Christy Clark and Petronas, Democracy Destroyed and Tying Future Governments Hand(The Great LNG Lie Exposed)

British Columbia under a BC Liberal Government has officially become a third world banana republic..

Before we get started disecting this latest white noise announcement on LNG and Petronas we need to examine the not too distant past..

Gordon Campbell in 2001 campaigned, Campbell promised in his electioneering that BC would not sell BC Rail and that a BC Liberal Government would honour signed, negotiated contracts with the public sector..

We know what happened, ...The BC Liberals sold BC Rail and ripped up contracts with BC`s teachers and the HEU, ....The HEU years later won a supreme court ruling against those BC Liberals, the teachers are on the same path...

What does this have to do with LNG?..Simple..

Gordon Campbell and Christy Clark make the assertions that Governments of the day can`t tie the hands of future Governments...Oh my, ..is that so, I guess in the Christy Clark fantasy world those rules only apply to worker`s wages, not corporate taxation and royaltyrates

For today Christy Clark and her government henchmen signed a memorandum of understanding that says no future government can raise LNG royalty rates or LNG tax rates...

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From BIV

 https://www.biv.com/article/2015/5/bc-commits-future-governments-terms-lng/

"Should Alberta’s Orange Crush ever splash over the border and an NDP government think about raising LNG or carbon taxes, the government of the day would be obliged to compensate Petronas, thanks to a project development agreement announced May 20.


Premier Christy Clark also announced a long-term royalty agreement that sets the royalty rate that Petronas will pay B.C. – an agreement that Clark said will guard against price volatility.


The agreements must be ratified in the Legislature and only take effect if Petronas makes a final investment decision. 


In total, the company expects to invest $36 billion on the Pacific NorthWest LNG project, pipeline and upstream natural gas assets.
“These agreements set the stage for a potential $36 billion investment in Northern B.C. that will be a key driver of jobs and really set the stage for a new era of economic activity and a new industry for B.C.,” Clark said.


Under the agreement, the B.C. government agrees to compensate Petronas, should future governments move the goalposts on things like LNG taxes and credits. For example, if the B.C. government were to increase its LNG tax rate, or introduce some new income or capital tax, Petronas would have the right to be compensated.
It would also be compensated if the province increases an LNG-specific carbon tax. Petronas would also be elgible for compensation if the priovince decreases the natural gas tax credit.
The agreement also ensures that, should more beneficial agreements be signed in the future with other proponents, companies like Petronas will be able to qualify for the more beneficial agreement.


In a technical briefing prior to a press conference with the Premier, government officials said LNG proponents have been asking for project development agreements as a way to increase "certainty" around projects. Examples of they types of uncertainties proponents are trying to avoid could include additional levies or an industry-specific carbon tax, applied after an investment decision has already been made.


Project development agreements have been signed for projects in Australia as well as in less-developed countries. They have not been used in the United States.


The agreement, which must still be ratified by the Legislative Assembly, takes effect once Petronas makes a final investment decision. 


Under the new royalty agreements, a minimum payment would have to be paid when production levels drop but will be paid at rates based on production when production is higher.
Clark said the royalty structure smooths out the payments to the province and protects against price volatility.


“We wanted to make sure… to protect taxpayers, that we insulated ourselves against volatility in natural gas prices,” Clark said. “So it means that we will get a predictable amount every year into the provincial budget, and when prices are down, it means that we get more than we otherwise would and, when prices are up, sometimes a little bit less, but it’s the same amount overall.
“It’s a smooth rate, if you will, that means we protect ourselves against volatility.”

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Full Stop!

Before our 2013 election and during the writ period Christy Clark made some very specific campaign promises pertaining to LNG

Christy Clark stated and I quote...

"LNG will eliminate BC`s debt....LNG will create a $100 billion dollar prosperity fund..LNG will pay off all crown debt, ...LNG will pay for new schools and hospitals....LNG could even eliminate BC`s sales tax...LNG will create over 100,000 high paying jobs"..."British Columbia can receive 5 to 6 times the price for natural gas in Asia"....snip.

Everyone of those promises are caput...EVERYONE, gone, like pixie dust blown away in a westcoast gale..

Perhaps the BC Liberals can explain this statement made by the BC Government officials made this day, May 20th/2015...And I quote

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"Government officials say the proposal includes long term royalty agreements that bring revenue minimums to the province and rate stability to Petronas.

The royalty rates, which are pre-set annually, start at just above six percent and rise to a maximum of 13,36 percent, bringing in an estimated $7.7 billion in revenue to the province over the 23 years of the proposed project"



 http://business.financialpost.com/news/energy/malaysias-petronas-and-b-c-reach-lng-deal-paving-way-for-companys-proposed-35b-investment?__lsa=d901-8d1c

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This project, the Petronas project is scheduled to be over and done with in 23 to 25 years...That`s why Petronas was initially chasing a 25 year gas export license, there was never, ever any talk about a 40 year export license...but but but...

How can that be, ...The Prince Rupert Lax Kw’alaams First Nation just voted on a project with a time frame of 40 years, money per year, with the majority of the money promised coming in the years 30 to 40....Yet here we are being told the Petronas project is for 23 years...Who is lying, what is it, 23 years, 25 years or 40 years, ?...

Who is lying Petronas, BC Liberal Government?...Answer, both!

Now we know why the Lax Kw’alaams First Nations were offered this deal, now we know why Lax Kw’alaams was pressured by the BC Government to vote on the deal a mere week after the offer, Petronas and the BC Government didn`t want Lax Kw’alaams First Nations to discover the fact that PNG LNG won`t be in operation beyond 25 years..

 Petronas wouldn`t be here in years beyond 25...That`s why Petronas offered Prince Rupert Lax Kw’alaams First Nations the bulk of the money in the years 30 through 40...

Who is zooming who?

If this project is only for 23 years or 25 years why was the export license timeframe quietly changed from 25 to 40 years...?

As written here, export licenses were changed so Petronas could offer monies so far out in the future the project would already be shuttered.

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Game changer': Gas company offers $1-billion to First Nations band in B.C.

JUSTINE HUNTER And BRENT JANG

VICTORIA and VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Friday, May. 01 2015, 6:00 AM EDT

 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/pacific-northwest-lng-venture-offers-1-billion-for-aboriginal-consent/article24203113/

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The $1 billion dollars is over 40 years, the payout, the yearly payout starts at $12 million per year, set to rise to $50 million in the 40th year....???


There are 3600 current members of this particular First Nation band....That works out to less than $4K per member per year, are we to believe Petronas will honour the terms of the deal in 25 years hence?... 

What am I talking about, $700 million dollars of  Petronas`s  financial offer to First Nations doesn`t arrive until AFTER YEAR 25...!!!

70% of the money promised to First Nations is after year 25...50% of the money in years 30 to 40...

Now we know why Petronas offered the money so far out.!  PNW LNG isn`t scheduled to be operation at that Lelu island location after 25 years..


Someone has some major explaining to do...

Why did Stephen Harper bury the export license changes in his omnibus budget bill..?

Why was it changed?

 Petronas and the Christy Clark Government are saying(today, May 20th/2015) the life of the Petronas project is 23 years long..not 40 years but a mere 23 years..????

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Ottawa extends LNG export licenses to 40 years

 

"The federal government is extending the lifespan of liquefied natural gas export licenses, the latest rollback in its quest to convince one of nearly 20 LNG proponents to put down roots in B.C. 
The 2015 budget extends LNG export licenses from a maximum of 25 years to 40.
The government hopes extending the life of a licenses will "improve regulatory certainty" for companies considering LNG plants on B.C.'s west coast."

 http://www.biv.com/article/2015/4/ottawa-extends-lng-export-licenses-40-years/

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This announcement, this change from 25 years to 40 years happened in federal budget 2015...This allowed Petronas to change the promised First Nation payoff scheme from 25 years to 40 years...

Meaning monies promised after 25 years from now is by no means a certainty, it is in fact doubtful, look how quickly companies laid off workers in the tar sands, look how quickly big energy companies cried poverty...


Christy Clark....

Can you explain why First Nations were offered yearly money from Petronas with the bulk of the money arriving beyond year 30 ?

With the largest yearly amount arriving in the 40th year....Please explain when you now say the Petronas project is to last a mere 23 years?

Even Vaughn Palmer mentions how the BC Liberals are locking in tax and royalty "for the life of the project"

 http://www.vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/Vaughn+Palmer+John+Horgan+ventures+onto+tightrope/11076300/story.html

Riddle me this...... 

Again, 23 years of certainty for Petronas, 23 years of certainty for the LIFE OF THE PETRONAS PROJECT....So,  how come Petronas`s offer of money to First Nations was over 40 years? With the bulk of the money offered arriving in the years 30 through 40 with the largest payout $50 million coming in year 40?

Now we have taxation rates sliced downward by 80%.....Royalty rates reduced to almost nothing, LNG companies won`t pay a red cent until they recoup their build costs!  Export license quietly changed from 25 years to 40 years in Stephen Harper`s latest omnibus budget bill..

Job numbers are a lie...Revenue forecasts are a lie...Project life timeframe is a lie

Petronas`s Prince Rupert proposal....

A cost, an estimated cost of $11.4 billion dollars, of which Petronas has confirmed that near $9 billion dollars of that BC investment investment will be spent in another country, specifically South Korea, mainframes and modules will all be manufactured in South Korea and barged to British Columbia....

Petronas will have the ability to recoup those $billions of dollars spent in a foreign country from BC taxpayers too

From the mouth of Petronas, not me, not media spinners, from the horse`s mouth(not Christy Clark, Petronas)

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Petronas wants engineering work for B.C. LNG venture to be shifted offshore

BRENT JANG

VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Dec. 04 2014, 5:49 PM EST
Last updated Thursday, Dec. 04 2014, 6:11 PM EST

Petronas plans to push contractors to shift more engineering work for a proposed B.C. liquefied natural gas venture to lower-cost centres offshore as the Malaysian energy giant squeezes suppliers.

Of the total $11.4-billion in estimated construction costs for the Petronas-led Pacific NorthWest LNG export terminal at Lelu Island, there would be $8-billion worth of imported goods and services spread over a five-year period.

 It is in that international component where Petronas hopes to find the bulk of cost savings, but the state-owned company will cast a wide net abroad and in Canada, including having TransCanada Corp. re-examine ways to make its proposed $5-billion natural gas pipeline project more efficient.

 http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/petronas-pushes-offshore-work-for-british-columbia-lng-venture/article21960284/

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Christy Clark and big media also keep splashing around the number $36 billion dollars, that is for spin purposes, Petronas has not committed to spend $36 billion in BC...Petronas`s commitment to BC spending is a mere $2 billion dollars.....


Yes there would be temporary construction, but once built(assembled)...PETRONAS LNG PLANT WOULD EMPLOY A MERE 150 PEOPLE.

When will the BC Liberals stop spinning the numbers like a roulette wheel...

Here is a newsflash Christy Clark....You have no idea what energy prices will be in the future, Petronas may be flat broke in 20 years or they may be rolling in cash hand over fist and no Government can tie a future Government`s hands when it comes to taxation or royalty rates, any Government that even proposes such a scheme is bordering on totalitarian rule ...When will the BC Liberals enact other legislation, when will new rules be enacted that only corporate owned political parties can hold office, when will more draconian rules be adopted, ..Slippery slopes are indeed slippery..

We have learned since the election that Christy Clark`s LNG revenue forecasts were mere fantasy..

We have learned since the election that the BC Liberal LNG job projections were an orchestrated lie..

http://powellriverpersuader.blogspot.ca/2013/05/christy-clarks-lng-plans-and-job.html

David Broadband explains the trickery here..

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 http://focusonline.ca/?q=node/695


Emails between top-level BC civil servants show Premier Clark’s 100,000 LNG jobs were based on dubious assumptions thrown together at the last minute for her 2013 throne speech. Were those civil servants working for the public interest or Clark’s election campaign?


The BC Prosperity Fund got barely a mention in last month’s Speech from the Throne. But a year ago Premier Clark’s apparently far-sighted plan to develop a massive LNG industry that would create “100,000 jobs for BC families” and pump billions into Provincial coffers fuelled the launch of the Liberals’ election campaign. Their compelling clean-energy-and-jobs message brought them from 20 points behind to a surprising victory in last May’s election.

Now, though, Clark’s government appears to be stepping back from all that. The legislation to introduce a new LNG-supportive tax regime has been postponed a second time, for no apparent reason. Although Finance Minister Mike de Jong outlined the tax regime in his February budget speech, his plan to introduce it is vague.

Were the Prosperity Fund and the job claims part of an elaborate election ploy? It wouldn’t be the first time a government made an election promise it didn’t intend to keep. A more troubling possibility, though, is that Provincial public service employees and public funds were used to create that election ploy, contrary to the BC Standards of Conduct that govern what civil servants can do while on the job. Documents recently obtained by Focus through an FOI, and our independent analysis of a consultant’s report done for the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas days before Premier Clark announced the Prosperity Fund in February 2013, suggest that might be the case.
The documents (download from link at end of story) suggest that an initiative to produce reports from independent consultants who would validate the potential for large revenues and massive job creation from LNG projects was launched only a month before Premier Clark announced the Prosperity Fund. The initiative appears to have been overseen by Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance Doug Foster. Foster outsourced the work to three private firms and delivered the numbers for Clark’s speech only days before it was made. Foster appears to have been reporting to Neil Sweeney, Deputy Minister, Corporate Policy in the Premier’s Office.
The report that provided the numbers was authored by Grant Thornton LLP (download from link at end of story), a prestigious accountancy firm with world-wide operations. Grant Thornton’s report allowed the Premier to say in her February 2013 throne speech, “LNG development is poised to trigger approximately $1 trillion in cumulative GDP within British Columbia over the next 30 years and that means more than $100 billion will flow directly to the Prosperity Fund. Province wide, LNG is expected to create on average 39,000 annual direct, indirect and induced full-time jobs during a nine-year construction period. As well, there could be as many as 75,000 full-time jobs required once all LNG plants are in full operation.”


Was the report credible?


Before I tell you exactly what was in those emails, let me tell you why we were looking for them and how they came into our possession. Back in February 2013, all we knew was what the Premier said in her speech. For many of us it was the first time we had heard “LNG.” After Clark’s government had delivered its election budget, it released two reports—one authored by Grant Thornton and the other by Ernst & Young—that purported to validate the LNG revenue projections underpinning Clark’s Prosperity Fund. Oddly enough, those reports didn’t contain any job creation numbers.
Throughout the subsequent election campaign, Clark had repeatedly stressed her plan would create “100,000 jobs for BC families.” But where did those jobs come from?
After the election, inquiries to the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas about the  LNG job figures used by Clark revealed that a third report, also by Grant Thornton, had provided the mathematical substance for the previously released studies of potential LNG revenues. But this report had been secreted away. There wasn’t a single reference to it in BC media coverage of the election. The Ministry sent us a link to its hiding place.
After we read the report, which had the deceptively simple title Employment Impact Review, Focus filed an FOI for the record of communications between the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas and Grant Thornton as they developed the study. The report contained many warnings to the reader that it was based entirely on assumptions provided by “the Province and its advisors.” We wondered who those “advisors” were and whether the Province and its advisors had pushed the process toward some desired outcome.
There was good reason to believe they had. Grant Thornton had arrived at questionable conclusions in its report. For example, it had checked the validity of a key assumption provided to them by the Province and its advisors by comparing it with the Australia Pacific LNG project, which was being built in Queensland. Grant Thornton concluded the assumption was supported by the Australian  numbers. There were, however, problems with how they applied the Australian comparison.
In its commentary about the comparison, Grant Thornton noted the ratio of direct jobs to tonnes of product for BC was only “slightly higher” than the Australian case. “Overall,” they concluded, “the estimates are comparable.”
Actually, the BC ratio is 36 percent higher than the Australian number. If BC’s significantly higher number had been adjusted to actually be “comparable,” 36 percent of the direct jobs in the assumption would have vanished.
Another of those key assumptions was that a capital expenditure of $98 billion in BC would create the capacity to produce 82 megatonnes of LNG per year. That, too, seems to be unreasonable.
Australia Pacific is a two-phase, $35 billion project expected to eventually produce 16 megatonnes annually. At that ratio of capacity per dollar of investment, the Province’s assumed $98 billion would only create capacity for 45 megatonnes per year. Yet Grant Thornton had accepted that $98 billion would build 82 megatonnes of capacity.
Australia Pacific’s likely costs, by the way, are significantly lower than BC’s would be: Australia Pacific is building a substantially shorter pipeline and will sip on coal seam gas, not shale gas. Coal seam gas doesn’t require drilling horizontal wells and fracking, so the wells for Australia Pacific LNG are about one-third the cost of wells in northeast BC.
Grant Thornton’s estimation of long-term employment is also puzzling. According to an extensive study by KPMG of the $35 billion Australia Pacific project, ongoing operations of the LNG plant would employ 325, the pipeline 20 and the gas fields 520. Extrapolating from that example, a $98 billion project in BC would create 910 long-term operational jobs at LNG plants, 56 pipeline jobs, and 1456 gas field extraction jobs. That’s direct, long-term employment.
If the pertinent BC Stats Input/Output Model multipliers are applied to these long-term employment figures, the total number of long-term jobs—direct, indirect and induced—rises to 21,000.
It’s difficult to see how Grant Thornton arrived at the conclusion $98 billion would bring 75,000 long-term full-time jobs to the province.
It seemed possible, then, after analyzing the Grant Thornton study last May, that the process of creating the report might have been pushed to create a 100,000-jobs election platform rather than function as a careful and reasoned analysis of the potential for LNG to produce jobs in BC. If it was the former, had taxpayers paid for a Liberal campaign expense? If it was the latter, why had the jobs report been kept in a drawer during the election?


FOI adventures


We filed that FOI for communications between Ministry employees and Grant Thornton in May of 2013. But the FOI was assessed a very high fee by the Province, which Focus declined to pay. Our efforts to ask for fewer records were thwarted by a Ministry information gatekeeper who said he would help but didn’t.
So we FOIed instead for records that should have been slam-dunk easy for the Ministry to find: the “Documents and information relied upon” listed in the Grant Thornton report. Most of the entries on that list had been provided, Grant Thornton said, by “the Province and its advisors.” It defined “Province” as “the Ministry of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas.”
We were again rebuffed by the Ministry’s information gatekeeper, who, this time, refused to respond to our request. To make a long story short, the Office of the Information and Privacy Commissioner ordered the gatekeeper—under threat of a $13,000 fine—to release the record.
The package we received in early February 2014 was surprising: It contained none of the “documents and information relied upon” by Grant Thornton. We protested. Then, through the mediation of OIPC, the Ministry revealed it had no such information in its custody and control. How could the Ministry not have the information Grant Thornton claimed the Ministry provided?
What the Ministry seemed to have provided, however, were the communications we originally requested last May: emails between high-level employees of the Province, their “advisors,” and employees of Grant Thornton. Fifteen pages of the records were fully severed on the claim of “cabinet confidences.” The emails were copied from the files of Brian Hansen when he was Assistant Deputy Minister of Energy, Mines and Natural Gas. (Hansen is now Assistant Deputy Minister and Lead Negotiator, LNG Task Force, Ministry of Natural Gas Development).
Hansen’s email record explains why his Ministry didn’t have the information Grant Thornton said the Ministry had provided: The information had come entirely from outside of government.


Cooking with gas


Hansen’s emails show that Assistant Deputy Minister of Finance Doug Foster first contacted Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young on or about January 11, 2013 to enlist their professional services in developing reports that would project revenues that might flow to the Province from an LNG industry in BC. About a week later, Foster realized employment projections would also be needed.
So on Sunday, January 20, Foster emailed Patti Daum of Grant Thornton’s Vancouver office. Grant Thornton describe themselves as “a leading Canadian accounting and business advisory firm, providing audit, tax and advisory services to private and public organizations.”
Foster asked Daum, “Is it possible that GT may be able to answer the following?” Foster wanted to know how many direct and indirect jobs might be created by “five to seven LNG plants/pipeline projects into the future.”
Fifteen minutes later, Foster fired off another email, this time to André Powell, a partner in The Deetken Group, a business consultancy firm in Vancouver. Deetken describe themselves as providing “services to a broad range of private sector, venture capital and public sector organizations,” including “energy infrastructure and markets.” Foster’s email to Powell said, “You have been copied on my communiques to EY [Ernst & Young] and GT... Can you begin preparing presentations that combine the work of Deetken and those of EY and GT? [I] think (in fact know) we will need these this week. Also, we will need to incorporate employment forecast to the extent that we can get these from third parties too. Can you let me know your thoughts?”
Later that day, Powell emailed Foster: “...with respect to employment, we have estimates of direct labour (mostly from proponents) and have developed estimates of indirect and induced [jobs] using [input/output] multipliers. This analysis might be a good start and accelerator for EY and/or GT’s work. Happy to package this for them.”
On January 23, following conference calls (referred to in the emails) involving Foster, Powell and Grant Thornton employees, Doug Bastin, a partner in Grant Thornton’s Vancouver office, emailed Powell an eight-point list of information he wanted, which included LNG plant sizes and capacities, production volume estimates, development costs, project timing, and direct, indirect and induced employment estimates. Note that Bastin asked Deetken for this fundamental information; he didn’t ask Foster or Hansen. But Bastin did copy his request to both Hansen and Foster.
Later that day Powell emailed Bastin: “We are currently pulling this data together and will get it to you by end of today.”
On January 26 Powell emailed Hansen with an update, noting: “With respect to employment, we had a call yesterday and we have provided additional details; also BC Stats are helping them; GT said they will shoot for Friday [February 1] next week for results.”
Late on February 4, Powell, after considering Grant Thornton’s draft report, emailed Doug Foster four suggestions, copied to Hansen. Powell’s suggestions included: “We should remove all reference to ‘proponent’ information, this should be described as data provided by the Province and its advisors developed from industry benchmarks and other sources.” Powell added that removing all reference to proponent “should also apply to E&Y’s final report.”
If any of Foster, Hansen or Bastin raised any objections to this apparent switch in the attribution of the source of some of the information Grant Thornton was using, it does not appear in the records Hansen provided. In the final report, as mentioned above, Grant Thornton credited assumptions and information to “the Province and its advisors.”
Late on February 4, just 8 days before Premier Clark announced the Prosperity Fund, Hansen emailed Powell: “On the jobs and revenue and the GT and E&Y work, are we close to being [ready] to advance some validated metrics? I ask as there is a meeting tomorrow with folks from the centre around these metrics and I assume Doug [believed to be a reference to GT’s Doug Bastin] is close to finished.”
Early the next day Powell replied to Hansen: “The GT labour market work is almost ready, we are on a call with them this morning to make some changes/updates to their work. EY is not intending to provide labour market forecasts. For your meeting this [morning], I would go with the GT numbers as provisional/work in progress.” Powell then listed numbers which are virtually identical to estimated LNG employment figures presented in Clark’s Speech from the Throne on February 12, and in the 2013-2014 BC Budget.
Early on February 6, with less than a week before Clark would announce the Prosperity Fund, Deputy Minister to the Premier Neil Sweeney emailed Foster and Hansen and asked: “Guys, can we get the actual drafts from GT and the other folks?” 
Foster emailed back: “Neil, the drafts are in various stages and continue to evolve due to:” and then Foster listed three issues that were causing delays, including: “Reviews by them [presumably “them” refers to GT and E&Y] to ensure that details are removed to protect proponent information sources...” 


Who provided what to whom?



Focus emailed Deetken’s André Powell, Grant Thornton’s Doug Bastin, and the Province’s Doug Foster questions about how the Grant Thornton reports were developed. Neither Bastin or Foster responded to emails.
I asked Powell why he had suggested removing any reference to “proponent” information from the final reports and instead suggested attributing all information to “the Province and its advisers developed from industry benchmarks and other sources”.
Powell said, “[T]he proponents did not provide information to GT and EY. To state otherwise in the final report would have been inaccurate and I therefore provided a corrected description for inclusion in the final document.”
Powell added,“In providing information and assumptions to the consultants (GT and EY), Deetken considered a variety of sources. This included aggregated information from proponents, industry benchmarks and other research and analytics.”
Powell explained that “Deetken used aggregated information collected on the Province’s behalf to assist it in evaluating other information it had already compiled as to reasonableness before passing specific assumptions to the consultants. The consultants [Grant Thornton and Ernst & Young] themselves were also free to accept or adjust such received information based on their own analysis and research of industry information.”
Powell confirmed that “Deetken was not under contract with any LNG proponents or developers at the time the report was developed.”
With the “Province” claiming it had none of the information Grant Thornton said it had, Deetken seems to be the sole source of information used by Grant Thornton, aside from their consideration of the Australia Pacific project. Deetken’s information, then, provided the fundamental basis for Clark’s Prosperity Fund and her successful election campaign. 
Powell’s explanation of why he wanted aggregated information from proponents to be given a more opaque attribution is that no specific information from individual proponents was included. Fair enough. But how could the public interest be served in this taxpayer-funded exercise without transparency and accountability? Asking Encana, for example, for objective information about how many drilling jobs an LNG industry would create is like asking Goldman Sachs whether reducing regulation of investment banking would be good for the economy.
By disguising the source of the information, the exercise became political.
And, as mentioned earlier, the numbers seem to have been manipulated, or fudged as British Columbians prefer to put it. 
Grant Thornton, Deetken and Foster seem to have created, intentionally or not, a “fudge-it budget” for LNG.
For whose benefit were such arithmetical indiscretions performed? Well it wasn’t for Adrian Dix’s sake.


Is fudging the numbers political activity?


You might recall the scandal the Liberals were embroiled in just before the last election involving public service employees doing partisan work on the job. The Deputy Minister to the Premier John Dyble wrote a report about that affair in which he said the public service oath “expressly includes the Standards of Conduct, and requires public servants to conduct themselves in a manner that maintains and enhances the public’s trust and confidence in the public service.”
The BC Standards of Conduct state, “Employees must not engage in political activities during working hours or use government facilities, equipment, or resources in support of these activities.”
If a public service employee oversees development of a study, and if that study misrepresents the facts about the employment potential arising from LNG development in the province, and that misrepresentation then becomes the political position of the governing party seven days later—and the key component of their election campaign—was that employee engaging in political activity during working hours? Did he conduct himself in a way “that maintains and enhances the public’s trust and confidence in the public service”?
This is a question that Premier Clark needs to answer, or democracy will continue to wither in BC.


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Don`t you see, the BC Liberals orchestrated a fake jobs report, a bogus manufactured spin job designed to trick the people of British Columbia....With that kind of deliberate trickery displayed by the BC Liberals on the LNG file it comes as no surprise that this same government would deliberately engage in conning, tricking the Lax Kw’alaamsFirst Nation...The narrative of spin, bluster and lies continue...

So, we now know the job numbers were a lie....We now know the revenue projections were lie...We now know the First Nation compensation offer from Petronas was a lie too...

And now Christy Clark is governing like a corporation, a non-democratic corporation...Christy Clark is attempting to tie future Government`s hands for decades to come by legislating permanent tax rates and royalty rates, something never heard of in advanced democracies..A third world banana republic special...

Christy Clark...

You were not given a mandate from the public to tie future Government`s hands, ..Your own government record has made the claim in various courts,  making the claim that governments, even outgoing governments can`t tie future government`s hands with long term contracts..

Now you attempt to change stripes mid-stream, you are attempting to enshrine in law draconian legislation that prevents any future Government from altering taxation and royalty rates...

You have no mandate from the electorate to tie future Government`s hands when it comes to taxation and or revenue streams..

You Christy Clark and your BC Liberal team are so desperate to get shovels in the ground before the next election you are preparing to remove democracy from the halls of our legislature and give away resources for a song..

People of British Columbia....

Christy Clark has learned absolutely nothing from the Alberta experience, Norway has a $trillion dollar fund from oil royalties and Alberta is broke, Christy Clark is too corporate corrupted to see the folly of her ways...Christy Clark not only wants to repeat Alberta`s mistake she is intent on magnifying it...

Our media, they are just as corporate corrupted as the BC Liberals...Spinning, using the erroneous number $36 billion for affect and not one mention about democracy, eer, I mean lack of democracy..Not one mention by the media about the implications of a government removing a future government`s role ...Not one word about tying one`s hands for decades to come..

Christy Clark and the BC Liberals, along with Petronas deliberately tried to trick Lax Kw'alaams First Nation into signing a bogus deal, oh indeed, promises of money going out 40 years when PNW LNG only has a 25 year lifespan....

You Christy Clark need to campaign on removing democracy in the next election(2017), you have no mandate to set revenue streams, taxation and royalty rates for decades to come ....until then..

Get stuffed.

 http://www.vancouverobserver.com/news/premier-clarks-lng-deal-upstaged-northern-skirmish?page=0,0


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