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