% interest every year we would be paying 3% interest at most saving the BC Taxpayers $40 million dollars every year....!!!!

David Hahn with his $1.2 million dollar yearly pay package, the Liberals, the Bill Goods of the world all praise David Hahn as a great CEO...What a sick joke, imagine this scenario, if I was a CEO, a $million dollar plus CEO I would make arrangements to transfer the debt onto the Province`s books or revert to calling BC Ferries what they are, a Crown Corporation, if BC Ferries was a crown corporation they could borrow money at 3% or less, and...And there is only one stock share at BC Ferries, and the BC Government owns that share so in reality BC Ferries are a crown corporation, BC ferries also receives about $170 million dollars every year in taxpayer subsidies..!! Full Stop NOW.

So what we have, a corporation, one common share held by the province, a corporation that receives $170 million per year in subsidies, we have the CEO and board of directors who will receive Government public employee pensions when their job ends.....Yet the BC Ferries debt is held by German banks, and we are being charged an interest rate of 10% when the bank of Canada rate is a mere 1%....David Hahn, if he was worth $1.2 million dollars he would have made arrangements to transfer the debt and or pay off the debt, similar to someone who gets a consolidation loan and pays off their high interest credit cards and has a lower interest rate loan through the bank...

If that was done BC Ferries would save $40 million dollars per year, the savings in one year would pay David Hahn`s wage for the next 40 years!....This folks is where the crime is taking place, the German banks, they don`t mind getting a 10% return on their lent money every year, can anyone name any entity, bank, investment that returns 10% every year without risk...The German banks, David Hahn, ....These are the names Mr. Hahn can cite..The BC Government has taken our BC Debt from $25 billion dollars to $60 billion dollars in 9 years, the biggest debtor Government in BC history...The crime BC Ferries and David Hahn are committing is allowing these loan shark rates to continue year after year....

Perhaps you remember the NPA Millennium Athletes Village boondoggle, the City of Vancouver had to go to REPUTABLE banks and borrow $800 million dollars and pay off the loan sharks at the Hedge fund Fortress...The interest rates were so high that it made economic and common sense to payoff the Fortress loan sharks, if the City of Vancouver didn`t payoff Fortress finance the city would eventually lost $hundreds of $millions more...

I am no fan of Gregor Robertson but at least he was smart enough to separate the city from the Fortress loan sharks, if you remember, the BC Government had to open up the legislature and allow Vancouver to change its charter and permit the massive borrowing, ...It was the right thing to do to make a brutal situation a little better, so Gregor acted like a CEO...He made a decision to save the Vancouver taxpayers.... David Hahn is paid 10 times as much per year as Gregor Robertson...Makes you wonder eh?

Who made the decision to accept those interest rates(10%)....Was it David Hahn?...No it wasn`t....But David Hahn knows who made that decision and so do the board of directors...Hence the aces David Hahn possesses.

If David Hahn was a qualified CEO he would have got out of the ridiculous arrangement with those German banks, unless, unless the whole Quazi-privatization of BC Ferries was nothing but a ruse by the BC Liberals to raise $500 million dollars through a debenture for general revenue heading into the 2005 election and....And to line the pockets of BC Liberal insiders!

For back a couple of years ago I forced Christy Clark to retract on air for lying about BC Ferries finances, and...And through guile I managed to get a hold of a letter from Debra Marshall (BC Ferries spokeswoman)...And here is that shocking letter..

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 Below is the complete letter from Debra Marshall at BC Ferries sent to me....... more details here
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" The government used to own the controlling interest in BC Ferries, which had a book value of $503,178,000.

On April 2,2003, the government issued BC Ferries a debenture for $427,701,000, which BC Ferries promised to pay in cash.


In addition,at that time,the government was issued 75,477 non-voting preferred shares in BC Ferries,valued at $1000 per share.


On may 27,2004, BC Ferries paid the debenture of $427,701,000 to the government.BC Ferries had also paid the government interest on the debenture of $25,879,191.49.


For the government`s preferred shares, BC Ferries pays an 8% dividend per year of $6,038,160. We`ve paid that annually for six years for a total of $36,228,960.


In summary,BC Ferries has paid the province $489,809,000."


Debra Marshall

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I asked many questions after I received that letter....

Question 1) Why did the BC Liberals give BC Ferries a debenture, it had nothing to do with the purchase of German built ferries...

The BC Liberal gave BC Ferries a debenture, a debenture is a fancy IOU....The Debenture from the Government allowed BC Ferries to borrow money and the province was the co-signer, the guarantor of the debt...So BC Ferries takes the Debenture, they borrow the money from German banks and that money was given to the BC Government and that money went into general revenue to boost up the budget just before the 2005 election!

That borrowed money through the debenture was a ruse, a gimmick, it was a way to raise $500 million dollars for general revenue...And BC Ferries wasn`t done yet, so now BC Ferries had paid the BC Government, but they still needed to borrow more money, which they did, they borrowed more money from German banks and had the boats built in Germany..

So the entire episode of quazi privatizing BC Ferries was nothing more than an elaborate ruse to raise $500 million dollars for the BC Liberals 2005 budget and election....But that had consequences, for then BC Ferries borrowed more money, and more money and now the debt stand at about $1.5 billion dollars at a pathetic 10% interest rate...And the saddest part is...$500 million dollars of that BC Ferry debt had nothing to do with ferries, terminal, operation, 1/3 of BC Ferries $1.5 billion dollar debt was for general revenue...So now we are stuck with BC Ferries never making enough money to pay off the debt, the German banks will get paid the huge interest forever..

BC Ferries last annual financial report clearly shows that their debt has risen, and after paying operating expenses and interest payments and taking in account the huge taxpayer subsidy they received, BC Ferries made but $4 million dollars in the year ending March 31/2011...Have a real close look at pages 3 and 4....Then look even closer at the very last page..(remember, all figures are in 1000s)

And if David Hahn was worth even $100k per year he would have transferred the debt somewhere and get the interest rate down to 3% or less! ....Here is a more detailed explanation about the BC Liberal/BC Ferries fraud

It`s my informed opinion that David Hahn can spills the beans on every detail of the fraud....The BC Ferries privatization was done for three different reasons...#1..This fraud was initiated to raise 1/2 $billion dollars for the BC 2005 pre-election budget...#2) The BC Liberals were hell bent on destroying every union, including BC`s shipbuilding industry...#3) The fraud was set up to line the pockets of BC Liberal insiders, with an extra $40 million dollars being siphoned from BC taxpayers every year while never reducing the debt...

David Hahn was sitting in the cat bird seat and he has dared the BC Liberals to call his bluff.....They won`t, David Hahn has the Liberals  by the short hairs!

Gordon Campbell, his brother Michael Campbell(gordo`s financial advisor) deliberately screwed the BC taxpayers, they have lied, they ruined BC`s economy, BC Hydro is in financial trouble, BC Ferries are debt ridden, P3s, IPPs, ....As a result of the fiscal incompetence  by the BC Liberals British Columbia is starved for cash, the result is Translink taxing everything, BC Hydro bankrupting poor people, BC Ferry rates have driven ridership down to record lows and decimated Vancouver island tourism..

David Hahn and the BC Liberals...Follow the money, follow the interest rates, look deep into the debenture, ask yourself where the debenture money went, ask why BC Ferries borrowed $500 million dollars through the debenture and placed the money into general revenue..And why BC Ferries is having to pay 10% interest on money that went to general revenue

Once those questions are answered, we will need to ask one more question.....

Where are those new Canadian super max prisons!

Flight of the Butterfly

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

21 comments:

ron wilton said...

This is the most articulate, well reasoned and plausible connecting of the dots in this peculiar matter that I have read.

The pattern of CC, as she has done with BC Rail, is to condescendingly patronize us with feigned concern, and then sighs that there is nothing we can do about it now, thereby putting the matter behind by stating she will prevent the monkey business from ever happening again.

This smoke and mirrors magic of hers of course is not acceptable, and given your reasonable and probable suspicion, it should now be a police matter.

She (or the NDP) should call for an immediate police investigation into this whole sordid affair and let's not appoint a 'special Berardino prosecutor' to sweep this one under the waves.

Financially, our loss on this Ferry Fiasco will soon exceed BC Rail, if it hasn't already.

Why are the RCMP not on this? Bass is retired, so they no longer have a point guard to hinder them.

Grant G said...

Thanks Ron Wilton..

Gordon Butterfly Campbell pollinated all of BC`s crown corporations.

Cheers

Anonymous said...

I am so glad you wrote about this. The TV, radio and newspaper advertising by ICBC makes me sick. What a waste of taxpayer dollars.

Stop the bloody advertising ICBC and you won't have to raise rates.

I have no use for Gordon Campbell and what he did to this province with BC Ferries, BC Hydro and BC Rail and personally I am more scared of Christy Cluck Cluck Clark.

Great article.

Anonymous said...

Gordo is a very evil man but I gotta admit the guy is smart. Same can't be said for Christy Flip-Flopper Clark. Her downfall seems to be coming sooner than later; she is already well past her best-buy date. Ms. Dithers is done.

Anonymous said...

The criminality of the BC Liberals is beyond the pale and to think that now all Canadians are paying the salary of Gordon Campbell is enough to make one gag. The thing is that this criminality is worldwide in the form of corporate fascism. Citizens are losing their standard of living in order to provide trillions to multinationals and especially the banks. The people of Greece and Ireland are experiencing extreme austerity measures in order to bailout the banks. This is the biggest wealth transfer in history with dollar amounts paid out to banks and corporations that are simply staggering and incomprehensible. Trillions and trillions have been given to banks who are actually bankrupt, while their top employees receive $144B in annual bonus money on Wallstreet alone. The level of lying is to the point of being absurd, however who calls out Michael Campbell on his ongoing economic nonsense or Pee Wee Harper on his Super Max prison insanity? It sure ain't Rupert Murdoch! How could anyone be so far dumbed down to have voted for Campbell or Harper when they both should be in jail for treason? It's just sick.

hydr0l1c5 said...

You sure do your homework. Very informative so I will probably come off as an idiot but, (Rhetorical question here): What is the goal of this freakin' Carbon Tax? Is it to decrease manmade carbon? Is it to raise revenues, in that case it should be called a "Tax Increase". Is it to clean up the atmosphere? What? What? What? Where is MY money going?
As for ICBC, why don't they get real and raise the amount charged on the "Optional Coverages" instead of the "Mandatory Portion"? SCUMBAGS, all of them.

Grant G said...

HydrOI1c5....You ask a very interesting question..

I`ll give you the Straight Goods on the carbon tax..

It was a Greenwash..It was Gordon Campbell pollinating the green file..The carbon tax was a ruse, money in, money out..

The carbon tax came with tax cuts, tax cuts that favored the wealthiest earners..

The middle class tax cuts were so small that most middle class people(who drive) were losers over the year..

The poor received a small rebate credit..

My friend G West likes to call Campbell`s carbon tax a "wurlitzer"

Our emissions have gone up every year, the carbon tax hasn`t taken one gram of carbon out of the atmosphere..

Big corporations are getting the largest offsetting carbon tax related tax cuts.

Lastly..Campbell`s greenwash proclamation...We will reduce BC`s emissions by 20% by 2020 over the emission levels of 2008..

And every year emissions in BC rose, in fact..

The EnCana Gas (Cabin Gas plant) that is being built in northeast BC will add 3% to BC`s total emissions!!!!

One project will raise our emissions by 3%...

The carbon tax is a greenwash ruse.

Good Day

RossK said...

Grant--

I wonder if there, based on what we saw with BC Rail, be another factor at play here.

Which is the possibility that the brain trust actually wants the debt to be on the BC Ferries books to facilitate another tax credit-assisted privatization jacking that will go down easily with the public if they are bamboozled into thinking it will save them money.

.

madhouse said...

What is Geoff Plante's role in all of this. He is such a good Liberal foot soldier that he keeps popping up to comment on HST, native affairs, etc. I didn't know that he had been rewarded with a directorship on BC Ferries for all his hard work. Nice to see all the major players still hard at work behind the scenes keeping BC taxpayers poor.

Hugh said...

The carbon tax on gas was supposed to get cars off the road. Yet the ICBC spokesman says there are now MORE cars on the road.

Grant G said...

This is the 7th anniversary of the lousy deal Mr Campbell made with CN.

Mr Campbell isn't smart. He's sly. Sly enough to keep one step ahead
of the cops, and for some reason (think about it), this endears him to
Stephen Harper and others.

Thanks for your work on this, Grant.

Mary

_________________________________


Hi BC Mary...How are you, don`t know why your comment didn`t go through and or why you couldn`t access The Straight Goods...Spooks/Ghosts and the unfriendly are a little angry with me...What did I do?

Your fight Mary, it`s all our fight, and I love the fact that it was you, your site had every detail of the rail theft, you must have put in a 100,000 hours plus fighting for truth and Democracy..

It was all you Mary, I`m proud of you..

Maybe John Doyle can crack it open, bring on an election!

Even this site, over 100,000 visits over the years to the Straight Goods that all came directly from your joint..Laila is a strong second...

I love you both for fighting so hard!

Cheers

Anonymous said...

Pamela Martin should doing the ICBC ads instead of Vicki Gabereau. At least then she would doing something for that $130,000.

BCMary said...

Grant,

What a lovely thought ... thanks,

and all the very best to you, too..


.

Anonymous said...

Oh my look at the money our gas provider gave to the Fiberals: FORTIS BC INC

2005/05/12

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2005/05/17

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2005/05/17

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2005/05/17

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2005/06/06

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2006/07/06

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2006/07/06

$300.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2006/08/22

$500.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2008/07/15

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2008/09/19

$450.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2008/10/21

$500.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2008/10/21

$200.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2007/05/11

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2007/06/12

$2,990.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2007/10/23

$500.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC TEAM INC.

2007/11/16

$500.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2

AMEERA SHIUJI





FORTIS BC INC

2009/05/07

$750.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/05/12

$750.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/05/14

$750.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/06/17

$750.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/06/17

$750.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/06/20

$750.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/09/11

$20.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/09/11

$150.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2009/04/22

$750.00

CONSERVATIVES

2







FORTIS BC INC

2010/07/22

$1,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2010/07/22

$5,000.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2







FORTIS BC INC

2010/09/28

$600.00

BC LIBERAL PARTY

2

hydr0l1c5 said...

I decided to do a little research. The guy who is in charge of Washington State Ferries is David Mosley. He is paid $125,000.00 per year and has no pension pervisions. So, that's about how much we should be paying David Hann.

Anonymous said...

I lost my link to the Vancouver Sun artilcle about the BC Liberal pabs does anyone have it bookmarked?

Anonymous said...

Little late in the day to be commenting on this article but I just found a link to it on thetyee:
http://thetyee.ca/News/2011/08/26/HST-Is-Dead/

First and Foremost - A great article Grant!

Second, once I got here and compared your article to many written at thetyee, it became apparent that your articles are full of facts and many of theirs are just opinion with few or no facts thrown in.

Nobody that I have read in BC has your grasp of the issues and ability to put them in plain and humourous prose we can all understand, and that's a fact.

Grant G said...

Thank you for that comment 8:44 am(J)

As for my writing style??

Truth be known I started scribbling and writing?..A few short years ago, my mind was not polluted with method and form..

No trained monkey here, more like fireside chats...

Glad you noticed the subtle humour.

Thanks J

Anonymous said...

Grant, it really looks as though you were right about this. Communist China, indeed controls Harper.

Harper is merging Canada into Communist China. Campbell worked, and still is working for Harper. Campbell sent BC mills to Communist China, along with our raw logs. Communist China, also owns BC mines.

Harper's toady Boessenkoll has been placed in with the BC Liberals. There is no possible way, Christy is running this province....Harper is, and Communist China runs Harper. Everything of value in BC has been thieved, and is now gone.

What can Germany do, if BC Ferries default on the loan? I guess they can take the Ferries back. There is nothing left of BC, that can even be thieved, let alone sell to pay Germany. Harper and the Campbell/Clark BC Liberals and Boessenkool, have totally wiped BC out.

Spiteful Stevie, struck BC again.
There was a program to train the F.N. people to work BC mines. The people were so happy, they could at last, buy nice homes for their family's. Harper has given no more funds, for this program. Rumor has it....Christy's imported workers she claims BC needs, will be mostly Chinese. So, the F.N. people will be made to pay, for the opposition to the Enbridge pipeline. No doubt hoping to divide the F.N. people.

Our province is merely going to be a pass through, to get the dirty tar oil, to Communist China.

Obama is really pissed at Communist China. Their missiles and other weapons, have infected electronic components in them, made by Communist China. Seems it was more than a few country's terrible mistake, to buy electronic components from there.

Obama is livid at Harper too. No wonder the U.S. is pulling their company's out of Canada. Perhaps the reason is more that our high dollar. Harper merely thumbed his nose at Obama. Doesn't matter to Harper, he cost Canadians thousands of jobs. Harper encouraged Canadians, to shop in the U.S. No matter for the billions lost in revenue for Canada.

No wonder, the U.N. Security Council, refused Harper a seat. I had been so shocked, the U.N. refused Canada. Our country used to be accepted all around the world.

In Canada, you can now be arrested, for reading a book.

savecfbrockcliffe's blog said...

The people of British Columbia are losing many of their federal and provincial Crown assets---Coast Guard stations; lighthouses; Provincial Capital Commission properties (100 properties are being sold in 2012, including Cuthbert Holmes Park in Saanich);CFB Chilliwack and CFB Jericho Beach.

And the federal parks in British Columbia(Glacier National Park, Yoho National Park, Mount Revelstoke National Park...the list goes on) may be devolved to the BC provincial government.
My brother lives in BC, a beautiful province run by thieves.

Anonymous said...

I see N.F. cutting very close, again.