Why is there such reluctance to call a spade a spade, the New Port Mann super bridge and its tolls, let`s be perfectly clear, a new bridge wasn`t needed, a twinned bridge at half the cost would have been sufficient, Gordon Campbell doing what he did best gifted his friends with an ultra lucrative contract, road builders and corporate lobby filled the BC Liberals coffers, they filled it year after year for one reason, to buy the wrong decision!
Gordon Campbell never gave a crap about spending taxpayer`s money or making the wrong decision, from outsourcing of hospital cleaning to rip-off IPP private power, money bought leverage and Gordon Campbell was the sleaziest lying bastard to ever hold office in British Columbia, he never made one decision on his own, corporate boardrooms and sacks of paper money influence made the decisions....Gordon Campbell was a bought man, his ethics and morality never existed in reality, all BC Liberals are accountable for his actions for not one ever stood up and said that`s wrong, not a one, not Kevin Falcon, not Rich Coleman, not Shirley Bond, none, they allowed the BC Government to be turned into a personal bank account....
Big lobby criminals, Ian Black was gifted a $400 k per year gig at the Vancouver board of trade....Phil Hocstein gifted a 3 year cushy gig at the Port of Vancouver...Carole Taylor gifted a sweet deal with the TD bank board of directors, that for removing the minimum bank tax..Barry Penner, he too has gone to a group of lawyers, LLP, Barry Penner(Environment minister) is now a paid lobbyist for industrial customers wanting to do business with the BC Government...Barry Penner couldn`t fight his way out of a traffic ticket, he really is that stunned, yet he was gifted a sweet gig because he holds keys to the BC Liberals backroom cash counting room...
Even the great Dianne Watts, Miss popular, she won in a sweep in last year`s civic elections, she is a phony as they come, lately she`s been blathering about the brutal tolls those south of the Fraser will soon be paying to cross the Port Mann tolled bridge, single drivers will be paying $2000 per year, some families will be paying that twice or more, but that`s only the beginning, the $3 dollar one-way toll is only on cars, medium sized trucks will pay more $7 dollars each way, semi trailers will be paying $25 dollars to cross the bridge, all those commercial costs will be passed on to consumers and business, meaning everyone will be paying tolls in one way or another..
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"Dianne Watts is proposing all bridges become toll bridges, smaller tolls of perhaps $1 dollar per crossing,
She also called for a regional tolling strategy to help defray the costs of a new Pattullo Bridge, saying residents south of the Fraser are being unfairly penalized with tolls on the Golden Ears Bridge, the new Port Mann Bridge and likely the new Pattullo. She maintains tolling all Lower Mainland bridges at 75 cents to $1 would be more fair and equitable to the region, especially as Surrey and Langley are expected to take 70 per cent of the growth in the next 30 years."
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Dianne Watts has proposed that because her email box is filling up with complaints and real fear, fear from residents that are scared they will have to leave BC because of affordability, their fear is justified but..
But where the hell was Dianne Watts when the project was first proposed?..People like me and Stephen Rees warned of this, a simple twinning was all that was needed and the existing Port Mann was upgraded between 1997 and 1999 and is structurally sound for another 60 years or more, the pure hypocrisy of Dianne Watts to fake concern through a gullible media soap box is sad, for the very people who bought Dianne Watts through the same contribution box were developers and builders who wanted the bridge..
Surrey First’s campaign built on construction sector cash
Amy Reid, Surrey Now
"Published: Friday, March 23, 2012A total of $304,310, or 44.99 per cent, came from development, contracting and construction-related businesses, according to the list submitted to the Surrey city clerk's office on March 5. Big contributors in this category included Qualico Developments, which made four donations totalling $11,500, and B&B Contracting, with four donations totalling $17,500.
From real estate and related businesses, the Surrey First team received $54,050, or 7.99 per cent. Colliers International made two donations totalling $8,600. Several companies from this category have crossovers into the development side of business, such as Anthem Properties, which donated $6,000, and describes itself as a real estate investment, development and management company."
Surrey First’s campaign built on construction sector cash
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Mayors Fastbender and Dianne Watts are pathetic clowns for proposing pain on everyone when they knew full well at the very git-go that there would be tolls of $3 dollars each way or more.
Surrey and Langley wanted the bridge and they can live with the consequences, those consequences will be $hundreds of millions of dollars sucked out of their economy every year, rat-racing to avoid tolls, other avenues backed up for miles, and what is so sad...Dianne Watts could have won the election without all that construction money, now Watts and Surrey are beholden to these builders...When will the media call out these phony politicians, when will media actually research or think common sense, I fought tooth and nail over the new Port Mann bridge, the deal was done as soon as Gordon Campbell received the cash...
Dianne Watts`s idea of everyone paying a smaller toll and spread the pain is Pathetic and devoid of thought, that would entail putting sensors and cameras on every crossing costing hundreds of millions of dollars just to create a mechanism to track and collect tolls from everyone....
Many people in Vancouver and Burnaby cross 3 or 4 bridges a day to get to work, Dianne Watts wants them to pay $1000`s per year in tolls...Pathetic..
Let me give you another example of pathetic BC Liberal fiscal incompetence, Ken Dobell, BC Liberal insider and lobbyist, Skytrain is spending over $200 million dollars to install fare-gates at skytrain stations, it`s reported that these gates will prevent $5 million dollars per year in fare evasion, when you take in account interest payments they will never pay for themselves and actually cost BCers and local people more than the yearly fare evasion amount, much much more, it may even cost some families their children`s life!..
Let me explain that in a little more detail...Skytrain could have merely hired 1 staff member for each station, $60 k ..$80 k per year for skytrain ticket checkers, one per station would have stopped this fare evasion, even if there were 100 stations(which there isn`t) we are talking about $10 million per year max, it would take over 30 years to add up to the outlay cost of fare gates, but these employees would be spending money, raising families and contributing to a functioning society....Further-more, if those drug addicted, drunks, broke fare evaders can`t sneak on skytrain or can`t afford the ticket do you think these people will walk?....They won`t, there will be a spike in pan-handling, there will be an increase in car thefts, an increase in crime in and around skytrain stations...
And there is more, parents and their teenage girls, let`s be honest, teenagers drink, have sex, go to parties and many time children do stupid things and many times they find themselves broke, if I had a young teenage daughter or son I would hope they could ask a skytrain attendant to please let them get home by train if their pockets are empty, let the kid plead their case, promise not to do it again and arrive home safely, for if you bullet proof skytrain there will be some stupid kids who will stick out their thumb to get home..Your imagination can fill in the blanks..
Yet the corporate bought media and politicians in order to curry favor propagated a sad story of fare evasion driving the costs of transit, not one real practical pragmatic approach was considered, it was always about Ken Dobell and his clients, Fare-gates will cost lives and increase panhandling and local crime and never recoup the money...Sellout BC Liberal politicians knew this but still allowed Gordo to corrupt and confuse the debate.
Back to Dianne Watts and her false flag spread the tolls around argument, where were you when the bridge was first proposed?...You were siding with Gordon Campbell and a corrupt BC Liberal party while soaking up photo-ops...
Now let`s drag in the other photo-op queen, Christy unqualified Clark...She put her foot, make that both feet in her mouth last week when she said there will never be a vehicle levy, she`s wrong and as usual hasn`t thought it through, the toll outrage will build south of the Fraser river and those people will demand that all crossings are tolled but at a lower amount...Wrong wrong wrong..
Putting cameras and sensors on all crossings would be very expensive, the cost of collection, the maintenance, the answer is no bridge tolls, the answer is in a car levy, no cameras, no sensors, no maintenance, nothing but a plain old simple car levy that spreads the pain to all....And to make it fair, if you`re driving a brand new Porsche the car levy will be more than the family that insures a family carrying vehicle...Familes won`t be punished for driving to soccer practice, it won`t cramp commerce by forcing people to stay home, it won`t punish Sunday sight seeing drivers, it won`t take $ thousands and thousand from the working few while leaving rich West Vancouver unscathed, it eliminates cameras and sensors and billing agents, a simple fee added to your car insurance...And yes, not just in the GVRD but Province wide, perhaps then maybe the ministry of transportation will start fixing the hundred million pot holes on our BC roads..
This is the real problem with Governments, as soon as they start taking money from industry and lobby groups the decisions that are made are not in the best interest of the public...
We can`t undo the new Port Mann or fare-gates, we can`t undo the bribes Dianne Watts and BC Liberals have taken but we can bring in legislation both provincially and federally to prevent this from happening in the future...
For this to happen the NDP must be elected, first here in BC (next year) and Nationally in 2015, for if we don`t take out the bribe money and lobbyist control out of our Governments these blatant errors will happen over and over again.
Too bad a lowly little ol blogger like me has more common sense than the entire BC Liberal Government combined.
The Straight Goods
Cheers Eyes Wide Open
1 comment:
Mz. Wattts is a carbon copy of Gordo Campbellll, doing to Surrey exactly what GC did to B.C.
The t-boner victim filed civil claim dated Dec.8/10, Supreme Court of B.C. Court File No. VLC-S-M-105951, much like Hawaii except no breathlizers, RCMP immediately had the corrupt msm claiming that the victim was the cause of the accident. City of Surrey, Corporate Report No: R057 dated Mar. 29/11 Surrey City Development Corporation, a real piece of work. Falling off her horse...her City CENTRE NORTH...her appointed council slate are 'all independents' She says...
Fadden as usual got it right.
Thanks for all the great work you do for all of us.
Still signing in as Anonymous.
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