British Columbia Deserves and Requires a Provincial Election

A Government of habitual liars, the Government of Gordon Campbell lied to and betrayed the people of BC with impunity, the list of lies is long, from the theft of BC Rail to deficits to the HST, Gordon Campbell was more than a ruthless dictator, he was an habitual liar and criminal, he was a bought man from top to bottom, not only did Gordon Campbell enrich himself and gift $billions of public tax $dollars to his corporate donors, but he indebted the Province and in 1 decade tripled our BC debt...

 Going into the the BC 2009 election the Campbell BC Liberals stated as fact,

"BC will avoid the recession and our deficit will be $495 million dollars, maximum!"

Gordon Campbell, Colin Hansen and Kevin Falcon and the BC Liberal party also stated going into that election that...

"We have no intention of bringing in an HST.....It`s not on our radar"

Within days of that 2009 election Gordon Campbell and Colin Hansen inform us that they were wrong, the deficit is in the $billions(Over 4 billion to be precise) and we are getting a brand new 12% consumer tax, the HST....

The bold faced BC Liberal liars came on TV with their smug and newly elected faces and smiled at the camera, smiling liars, ....A $4 billion dollar deficit and a new tax within days of the election, ....The Liberals knew their budget was bogus, everyone did,..

Gordon Campbell and the BC Liberals also raided ICBC for a  $billion dollars and have been illegally collecting dividends from BC Hydro from profits that don`t exist, the BC Liberals went too far, BCers put their backs up, the first successful referendum, a successful petition, so angered were BCers that Gordon Campbell was driven from office, forced to resign, the most despised and hated premier in Canadian history, a mere 9% approval rating when finally shoved out the door....Good riddance, a low-down dirty lying son of bitch, a spineless yellow bellied corporate stooge named Gordon Muir Campbell,...

Since that fraudulent 2009 election Gordon Campbell was chased from office over his lies, Jane Thorthwaite got a free-ride on an impaired driving, we have another Liberal committing domestic assault, Kash Heed committed election fraud, Bill Bennett and Blair Leckstrom have been kicked out and invited back, John Les the benefactor of land fraud, we`ve had solicitor General and Attorney Generals being changed like diapers, since 2009 we`ve had a dysfunctional Government running around like chickens trying to hide debt and save their beloved HST, a bunch of bumbling idiots who have cost BC dearly, liars, conmen and thieves....

Which brings me to the theme of this post, we must have an early election, the reason, the HST, Kevin Falcon has lost his way as finance minister and is actively working against the wishes of BC voters....Kevin Falcon is harming BC`s negotiations with Ottawa,...

Let me remind you of recent history, Gordon Campbell was forced to resign as Premier over his Government`s HST betrayal,....The BC Liberals had a leadership contest, Christy Clark won that contest, and what exactly did Christy Clark say to the public to win that leadership contest?....

Christy stated that she needed a mandate from the public and would hold an early election, ....She broke that promise and is clinging to unelected power until May2013 ....Christy Clark stated that she wouldn`t use the people`s money to advertise the HST, she wouldn`t use a persuasion campaign, ....She broke that promise and spent $millions in a phony scam ad campaign......Despite the BC Liberals spending $millions trying to sell Gordo`s snake oil HST tax the BC Public by an over whelming margin rejected the HST.....

Christy Clark has done nothing but lie, her word to the public is worthless, if Christy Clark can`t keep her word as acting premier, with no mandate, if Christy Clark can lie her face off before she`s even been elected premier!!!...Well..

Which brings me to the theme of this post....Here are some statements from Kevin Falcon(Finance Minister)....From yesterday`s question period ...Below is cut n pasted from Hansard.

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HOUSING INDUSTRY JOBS AND
INFORMATION ON HARMONIZED SALES TAX
TRANSITION PERIOD

S. Simpson: The housing industry in B.C. generates tens of billions of dollars of economic activity, probably in excess of 200,000 direct and indirect jobs. It's an industry that's critical to our economy, and it's an industry that is in some trouble because of either inaction or ineptness on the part of the Finance Minister and the B.C. Liberals around the HST transition.

The industry is looking for certainty and clear rules on the transition back to the PST. They haven't received that to date. The Urban Development Institute, the Canadian Home Builders Association and the B.C. Real Estate Association have all said it's hurting their industries, with the UDI telling us they're putting 2,000 units on hold with the 8,000 jobs that won't happen because this government can't come up with a set of clear rules.

When is the industry going to get those rules? When is the Minister of Finance going to produce clear rules for the transition back to the PST?

Hon. K. Falcon: I was going to say I'd really like to take this question, but thank you for directing it to me, Member.

Member, it's rather remarkable that the group that campaigned to go back to a very cumbersome, complex, inefficient tax are the same group that are now complaining about the process of going back. It's rather remarkable that they campaigned to go back to an inefficient tax. Then they complain about the fact that it takes time to go back to an inefficient tax. That is a remarkable, remarkable series of positioning from the members of the opposition.

What I can tell the member…. The member should well know that there was an independent panel report that they actually…. The NDP used to go around quoting from this independent panel report quite happily. But you know, Mr. Speaker? They are no longer quoting from the section that warned that it would take 18 to 24 months in order to go back to a PST-GST world. They should perhaps refer to the report that they were fond of quoting.

Mr. Speaker: Member has a supplemental.

[1410]

S. Simpson: The Minister of Finance should listen to the questions that are coming from the Urban Development Institute, from the home builders and the real estate association. They are asking for certainty. They're asking for this government to at least do as much work as to tell them what the rules will be and what they can expect at the end of the day. The UDI tell me

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the homebuilders and the Real Estate Association. They're asking for certainty. They're asking for this government to at least do as much work as to tell them what the rules will be and what they can expect at the end of the day.

Hon. Speaker, the UDI tells me they can't even write a presale agreement. They don't know what rules they can put in the contract, because this minister can't get it together to make it happen. The government knew they were going to lose the HST referendum before the vote. They ignored it. They've ignored it for months since. They've done nothing.

This industry is hurting. Thousands of jobs are on the line. The Canadian Home Builders Association in a recent report of its members on the HST said that the HST "is choking the ability for builders and renovators to continue as the small business owners that form the backbone of the province." Their members went on to say that it demonstrates "the anxiety and devastation that is becoming a reality in our industry, and the resulting fallout of lost human capital as jobs are lost."

They're not saying: "Change the dates." They're saying: "Just tell people what's going on." Or tell them you don't know what you're doing and you don't know what's going on.

Hon. K. Falcon: I'm encouraged to hear the member for Vancouver-Hastings actually expressing a concern about the business community. That is certainly the first time I've heard that. Mr. Speaker. You know, during the decade in which the party of the member opposite held power, I didn't hear the same concern when housing starts went down 66 percent under the NDP government. I didn't hear any of that concern about jobs and how concerned they were.

You know, I understand. I understand the NDP. I mean, I know the Leader of the Opposition is phoning around and begging for meetings with senior business leaders, going to them so he can go around and pretend that he has talked to business. He wants to pretend they're friendlier. But I note that they're not talking about their agenda. They're not talking about the 20 percent corporate tax increase they want to put through. They're not talking about the corporate capital tax they're bringing back. They're not talking about raising the small business tax 80 percent. No, they're not talking about any of the job-killing tools they implemented in the 1990s in the most disastrous government we have known in the history of the province of British Columbia.

B. Ralston: Well, the Minister of Finance is clearly not prepared to listen to the Urban Development Institute, the Real Estate Association and the homebuilders.

Let's try someone else. Maybe this will catch his attention. One of the earliest prominent supporters of the Premier in her bid for the leadership of the B.C. Liberals was Vancouver realtor Bob Rennie. He said recently: "I need someone to stand up and tell me what the rules are. What day does the HST go away?" He continued: "I'm just looking for my government to give me certainty as soon as possible."

Does that catch the interest of the Minister of Finance, now that a prominent supporter of the Premier has raised this issue? When is he going to step in, clean up the mess the Liberals have created and bring some certainty to the HST regime?

Hon. K. Falcon: You know, I met with representatives of UDI. I meet with folks from the housing industry all the time, Mr. Speaker. Naturally, I tell them the same thing I've said in this House before, and that is that the federal government, which is responsible for drafting the transitional rules, are moving as fast as they can to put those transitional rules together. But none of this escapes the irony of the fact that it is the NDP who campaigned to go back to this cumbersome, inefficient tax that is hated by everyone in the business community, virtually without fail. Now they're complaining about the fact that the result they got is causing impacts as a result of having to go backwards. I mean, it's a remarkable position for the Finance critic to be complaining now about the fact that it takes time. They should have thought about that when they were out campaigning to go back to a stupid, inefficient tax.

Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Take your seat, Member.

Member has a supplemental.

[1415]

B. Ralston: It's hard to imagine something more arrogant and contemptuous of democracy than what the Finance Minister just said.

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Interjections.

Mr. Speaker: Take your seat, Member.

Member has as a supplemental.

B. Ralston: It's hard to imagine something more arrogant and contemptuous of democracy than what the Finance Minister just said. Clearly, he didn't like the result of the referendum, but he is obliged to follow it.

During the Finance Committee hearings in Chilliwack just recently on the 2012 budget consultation, M.J. Whitemarsh, the president of the Canadian Home Builders Association of B.C. said that their industry is in crisis. "Now that the referendum is over, we are in another 18 to 24 — maybe longer; we don't know — wait-and-see period, and our industry is dying." Thousands of jobs are at stake, and they're real jobs. This industry exists. It's here now. It's not offshore somewhere, waiting to come here. It's here right now. People are waiting to get to work.

When will the Finance Minister step in and speed up the transition process, don't blame the federal government, step in and do his job and bring certainty to that regime here in British Columbia?

Hon. K. Falcon: Well, this is the same Finance critic that back in July came out and said that our 2 percent GDP growth forecast that we had in our budget was lowballing and that we were trying to lowball things so that we would look better at the end of the year.

Well, I hear only silence from the opposition benches today. Only silence because once again in the NDP world being responsible and cautious in your estimates of GDP growth at a time when there's a sovereign debt crisis in Europe, at a time when the U.S. is undergoing severe challenges in their economy — that's the time that the NDP says we ought to have a high rate of growth forecast and we need to spend more in every single ministry of government. That is what we hear from these folks across the way.

I'll tell you this much. We're very concerned about the housing sector. I can tell you that when the number of housing starts came out in October, it showed that in B.C. the numbers rose 2.4 percent, which bucks the national trend. It bucks the national trend which saw a decline.

Nevertheless, I can tell you that what's happening around the world is bound to impact confidence in the housing sector. We're very concerned about that. We're working as quickly as we can with the federal government to bring forward those transitional rules that will give additional comfort to those in the housing sector.

IMPACT OF HARMONIZED SALES TAX
ON RESORT MUNICIPALITY AGREEMENTS

N. Macdonald: Here it is almost three years later, and I think everybody would have to be struck by the mess that this government made when they decided to deceive British Columbians with the HST. It's a mess.

One more example of that is with resort municipality agreements which are in place with 12 local governments, including five in Columbia River–Revelstoke. The bungled implementation of the HST inadvertently wiped out the funding mechanism for these agreements. A grant system is being used as a stopgap.

But as the government very slowly reinstates our PST, resort communities want assurance that we will also return to the pre-existing resort municipality funding mechanism. Can the Minister of Finance give that assurance today in the Legislature?

Hon. K. Falcon: Mr. Speaker, I may get the member to repeat the question. I thought he was going down another track, and I'm not sure that I caught the gist of it.

What I can tell the member that he might find interesting is, you know, housing starts…. Particularly in the member's area, he should be concerned. We're all concerned about a slowdown in housing activity. What is interesting to me though is that coming out of the worst economic downturn we've seen in at least 60 years around the world in the late '09, in 2010 we saw housing starts return to more than 26,000. We're currently forecast to see an increase this year. A modest increase, but nevertheless an increase.

I think what is interesting to me is that during the decade of the 90s when we saw global economic growth and we saw the President of the United States, President Clinton, balance the budget and we saw generally good times right across North America, amazingly enough, in British Columbia housing starts fell 66 percent.

[1420]

That is a really unfortunate testament to what happens when you have that kind of government in power.

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Can you see what Kevin Falcon said, said just yesterday..Here it is again(and here is the actual question period video, November 21/Monday)

Hon. K. Falcon:  "I was going to say I'd really like to take this question, but thank you for directing it to me, Member.

Member, it's rather remarkable that the group that campaigned to go back to a very cumbersome, complex, inefficient tax are the same group that are now complaining about the process of going back. It's rather remarkable that they campaigned to go back to an inefficient tax."

 Well here`s the deal, Christy Clark stated she needed a mandate from the People to Govern, but with poor polling results she canceled, Christy Clark lied, Christy Clark also promised in her leadership run that she wouldn`t advertise on the people`s dime a persuasion AD campaign promoting the HST...Another bold-faced BC Liberal lie!

In fact all Christy Clark has done in office is lie and defend Gordon Campbell`s policies.......Right now allegedly Shirley Bond is negotiating a new RCMP contract, Could Shirley Bond negotiate a new RCMP  contract if she went around saying, the RCMP is bad, archaic, cumbersome, outdated etc etc etc....Also right now Kevin Falcon as finance minister is negotiating with Ottawa on behalf of the BC electorate to remove the HST and return our BC PST/GST, ..

Let me repeat that, ........ Kevin Falcon as finance minister is negotiating with Ottawa on behalf of the BC electorate to remove the HST and return our BC PST/GST, ..

How on earth can we as a Province have Kevin Falcon negotiate on behalf of the BC majority to remove the HST when Kevin Falcon, in public adamantly ridicules the PST, he calls it names, Kevin Falcon in our BC Legislature is laughing at the electorate, Falcon lambastes the NDP for backing the Majority`s wishes, Falcon is condescending, insulting, Kevin Falcon is the BC representative to Ottawa on the removal of the HST, how on earth can we have as our chief negotiator in Ottawa on the HST a man, along with Christy Clark, who led the campaign for the BC Liberals to keep the HST in a ruthless deceptive ad campaign ......

When our chief negotiator on the return of the HST is calling our PST..

"Archaic, cumbersome, job killing"

How can we possibly have our representative in Ottawa so denigrate the British Columbia voting public , a mealy mouthed little lying twerp named Kevin Falcon is negotiating for us, are you kidding me! We as a Province will never get any kind of a decent deal with Ottawa when our negotiator(Kevin Falcon) is defending the HST and pushing the Federal case for the HST consumer tax...Falcon stated that every business without fail wants the HST, it`s only the NDP and idiots who are against the HST, did no one inform Falcon the results of the referendum, Falcon is still fighting for the HST, perhaps, just perhaps Christy Clark should remove Falcon from that portfolio, YA THINK!

Christy Clark, you have no mandate to Govern, you have done nothing but lie, cheat and defend Gordon Campbell`s policies, including the HST, the one item that drove Campbell from office, an item that you Christy Clark specifically promised not to promote or advertise, you lied on both counts, you lied on a snap election, you have no mandate and now you have appointed the biggest HST proponent to be our point man in Ottawa on its removal!...That doesn`t mesh!.....Clearly Kevin Falcon  is the wrong choice for that job and if you don`t make a leadership move immediately to replace Kevin Falcon of that position than you too Christy Clark are failing in your capacity as leader of the Province!

Christy Clark, not only does Kevin Falcon need to apologize to everyone in British Columbia for his condescending attitude towards the majority but you need to call an election, your limited mandate has expired, you have lied and obfuscated on every issue.

Time to put up or shut up Christy Clark, British Columbia can`t wait for an unlikely BC Liberal bump in the polls!!

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open