Christy Clark and the BC Liberals Should Shut Their Big Fat Mouths

I was thinking a little bit about Christy Clark`s LNG prosperity dream and it dawned on me that these BC Liberals are a real stupid bunch..

Suppose you were a business, a fledging business planning on going into partnership with another company or entity, deals haven`t been signed yet, plans are in the preliminary stages, contracts haven`t been drawn yet and out of the blue your potential new business partner tells the world, tells its own family, tells 4 million British Columbians that we are going to make $trillions of dollars off of our new partner, not $millions, not $billions but $trillions, I think that is really stupid..

And more, we tell the players involved in making this $trillion dollar thingy happen, Shell, BG, EnCana, Chesapeake Energy, Chevron that not only are we going to make $trillions from our new customers we`re also going to place new taxes on them, the facilitators, that`s sounds like a really stupid thing to say to attract business, and isn`t that exactly what Christy Clark has done..

Japan has massive debt problems, Korea has issues and China is very powerful.

 Christy Clark is right about one thing, it is a new global world, no one is isolated anymore, things said in newspapers, in budgets and throne speeches are not just heard here in British Columbia but around the world, satellites, Skype, internet, 24/7 news channels, 24/7 business and investor channels, worldwide trading happens 24 hours a day, one stock exchange closes as another starts their trading day..

What do you think Japan and China think about Christy Clark`s plan to eliminate BC`s debt, eliminate sales tax, add $billions to health, education and social services and create a $trillion dollar prosperity fund for future British Columbia generations.

That is exactly what the big mouth has done, already the facilitators like Chevron and Chesapeake energy balked at the thought of any new taxes, after all, they had just started lobbying Ottawa for $2 billion dollars in annual subsidies and out of the blue Christy Clark starts talking new taxes, I would grade her an F for business savvy.

Because as you know, Qatar, Australia, Russia, Africa, USA, all those countries are in the fracking game too, and years ahead of us to boot,  and as reported here China itself has the world`s largest reserves of shale gas..

Would you as a business want to enter into a brand new partnership with someone who is proposing making $trillions off of you, would you stay on board or run for the hills, or would you look for a business partner who is willing to be a little more generous?

Christy Clark has a big fat mouth, so concerned with electioneering, spin and trying to trick the public that she has inadvertently chased our potential customers away before they even rang the service desk bell, we aren`t a little hick town, we aren`t so isolated that local domestic hyperbole uttered by our unelected premier stays here, rumour has it we have quite a few Chinese residents, we have Chinese nationals and Chinese tourists who indeed have functioning ears..

 Christy Clark has told those unsigned customers that we intend not to make a little money off  them , a quid pro quo relationship, a partnership where both parties give and take in a harmonious arrangement, no, Christy Clark told all of Asia that little ole British Columbia with our tiny 4 million person population is planning on taking them to the cleaners for decades to come, amazing eh..

Those Chinese people are quite industrious, they like to buy what they don`t have, or borrow and even steal and the number one Chinese acquisition as of late is something really special, that my friends is technology..

Have I got your attention yet?

There was some very shocking news from the world of business today..Chesapeake Energy, do you know that they have big-time financial problems, and I mean really big, the low price of natural gas has near bankrupted them, they need to raise money and raise money they did and guess who was the purchaser?

Sinopec to buy Chesapeake Energy assets for $1.02 billion

________________ 

Now you might not think that`s such a big deal, until you read the details, this story must be sending shockwaves through Victoria as we speak, because what Sinopec bought wasn`t oil or gas, what they bought was technology, technology to be employed in mainland China, technology used in fracking, all those years of British Columbia developing fracking technology and in a blink of an eye it`s gone, secrets revealed and bottled genies running wild, China has bought fracking technology from Chesapeake Energy for use in China..

And in my opinion both Christy Clark and the Liberals,  Stephen Harper and the federal cons are to blame, in trying to con the Canadian public, in trying to spin and twist to get their destructive environmental ways approved they inadvertently signalled to Asia that we Canada are going to cash in on their misfortune, that being no domestic energy supplies in China, oh those silly uninformed Canadians, China is a big place with many natural resources, many indeed.

I give both Christy Clark and Stephen Harper a big fat f, a fail in business, they both have big fat over-bearing mouths, you can add Joe Oliver to that list too..

 Here are the shocking details reverberating through our legislative halls..

____________

  

"The assets in Oklahoma produced 46,000 barrels of oil a day at the end of 2012, according to an e-mailed statement released today by Beijing-based unit Sinopec International Petroleum Exploration & Production Corp. Cnooc Ltd. (883), a unit of China’s largest offshore oil producer, has bought $1.65 billion of assets from Chesapeake since 2010.

U.S. energy acquisitions may soar after Cnooc this month won approval from the U.S. Committee on Foreign Investment to buy Nexen Inc. (NXY) for $15.1 billion. Chinese companies are seeking energy assets globally to lock in supplies for the world’s fastest growing major economy and access technology to retrieve fuel trapped in rocks that has driven U.S. oil production to the highest in almost 21 years.

“While Chesapeake has many quality assets, Chinese oil companies care more about their drilling and shale-fracking technology,” 

Laban Yu, Hong Kong-based analyst at Jefferies Group Inc., said in a telephone interview. 

“The reason Chinese oil companies have gone after Chesapeake in the past year was also because they wanted to apply the technology to tap the world’s No.1 shale gas reserves in China.”

 

 Fuel Fix » Sinopec to buy Chesapeake Energy assets for $1.02 billion

____________

This is a brand new story, the linked above article about this latest acquisition was posted today, February 26th/2013...This is breaking news

Of course this Powell River Persuader has been writing on this for a few years now..Here are a few of those viral posts..


 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2012/02/chinese-tigers-playing-with-canadian.html


http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/02/british-columbias-lng-corporate-welfare.html

 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/02/british-columbias-natural-gas.html

___________________
 In poker Christy Clark you don`t brag how great your cards are before the money is placed on the table, for when you open up your big fat mouth and start bragging about holding pockets aces and how you can`t lose..

You can`t tell your customers that we`re about to make $trillions off them .

The remaining players merely fold their hand and let you take the blinds.

 

You Christy Clark give new meaning to the phrase,..."Got the nuts"  

(This is not an endorsement of an LNG super industry, however, if I really believed this was a winning plan, if there was any real opportunity for the province to make a lot of money, in any industry, if we were trying to woo customers, why would we brag to them about $trillions?)


The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

BC Ferries in Financial Disarray, More Corruption and Guile

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

UPDATED AT BOTTOM of POST, February 26th/2013

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

Read more: http://www.theprovince.com/news/Ferries+reports+million+loss+traffic+plunges/6789672/story.html#ixzz1xzbtG7bz

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...

_________________________________________________

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..

____________________________________________________________________________________________



 Below is the complete letter from Debra Marshall at BC Ferries sent to me....... more details here
_____

" 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

____

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 

______________________________

UPDATED HERE, February 26th/2013

BC Ferries suffers net loss of over $17 million in third fiscal quarter of 2012

 

British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. (BC Ferries) says it absorbed a net loss of $17.2 million in its third quarter ending Dec. 31, 2012.
That’s a slight improvement over the net loss of $19.2 million in the same quarter last year.
BC Ferries says third quarter vehicle traffic declined 2.2 per cent and passenger traffic fell 2.4 per cent, largely due to December, when total traffic decreased 5.6 per cent on major routes.
In December, there was a lot of stormy weather with high winds that resulted in numerous sailing cancellations in and around the peak holiday season.
The company says it expects annual traffic levels will be slightly lower as a result.
Total revenue in the quarter increased by $4.7 million to $169.6 million compared to the same quarter last year.

http://beaconnews.ca/fortstjohn/2013/02/bc-ferries-continues-to-lose-money-after-revealing-third-quarter-earnings/

_________________________________

Like the province of British Columbia, BC Ferries is in structural deficit, with a $1.4 billion dollar debt, $500 million of that debt went directly in general revenue in 2005, before that election, that debt was for the above described debenture...BC Ferries is carrying so much debt that until they get bailed out they will continue to run deficits for eternity, and that my friends was Gordon Campbell`s plan from the get-go..

BC Ferries was debt free in 2001, because of tens of $millions in executive pay to David Hahn and other ferry executives and a massive debt held by German banks, of which $500 million of that debt was created when Gordon Campbell and the Liberals sold BC Ferries to ourselves, he forced the new BC owned corporation to borrow $500 million dollars, none of which went to ferry operations or vessels, this debenture debt was a financial fraud, this borrowed money by BC Ferries was used to prop up a pre-election budget in 2005..

Sound familiar, just look at this year`s 2013 bogus budget..

And lastly, remember in my Pat Bell post last week, I asked you readers to forgive my cynicism..Well...Pat Bell had a reason to resign, it wasn`t a health issue, it was a brewing controversy involving BC Liberal insiders, cronyism, corruption, Ross K has more details..

My Cynicism was indeed justified, Pat Bell, just another corrupt liberal running for the hills!..

http://pacificgazette.blogspot.ca/2013/02/this-day-in-snooklandanother.html

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

In Alberta and B.C.: Stephen Harper Destroying The Rule Of Law.

In Alberta and B.C...Stephen Harper is destroying the rule of law                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  


Written by Robin Mathews

Alberta energy specialist Andrew Nikiforuk (Tyee, Feb. 22, 2013) reports the involvement of the federal Minister of Justice in what may be called direct interference with the rule of law in Alberta. The story Nikiforuk tells leaves the trail of malfeasance clear and examinable. 

In “a stunning move the Harper government” - through the Department of Justice (reports Andrew Nikiforuk) - has promoted a key judge (in a landmark fracking case) from the Court of Queen’s Bench to the Alberta Court of Appeal.  As Andrew Nikiforuk puts it, the move was made in order to remove Justice Barbara L. Veldhuis, presiding judge, from “the multi-million dollar ($33 million) lawsuit” being pressed by Jessica Ernst in the matter of fracking pollution and those responsible for it.

Madam Justice Veldhuis will be replaced.  Her replacement will automatically be questionable – suspected of being a “plant” to prejudice the case in favour of Stephen Harper and Encana, one of Canada’s largest natural gas producers.

Readers need to know that the judge on a case is usually – for very obvious reasons – bound to that case.  The judge is said to be “seized” with the case – meaning responsible for all aspects of it from beginning to end. Being “seized” usually means not to be interfered with, not unnecessarily delayed, NOT REPLACED  without very sound reason – because the judge knows most about the complications of the case.

The judge is “seized” also because law and courts have a long history of powers of all kinds wanting to get rid of judges in order to tamper with, change, and/or redirect the judgement in cases. That is one of the reasons a judge is “seized” – so that any meddling by power can be seen for what it is, an action intended to violate the fair administration of justice.

Jessica Ernst is fighting Encana. and was close to getting a ruling from Madam Justice Veldhuis that she could sue “Alberta’s energy regulator … for failing to uphold provincial rules, protect groundwater, and respect the constitutional rights of Canadians”.
That ruling would have placed a burden of responsibility upon frackers that they have been doing everything they can to avoid [with the full support of Stephen Harper, anti-environmentalist].

The Harper Junta interference is, I suggest, mischievous, prejudicial, scandalous, and stunning in its obviousness.

But we have been there before.

In the trial of Dave Basi, Bobby Virk, and Aneal Basi (part of the corrupt transfer of BC Rail to the CNR by the Gordon Campbell group) the judge “seized” with the matter was Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett. The pre-trial and trial ran from after the laying of charges in December 2004 to the outrageous explosive-ending of the trial in October 2010.

But that ending happened without Elizabeth Bennett presiding.

For – like Justice Barbara L. Veldhuis in the fracking case – Bennett was removed in what many believe was a Stephen Harper decision to protect his ‘friends’ - Gordon Campbell and others. 

In order to defend the accused, Defence lawyers had to call for RCMP officers’ notebooks, for investigation records, for materials in BC Rail headquarters, for government records of pre-sale manipulations, and much more. At almost every call, RCMP delayed.  The Special Crown Prosecutor fudged and fumbled. Almost every time, Madam Justice Bennett upheld the Defence request as a reasonable part of the rights of the accused to defend against the charges against them.

Out of the blue Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett – by the power that only resides in the Minister of Justice in Ottawa - was raised to the B.C. Appeal Court. Would she leave the matter that she was  seized with?  In theory, she didn’t have to.

Then a nightmare event happened in the B.C. Supreme Court.  Out of nowhere the bulldog Associate Chief Justice of the day Patrick Dohm appeared to preside at a process.

The apparent reason for the event was for the Special Prosecutor William Berardino to make a motion that Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett be removed from the case.  He gave two reasons. The first and completely ridiculous reason was that she couldn’t be in two places at once – and so must go.  The second reason he evinced was that she had incorrectly employed process.  That I believe was a wholly false assertion.

Associate Chief Justice Patrick Dohm received the motion with enthusiasm … and with such approval that he admitted he had already chosen the person to succeed Elizabeth Bennett.  That meant he had to have chosen Bennett’s replacement before there was a motion to have a replacement made!

The Special Prosecutor, incidentally, had been appointed in flagrant violation of the legislation governing the appointment of Special Prosecutors.  William Berardino was not noted for experience in criminal prosecutions. But he had been partner and colleague for seven years of the sitting Attorney General Geoff Plant.  And he had been partner and colleague for eleven years of the sitting Deputy Attorney General Allan Seckel. Because of those connections he was completely unqualified for the appointment he received.

It seems he was to focus on the three men, to get a judgement against them, and to show to British Columbians that there had been real wrongdoers in the “sale” of BC Rail, three of them, three (lower level) Sikh employees, and they were all charged and were all convicted.  Justice triumphs! End of story.

It didn’t work. Mr. Berardino was confronted by excellent Defence counsel. They made a strong and fair case that defence of the accused could only be made by examining the actions of their highly dubious superiors…who gave orders.

Madam Justice Bennett permitted that reasonable defence. 

Madam Justice Bennett was removed.

She was replaced by Madam Justice Anne MacKenzie who was very soon elevated – a few weeks later - to Associate Chief Justice upon the retirement of Patrick Dohm. Quite soon after the end of the Basi, Virk, and Basi trial, she was elevated to the British Columbia Appeal Court.

Her role, it seemed to me sitting in the courtroom, was to get the case back to the three men only.  But it didn’t work.

The trial became a hilarious display of amnesia ... almost of general Altzheimers Disease. Gordon Campbell’s decade-long chief of staff, Martyn Brown, could remember almost nothing. A member of the BC Rail Board, Brian G. Kenning, could hardly remember his own name, and didn’t even finish his testimony before the trial ended. And there were to be about twenty-five more of the same to come.

If the cross-examination had continued in the same way – and it might have grown worse – the cover-up of major wrongdoers would, I am sure, have exploded. Something had to be done to end it. Backroom dealing went into high gear. The three accused agreed to what might be called charges reduced to almost nothing.  The government of Gordon Campbell agreed to pay all of the ($6 million) costs of Defence.

The $6 million (that might be called a bribe by some) to avoid criminal charges against top politicians and corporate ‘leaders’ (and perhaps some years behind bars for them) was cheap. It was a breach of procedure and was paid out of the pockets of the taxpayers of British Columbia – but what the hell!  It worked.

Stephen Harper’s ‘friends’ got out of it all unscathed – and without paying a penny - by the simple action of the Minister of Justice in Ottawa stepping in (on Stephen Harper’s orders?), and promoting Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett from the B.C. Supreme Court to the B.C Appeal Court. To prove his prowess in the matter, Stephen Harper then appointed Gordon Campbell to what is perhaps the highest diplomatic position a Canadian can hold – Canadian High Commissioner in London.

In both cases, in B.C. and Alberta, the Stephen Harper Junta has used the courts and the administration of justice, I believe, to violate trust, to support alleged wrongdoers who might be found to be in serious fault or even criminally responsible, and to make justice in Canada a plaything of corrupt power. 

I suggest that only a government powered by a psychopath could so viciously and openly attack the rule of law in Canada.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Written by Robin Mathews
  _________________

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open     

BC Liberals, Government of Gimmicks Gadgets And Gobbily Goop

Written by Grant G


Before we get started there are two things that need to be said, right now the province of British Columbia is in structural deficit, meaning this, predicted and needed expenditures are greater than predicted and expected revenues, second, for far too long the public has been at the mercy of a pathetic media, a media that has failed in its public duty to report honestly, a media of complicit enablers, a media of spin and factual liars..

Our carbon tax, it`s a failure, this gimmick hasn`t removed one single gram of carbon from our provincial airshed, in theory a carbon tax could work, in BC`s case it hasn`t, a carbon tax is supposed to be financially punitive, the more carbon you burn the more money it costs you but like everything these Campbell/Clark Liberals have done, they even turned this simple concept into a failure, the biggest polluters like our greenhouse industry don`t pay, relief is granted, and than there is that revenue neutral part, all monies collected by the carbon tax are returned in the form of tax cuts(skewed towards corporate and higher income earners)..There is the failure of the carbon tax, taketh from one pocket and place in the other is not punitive, therefor the carbon tax fails, a  money wurlitzer machine, money in money out, and here is where the media failed, they allowed Barry Penner and now Terry Lake to wander our province spinning lies about its effectiveness, Terry Lake proclaims loudly how we have cut emissions, how the revenue neutral carbon tax is a roaring success when truth be told any carbon reductions we`ve seen as a province are from newer cleaner burning automobiles and the shuttering of mills and industry, the carbon tax hasn`t removed a single gram of carbon and the fact that this gimmick is tied to tax cuts any thought or suggestion of removing it will result in tax increases, a tangled web of deception and guile, even more, BC Liberal ministers and media sellouts like Billy Good are actually describing our carbon tax as Government revenue, another blatant lie spewed by Bill Good, in truth the carbon tax has more going out in corporate and income tax cuts than it brings in, a shell game and anyone any party that proposes removing this useless tax is immediately harpooned by our Liberal Government and panting puppy dog media and labeled tax raisers..

BC Liberal Government charging monies to our schools, hospitals and other public facilities for burning carbon, charging monies to these entities, monies that come directly out of their budgets, budgets that already fall short of the public need, this would be bad enough in itself but what makes it stink to high heaven is these monies taken from students and patients are given to wealthy corporate businesses like EnCana gas and Lafarge cement, two of our most prolific polluters, if you were to charge public bodies a fee for burning carbon shouldn`t that money be directed right back into the same public body for retrofits, for new furnaces, windows, roofs, for carbon saving initiatives..Why hasn`t our MSM screamed from the rafters and called out the Government for this gimmick, this funneling of monies to profitable corporate polluters..

Mandated by law to reduce our carbon footprint by 33% by 2020...Another sick joke, another media failure, Christy Clark has declared burning natural gas to produce LNG won`t count against our greenhouse gas total, really, where is the media again, we will never have 5 count-em, 5 LNG processing plants by 2020 but if we did, and even if only 2 of them burned natural gas to produce electricity for their operations would near double our provincial greenhouse emissions, so let`s be clear, tear up the law, let`s stop fooling ourselves, lying to each other, a spade is a spade, so why is the MSM so muted on this gimmick...

Faregates and smart meters, $211 million dollars for faregates, $1.2 billion for smart meters, when faregates were first proposed Translink was claiming $3 million in lost revenue to fare cheats but as the argument for installing these gates ensued that number rose through guile to $5 million..$6million to $8 million per year in lost revenue, let`s take even the highest projection in lost revenues, at $8 million per year it will take 30 years to recover these monies but if you add in carrying costs because the money used to install these gates is borrowed money it will take at least 40 years to recover that money, faregates should have been installed at the time of the skytrain builds, not after, and yet there is such an easy answer to solve the skytrain fare evasion problem..

100 skytrain ticket checkers making, costing $60 k per year would cost $6 million per year, let`s make it 200 skytrain ticket checkers at $60k per year, $12 million per year, for the cost of $240 million over 20 years we could have physical bodies checking tickets at skytrain, these employees who would spend money, add to the economy, buy houses, cars, raise children, pay mortgages and more, they would add safety, be able to deter drug trafficking and loitering, aggressive panhandiling and the like around skytrain stations, as for fare evasion on buses faregates will not solve that problem, faregate was about funneling money to BC Liberal insiders, friends of Gordon Campbell and Ken Dobell, and the ironic part of these so-called faregates the skytrain stations will still need blue suit transit employees to monitor the situation for one can climb over the gates or crawl under them..

Smart meters, there are a few good reasons for smart meters but with BC Hydro carrying an $8 billion dollar debt and $5 billion dollars debt in deferral accounts the time was wrong, we simply can`t afford them at this time, not to mention heath concerns, fire safety and the like, but just like the faregate argument BC Hydro at the behest of the Gordon Campbell Government skewed the numbers, at first they claimed $20 million dollars per year in hydro electric theft, then $40 million, then $60 million dollars, the number grew and grew, our gutless media stayed silent, by the time we recover monies expended for smart meters with less hydro electric theft the gadgets will need replacing, the truth be told these gadgets were brought in to charge time-of-use billing, it states as much in BC Hydro`s service plan yet if Gordon Campbell didn`t sellout our province to the BC Liberal insider dominated IPP corporate welfare industry BC hydro would not be drowning in debt, the need for time of use billing wouldn`t be needed, one scam led directly to another scam and Vaughn Palmer, Michael Smyth, Les Leyne, Vancouver Sun, Global news and the rest stayed silent, a bought, a gutless, a failed media stood by not only mute of the truth but turned corporate Government cheerleader..

A Government of gobbily goop, I won`t sell BC Rail, I won`t tear up contracts, it`s a lease not a sale, balanced budget law broken 9 of 12 years, BC Ferries sold by our Government to ourselves, forcing BC Ferries to go out and borrow $500 million dollars to hand over to the Gordon Campbell Government for general revenue...No HST on our radar, $495 million dollar deficit maximum when the true deficit was over $3 billion dollars and where was our media, did they defend the public, no, they turned tail and promoted the HST, where were they on the IPP disaster, nowhere to be found, they turned cheerleader for a welfare industry dependent on public tax dollars, where were they when Bill Barisoff cheated the application process in order for Gordon Campbell to receive the not-deserved order of British Columbia, where was the media, did they hound Bill Barisoff, no, they did nothing..

IPP`s are fiscal disaster, one that will last for decades, deferral accounts at BC Hydro, another disaster yet the gobbily goop out of the BC Liberals, like little children, The NDP started IPP`s, the NDP had deferral accounts, nah nah na na..Like children, a few small micro run of river projects in the 90`s with no longterm buying contracts and 1 single deferral account at BC Hydro for $20 million dollars, these BC Liberals have signed lucrative for the IPPs 30..40..even 60 year energy buying contracts, we are losing at present $400 million dollars per year on these contracts..and growing..The media allows these corrupt Liberals to point to the NDP, like bad children, Billy did it too..Sally did the same so why can`t we do it..Pathetic..

Even with sketchy budgets, The NDP`s notorious fudget budget of the 90`s, Gordon Campbell`s fudged budget was a factor of 10, 10 times the amount the NDP fudged, ..how can you compare $200 million dollar fudge to Gordon Campbell`s $3 billion dollar fudget budget..

And Adrian Dix`s well publicized backdated memo-to-file, He backdated a memo to himself, he paid a heavy personal price for that sin..It`s been well-documented by the BC Liberals in ads, in websites, by Jim Shepard`s corporate front group, and as of late Michael Smyth jumped on the memogate bandwagon, Vaughn Palmer, Les Leyne, all media has been highlighting that issue but not one word about Christy Clark cheating on elections at S-F-U..Not one word, not one word of Christy Clark dropping out of school, a university drop-out, not one word, not one word about Christy Clark lying on CKNW radio and having to retract, not one word, a media failure personified..

And guess what corporate media, the public doesn`t care, the NDP will win this election, they, we, the voting public have had enough of Liberal corruption, they don`t like Christy Clark and a 1000 more photo-ops won`t change a thing..

As of now the media are acting in a coordinated effort to call Adrian Dix names, Michael Smyth this week called Adrian, "Slippery than a greased weasel"..Real classy michael...

The media in unison.."What would the NDP do, show us your balanced budget, show us your magic wand to propel our province forward"

Like I said at the top of the post, we are in structural deficit, and lastly, Keith Baldrey, Bill Good, Vaughn Palmer have all admitted the BC Liberal carpet bombing advertising, partisan and false advertising is annoying but their companies love the revenue, Baldrey admitted these ads pay for the entirety of running BC Global news..and more..

And this week...

Adrian Dix brought forth a private member`s bill in our BC Legislature, one he promises to enact if he wins the election..

 http://www.leg.bc.ca/39th5th/1st_read/m201-1.htm

"All Government advertising must be vetted by the auditor general, it can`t be partisan in nature, it must serve a public purpose"...

Any ads deemed partisan can`t run, Government ads to warn of fire season, of public problems, of drinking and driving can be aired...and no Government advertising 4 months before an election..

This Adrian Dix private member Bill will go nowhere under the BC Liberals, Adrian must win the election in order to enact that Bill..

And with that the media on cue this week went into overdrive to besmirch, belittle, to spin and twist, to promote LNG folly and BC Liberal Gimmicks, gadgets and gobbily goop..

I wonder why?


The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open

Provincial Liberals across Canada are destroying lives

( February 22/2013...In light of Liberal Dalton Mcguinty proroguing the Ontario legislature to hide from theft and scandal, in light of Liberal Shawn Graham and his theft and scandals(forced to resign today), in light of Gordon Campbell`s thefts, now Rich Coleman and Christy Clark selling assets, scandal, theft, cronyism..Pamela Wallin, Mike Duffy, and now the real estate driven insider deals orchestrated by Stephen Treason Harper, a deal that will cost lives on our BC waters(IE Coast Guard station shuttering)....This post was one of my first, from 2009, it needs to be said again....I present you a blast from the not so distant past)
____________________


 Provincial Liberals across Canada are destroying lives

Written by Grant G



Canadians across Canada better wake up fast,provincial Liberal governments are stealing assets from the public and selling them, not just in BC,not only in Ontario,add New Brunswick to the mix.



Friends, my alarm bell is ringing loudly, I don`t know how many of you are aware of what`s happened in the last few years, we have been lowered into a brand new world,a world controlled by corporations and their greed, politicians of most stripes are nothing but conduits,agents,PR voices for the criminals, it happens so fast, I imagine it`s been going on for quite a while,theft I mean, but in the further past it was more subtle,more benign, but now...The corporations and our elected representatives don`t even hide their crimes, government PAB leak out little stories as rumours and within literally weeks the deals are complete, in truth the deals are already complete before the rumours are even leaked, this tactic is done to confuse people and give people the illusion that there is some sort of "process" at work ..But in fact we the people have no vote or say on these matters.



Our rights have been slowly taken from us for decades but in the last 2 years the speed in which the thefts and government sell outs have occurred have made me very scared, I see a gathering storm of corporate totalitarianism grabbing everything, grabbing human rights,stealing futures, butchering pensions, eliminating social guarantees, at the pace of the transformation I believe within the next decade North America will be nothing but a glorified penal colony.



This last salvo, the great depression, the great theft of 2007/2008 an orchestrated collapse of money markets, the players who brought on the disaster weren`t surprised, it wasn`t a matter of if the money system exploded but when, the when was 2 years ago, and governments,all governments, the Bush, Harper, the UK..Asia..Even the last government of hope,the Barack Obama hope machine, every single government sold out to the corporate elite, 30 trillion dollars worth of on paper assets vanished, governments cranked up printing presses and gave,yes gave willingly trillions more to the very people who stole and manipulated the public and looted the cookie jar, oh indeed, they(governments) will tell us they had no choice, they will say that jobs would vanish,things will get worse if we don`t make wall street whole, well friends, wallstreet is back, the bonuses are back, corporate profits are back and so is the risky behaviour,the hedging,credit swaps, derivatives, in fact there is more risk being taken today then there was pre-collapse, collapse 2 will happen within this same decade, and as you know the 8 million jobs lost down south haven`t come back and they`re not going to!



Barack Obama, the government of change,the hope,the new direction, the working together, people, Americans, Canadians,the world populous,everyone of us thought,imagined that one man could start the revolution, we were wrong, and no, I am not blaming Barack Obama, he was set up, the corporation, wall street, the players, they orchestrated the collapse to start near the end of the Bush era, allow the Republican think tanks and Bush to open the money flood gates, which is exactly what happened, Wallstreet lit the fuse and handed Barack Obama a flaming ball of shit , was it revenge, it was something, whatever it was it should have been thrown away and allowed to die, let the chips fall where they may, but no, the tentacles guaranteed this result, the living standard we once knew in north America is gone, ancient cultures are running from totalitarianism while developed nations are on a one way path towards it, Barack Obama couldn`t get health reform, he can`t get wallstreet reform, can`t get out of the wars, he`s powerless to release the grip corporations have on the world, he has nothing left to lift the people up with, the anger,disappointment, the complete morale breakdown occurring under his watch is too much for the world to take,the last great hope has been squashed, not only could Obama not keep the status quo(which wasn`t that great) but the utter breakdown of society on his watch, was any of this accidental,absolutely not,it`s been brewing for some time now, the complete taking of the last vestige of human hope was orchestrated to happen under the watch of the world`s messiah.



Yes friends, if Obama couldn`t help us,do any of you expect another great hope, another leader, another republican,another bush,another Clinton, another hero to emerge, would anyone believe the next messiah, the disappointment of the world could be felt after Copenhagen did nothing to stop visible pollution, yes people, the orchestrated theft,the pillaging of hope all while the best of the best was in charge, Obama is the best, he raised the spirit of the world and now with the collapse of all the ideals he praised, the stage is set for the final takeover, the world had such anticipation of the good things ahead with Obama, the fall of emotions is nothing I`ve seen before, the bar was set so high that the fall back to earth is unreal, the real unemployment rate in the USA is 20%, there will be no jobs for those people until there is a revolution.

I was researching pricing on power contracts and during my search I stumbled apon a few stories and a obvious connection and proof of a collaborated takeover and downgrading of the Canadian society became apparent...I came across the story in the Globe and Mail about Dalton McGuinty assigning investment banks (goldman sachs) to assess the value of crown corporations in order to facilitate their sale, assets on the chopping block include the Ontario lottery corporation, Ontario liquor distribution and Ontario utilities, sound familiar, as you know Mcguinty is ramming the HST down the throat of Ontarions against their wishes and now he is selling assets to his friends, everyone of those assets are money makers, Dalton McGuinty(Liberal) is selling profitable public assets for a quick infusion of cash, these moves will cost the public,remove protections, Dalton is doing the Gordon Campbell, Mcguinty brought increased hydro rates and a two tier rate that is unattainable to even the most modest of homeowners and now he`s going to sell these cash cows off to private interests.

 (read about it here) http://www.cp24.com/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20091216/091216_ont_crown_corps_sale/20091216/?hub=CP24Home

After reading these stories the connection between provincial Liberals from all the provinces have become obvious, it`s scary, the Liberals are selling us out at the provincial level across Canada but somehow the media,the big media has failed to make the connection, we know whats happening here in BC, Gordon Campbell(Proven lawbreaker and compulsive liar) has lied his face off, "I won`t sell be rail"......here is what the liar Gordon Campbell said on march 1st/2001..in the Vancouver sun...." A BC Liberal government will not sell or privatize BC Hydro`s dams,transmission lines,water resources or other core assets"........Yet we know what happened, he sold BC Rail, he outsourced 1/3rd of BC Hydro`s operations to accenture, a Bermuda based company with ties to Enron.Next they established the BC Transmission corporation,carving out transmission operations from BC Hydro so private power producers could transmit electricity throughout the north American grid,they also banned BC Hydro from building or competing for new power projects and....The most insidious thing GordonCampbell has done is guarantee massive profits to IPPs for 30 years, guaranteed rates that will cost BC Hydro(the taxpayer) upwards of $3 billion dollars per year by 2015 which will ultimately bankrupt BC Hydro thus forcing it`s sale and leaving BCers hanging by the noose of the corporation.

(read more here on the IPP sell out)


 http://www.straight.com/article-215235/melissa-davis-deciphering-truth-about-bc-energy-plan

Yes indeed friends it seems that Campbell and McGuinty are doing things in lockstep, yet for some reason our spoonfed Canwest news media refuses to allow the stories to be connected across Canada, surely someone must be paying attention, the Danny Williams government seems to fight for the people, Saskatchewan and Manitoba and even Alberta governments aren`t selling profitable Public assets, only provincial Liberals,debt ridden,HST corporate sellouts in every Liberal government, Campbell uses McGuinty as an excuse to Tax us with the HST...They use each other in justifying pay raises, they are playing both ends against the middle, can the remainder of our public assets be kept, I don`t think so, not under Liberal regimes, my regular readers know that Campbell and Falcon want to sell our public health system in a medical tourism scam, and in all this where is any public oversight from our federal government, the feds are not going to save us, Harper himself is planning on selling the Candu nuclear assets, and last spring there was talk of selling buildings and bridges to private firms for cash and we won`t get any help from Michael Ignatief and the federal Liberals, they have been no opposition and they gladly supported the illegal imposition of the HST...Even though 90% of the public in Ontario and BC don`t want it, and it`s apparently revenue neutral to government but still, Iggy and the Liberals ram it down our throats....There are 40 bills in the Canadian senate, the crime bill, EIC reform,many more bills that are languishing in the senate but the HST was put on the morning agenda in the senate and an hour later without debate the HST was granted and off it goes for royal assent.....

My friends there has been a massive shift to the corporation and a huge layer of everything we hold dear has been stolen against our will and when the HST drives markets lower there will be but one more choice for governments to make, tax the public some more,sell more, impoverish more, the speed at which this latest theft occurred boggles my Canadian mind,distract the public with H1N1 and sporting events, don`t connect the stories from province to province, yes indeed, am I paranoid, well maybe but when I ran across more stories like this one on the CBC web site http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/10/27/nb-nbpower-hydro-quebec-alward-704.html

Here was another interesting story, another Bold faced liar....Shawn Graham...A Provincial Liberal Premier from New Brunswick....Who in the 2006 election campaign promised not to sell public assets, assets like NB Power...but that promise was quickly broken...A soft leak on October 28th/2009 about MAYBE,Possibly, just thinking about selling NB power, New Brunswick`s public utility company, from rumour to a unstoppable deal within one month...Yes..Shawn Graham the New Brunswick premier has lied his face off and has sold their public utility to Quebec hydro...And under the deal residential rates will be frozen for a few years but...Industrial/Corporate users are getting a 40% reduction in power rates...How can that be, why would Quebec hydro buy anything that wasn`t extremely profitable, what happens to the residential user after a few years,Quebec Hydro will get the money back, because NB Power has a 4$ billion dollar debt now...So you tell me, if NB Power is losing money now, or just breaking even but not reducing it`s debt how could Quebec Hydro buy it..Slash corporate rates, freeze residential rates without losing money? How indeed, someone, not someone but the people of New Brunswick will pay a very heavy price by going ahead with this deal...Danny Williams of New Foundland and the new NDP Nova Scotia government want the deal stopped because the implications to their provinces are extreme. 


 (Read how Shawn Graham lied here) http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/12/17/nb-nbpower-graham-overstated.html


(And read about Danny Williams concerns here) 

http://dailygleaner.canadaeast.com/rss/article/864759

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/new-brunswick/story/2009/12/19/nb-ottawa-nbpower.html?ref=rss


The connections are mind boggling between BC and Ontario,Ontario with a billion dollar Ehealth scandal..BC a Ehealth scandal..Rapidly rising government wages,they are playing off of each other, both jacking up the hydro rates,two tier rates, both selling assets,money making assets, all liberal governments are using the massive deficits to steal assets,raise taxes,feed the greedy corporations,take away services,the power and utility sell-offs in all liberal provinces can`t be a coincidence,it`s an orchestrated effort to sell out the public while they take real good care of each other, when will big media wake up, my guess is never because their in on it.
Here in BC you know BC Hydro will be bankrupted, our ferry service has been sold,our BC Rail was given away,BC Hydro is going,BC Transmission is gone, BC Gas is gone, Major infrastructure projects go to but one company ..Keiwet, and financing through the McQuarie group, The P3s that are draining our resources, Handy dart to MVT...An American company with a brutal reputation for destroying pensions and worker benefits, when will we wake up, will politicians have to be assassinated before our voices are heard? The path we are on is not going to end well, we don`t have much time left,we must band together as Canadians and stop these things,these Liberals, maybe NDP governments need to be elected provincially and federally I don`t know, the people of New Brunswick would toss Shawn Graham big-time in an election and the same goes for McGuinty and Gordon campbell, all three of those Liberal governments are finished yet the wake of destruction on their way out is staggering...Can we survive, yes people, friends, readers...the shift happened, I don`t wish the future upon any offspring,it`s not going to be a pretty picture.


The Straight Goods

Cheers-Eyes Wide Open

British Columbia`s LNG Corporate Welfare Scheme Exposed

What is going on with LNG for export development in British Columbia, it really is an important question?

For several years at least we have been hearing about our financial saviour in waiting, the LNG industry, in the last year this fledging industry`s rosy forecast have been front in center in expensive ad campaigns, the promise of a need for millions of workers, the promises of $trillions of dollars in revenue, numbers so large, numbers so lucrative that soon our roads will not only get the potholes fixed but be repaved with gold, wealth beyond our dreams, who needs "chump-change" tar sand coinage when British Columbia can start our own mint fueled by natural gas..

Why the delay, why the holdup, for years LNG producers have been talking a good game and they really have spread LNG promotional sauce liberally over the last 18 months, so why is nothing happening, why indeed..

Companies pitting countries against each other, the race to the bottom, who will giveth the most, who will look the other way while corporate corruption skews the books, plays the field and creates another corporate welfare industry..

Alberta, a $6 billion dollar deficit this year, their 5th deficit in a row, all the development, foreign investment, big corporate takeovers with massive premiums paid on share prices, the most oil and gas production in their history and the deficits to Government are growing exponentially each year...Why, how can this be, by accident, by market forces, or by sinister corporate design, the race to the bottom, subsidies, kickbacks, financial fraud and offshore tax havens, you can`t name just one of those items because those corporate activities are all in play, all of the time, including deliberate corporate fraud...

Let`s look at Australia, $100s of billions of dollars have been and are being invested in LNG export terminals and related facilities, every LNG project from every company doing business in Australia, every single project is and has gone over-budget by 30%..40%..50% even by 100% in some cases...A Chevron LNG plant build, Chevron`s Gorgon LNG plant has ballooned from a $30 billion dollar build cost to now an estimated $60 billion dollars plus..And Chevron isn`t alone, every company building similar facilities have seen similar cost over-runs..Coincidence, bad luck, how about deliberate guile and deception, how about corruption, ingrained systemic corporate corruption..

What if I told you the Australian Government pays 30% of all LNG capital costs, meaning company X building an LNG export terminal in Australia, they budget $30 billion dollars for the build, $10 billion dollars of that money comes back to the company as tax breaks and or subsidies, and just imagine if the corporate petroleum industry and their many partners colluded to bring build costs up, and up, and up, projects all running 40%..50%..60%..100% over budget, with winks and nods and corporate guile company X doesn`t receive $10 billion dollars back from the $30 billion dollar build but receives back from Government(public tax dollars) a sum of $34 billion dollars on an inflated $100 billion dollar build..In a sense, systemic corporate corruption has found a legal loophole to have the general public in Australia pay for the entirety of the LNG plant builds...!

With a wink, with a nod, supplier A doubles his prices, producer Q triples his cost, all bills flow to the general corporate contractor where this excess gravy is skimmed right back to the general corporate builder.... It`s a ponzi scheme, exactly what is going on in the Alberta tar sands, the more oil production being done the financially poorer the province gets, British Columbia LNG exporters want in on the action,....
___________
 Perry Williams and Jennifer Hewett....

"Australia’s biggest ever resources development, Chevron’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas project, faces a $20 billion cost blowout to more than $60 billion because of the high dollar, union demands, high-cost local manufacturing and productivity issues......


The Gorgon cost blowout means the budgets of new LNG projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea have increased by more than $35 billion since May last year.
On Monday, ExxonMobil, Oil Search and Santos raised their estimated cost of PNG LNG by $US3.3 billion to $US19 billion and cited the higher than expected Australian dollar, delays in accessing land, bad weather and logistical difficulties.
PNG LNG is just the latest in a string of cost rises among Australasia’s unprecedented line-up of LNG construction ventures.
Woodside Petroleum’s $15 billion Pluto venture ended more than a quarter over budget, while BG Group and Santos have both had to lift the cost estimates for their coal seam gas-based LNG projects in Queensland."

http://www.afr.com/p/national/huge_lng_cost_blowout_kaLHigEKnRVunB0go7TRkJ


 http://www.arcticgas.gov/2012/cost-overruns-could-hurt-competitiveness-australia-lng

 http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/epic/bgdot/9244190/BG-Group-shares-hit-by-5.4bn-cost-overruns-on-Australian-LNG-project.html

 http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/62e4f5e8-3f84-11e2-b0ce-00144feabdc0.html#axzz2KdUKKDdT



 http://www.smh.com.au/business/too-much-too-soon-has-left-lng-industry-overstretched-20120803-23kit.html


 http://www.downstreamtoday.com/news/article.aspx?a_id=36651&AspxAutoDetectCookieSupport=1

 http://www.forexlive.com/blog/2012/11/19/shell-having-second-thoughts-on-australian-lng-investments/

 http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/2012/11/drunken-insights-lead-the-lng-debacle/

If you peruse those above links the picture becomes very clear, LNG is a welfare industry on steroids, the Australian Government will probably never get back their investment of public tax dollars

You see what is going on, imagine $300 billion is being spent on LNG facilities in Australia(It`s true), guess what, the Australian public has to surrender back to the corporation...$100 billion dollars...And if that $300 billion dollar upfront cost was really only $100 billion in value..With winks, nods and monies flowing from Company X`s left hand to the Company X`s right hand...Then in reality the tax payer is paying for everything, in other words, corporate welfare dependent on Government(read subsidies and tax relief)steroids...

The exact same scenario is playing itself out in Alberta, the petroleum producers are crying about paying discounts to the refiners, paying a per-barrel discount of up to..$30 dollars per barrel, yet these oil extractors also own the refineries, in other words, Alberta Tar oil, (which is more expensive to refine because tar oil has to go through what is called an up-grader first, then on to a regular refinery) is being peddled cheap to the refiners, this allows the tar oil extractors to claim big losses in the oil patch, it allows companies to pay almost no royalties, just look at Alberta`s massive yearly deficits that have all accrued under a Stephen Harper oil obsessed Federal Government, coincidence?..Not a chance..

These so-called steep Alberta oil extract discounts are not being passed on to consumers, prices at the pump are at record highs, what we are witnessing is big corporate oil companies have figured out ways to avoid paying any taxes, one hand of a company that pays royalties to Governments loses money to avoid paying anything, the right hand of the company that refines, gets the discounts, make huge margins of money, money not subject to capital gains or royalties, it`s all a shell game designed by big oil to avoid paying any taxes, hence Alberta running its 5th straight massive multi-$billion dollar deficit, this deficit $6 billion dollars...

(This linked story by Robyn Allen explains the Alberta discount oil shell game in detail

 http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/01/29/Canadian-Oil-Producers/)


 http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/02/british-columbias-natural-gas.html

So LNG exporters are proposing spending $150 billion dollars on LNG facilities in BC, and if like Australia the projects all balloon way over budget, let`s say they claim spending $300 billion dollars after all is said and done.....

Well, blow my socks off, I was wondering why there was delay after delay for actually starting the builds of any of the proposed LNG facilities in British Columbia, I`m not wondering anymore, the one issue front and center, securing long-term contracts from Asian buyers at lucrative prices has been a non-starter, no one will sign the papers, that reason is obvious, the price is low, there`s a world glut including China itself which has a 300 year domestic supply of natural gas, LNG exporters are just like our IPP run of river companies who did nothing, built nothing, acted only on their own behalf, laid out no money to build 1 kilowatt of power without 30 and 40 year guaranteed contracts, contracts that Gordon the thief Campbell was more than willing to sign..IPP`s did not take one single risk, we, that taxpayers, the BC Hydro ratepayers were ripped off...

So anyway, here I was musing to myself as to why BC LNG exporters, why the proposed LNG exporters who by the way have already been granted export licenses haven`t pulled the go-ahead and build lever, finding countries to sign long-term energy buying contracts has been problematic at best, in other words, there are no takers...The other issue is a cheap supply of electrical power, no, make that other issue LNG exporters wanting a free supply of electrical energy, LNG exporters require massive amounts of electricity to freeze natural gas, LNG producers do NOT want to use their own product to generate electricity, they want Site-C dam built and they want IPP expensive power, with a caveat, they want you the taxpayer guaranteeing the payment to IPPs for 40 years, they want this expensive niche power for virtually free, only one problem, there is no free power, these IPPs are guaranteed $140 kilowatt or more, guaranteed for 40 years, and as we are dumping excess power now, no buyers, LNG exporters are using that exact argument to justify free power, that and the we must be competitive with other countries argument..

I knew those above two issues were major stumbling blocks for the emerging corporate welfare industry, but today it was confirmed by a representative from CAPP(Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers) that these are issues, and more, Geoff Morrison confirmed that LNG producers, proposed builders of LNG export facilities in British Columbia, LNG pipelines, LNG terminals will not build anything unless......

Unless the BC Government and the Federal Government agree to allow 30% capital cost allowances, meaning they want a 30% subsidy on the money spent building facilities, the CAPP representative claims that unless BC and Canada MATCH the capital building allowances of Australia they won`t be able to compete...!!!!

Blow my socks off, read again what is going on with cost over-runs in Australia, picture this, LNG facility builders(on paper) claim to spend $300 billion dollars, you taxpayers are on the hook for $100 billion dollars, meaning we the public, the Government won`t see one single $dollar of real money until we surpass $100 billion in LNG royalties paid, only after that, after the $100 billion mark in royalty revenue would we see any money at all, and I doubt we will ever see that amount of royalties paid..

And if LNG exporters, like the Tar sand diggers, claim discounts to their right arm refining buddies, if world LNG prices are so low that royalties aren`t paid at all, then we will find ourselves like Alberta, more and more environmental damage, more and more resource extraction and more multi-$billion dollar deficits..

Today on cknw with Billy Good, between 10:30 am and 11:00 am was a representative from CAPP, Geoff Morrison speaking on behalf of BC`s LNG industry said just that, LNG facility producers like Apache, Chevron, Shell, EnCana gas, all of them want and need to have the LNG industry re-classified as a manufacturing industry and be able to have the ability to write off all provincial taxes plus a 30%(To match Australia) capital expense subsidy..

And yet Christy Clark`s jobs advertising blitz, her advertising the hell out of a LNG future paved with gold, claiming $trillions of dollars for BC, millions of needed workers, the talk of lucrative Asian pricing, just build it and gold will rain from the sky, and as I and others suspected, behind the scenes, tax breaks, subsidies, capital write-offs, bribery, subtle threats, pitting country against country is going on...If this industry is so lucrative why won`t they build it on their own dime, why do they need re-classification, why the need of huge subsidies..

This is indeed a boondoggle in the works, Cheniere energy in the USA has signed long-term energy buying contracts with Asia, at about 1/3 of the proposed selling price Christy Clark and Pat Bell talk about..At $6 dollars per unit these ultra-expensive proposed British Columbia LNG freezers will never make money or even pay for themselves, let alone supply BC Governments substantial revenues..

Cue up February 11th..10:00 am, fast forward to just past the 10:30 am news..

 http://www.cknw.com/news/audiovault/index.aspx

Listen to CAPP representative Geoff Morrison on cknw cry for Government handouts and subsidies, listen to Geoff Morrison using the (we must be competitive with what the Australia Government offers card)..And if the next country or Province offers even more corporate tax incentives(Right movie industry?)

LNG producers can`t get long-term energy buying contracts, 2 export licenses have been already been granted, 1 of them for almost 2 years now, what are they waiting for, still nothing built, nothing started, back-room discussions are going on right now, talks about reclassifying the LNG industry to Manufacturer status which will in turn bring a 30% plus capital cost subsidy, the companies also want their own HST, the ability to write off all provincial taxes..The hold-up is about making Canadian taxpayers pay for big oil`s profits through subsidies, tax-breaks and guile..For a promise of some employment our Governments are on the verge of allowing corporate raiders to dig deep in your pockets ..

Big Corporate Oil n Gas Companies are asking British Columbians and Canadians to trust them..Look to Australia and Qatar and see this ponzi scheme being played out, or look one province over to Alberta and see them going backwards, their largest ever deficit this year, their 5th in succession, see big oil companies playing the Wildrose Province for a sucker, as their yearly provincial deficits grow and grow despite massive tar sand development..

Another good read below

 http://thetyee.ca/News/2013/02/20/Natural-Gas-Gluts/

 This one too

http://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2013/02/21/Why-Cant-Alberta-Break-Even/

The Straight Goods

Cheers Eyes Wide Open