Part Three.The CBC.Public Broadcasting Goes To The Wall.
It was “The
National”, and it was April 24.
I don’t very often
watch television, and so the experience was shocking – to watch on a large
screen what is believed by many to be one of the most informative news
productions in Canada.
Not a television
watcher, I saw - perhaps – what others don’t normally see: “Infopropaganda” – a
combination of show business, technological sleight-of-hand, “celebrity”, dress-up,
make-up, and cut-to-time program shaping.“News” came last.“News” was
buried under sentimental posturing and “expertise”.That show revealed, perhaps, major problems
that haunt the CBC – problems to a large extent created and/or exacerbated by
the hatred the Harper neo-liberals have for public broadcasting.
You could see it
on “The National”; you see it on TV; you hear it on radio.
The CBC pretends
it isn’t in a world in which government hates public responsibility, though that
condition is visible everywhere .The
CBC pretends it mustn’t fight back to preserve the integrity of public
broadcasting in Canada.It mirrors an
attitude often shown by Opposition parties – that it exists in a normal
political climate not in a climate in which it faces a full-scale attack on
democracy in Canada. It acts as if it isn’t in the sights of a neo-fascist
government that wants to wreck all public responsibility and all public service
institutions … on the way to unlimited power and unquestioned authority.
That was
stunningly and embarrassing clear when Peter Mansbridge introduced the matter
of the 2011 Robocall Report by Yves Cote, Commissioner of Elections
Canada.His Report – Cote admits - was
stymied by refusals to cooperate and huge, unnecessary delays, largely on the
part of the Conservative Party. He declares there is not information enough to
begin criminal charges in the matter.How
can he know?
Duff Conacher of
Democracy Watch says simply: “the Commissioner made the wrong decision”.The Commissioner couldn’t demand cooperation
with the investigation (a huge flaw in Elections Canada powers), but he could
have reported weekly throughout the investigation that he was being blocked,
and by whom.Had he done that over the
three years, he might well have received considerably more cooperation than he
got.Instead, he acted, it would seem,
like one of the boys in the club: make believe you’re able to investigate; make
believe you can take no initiative; make believe you can’t speak about your
investigation and the people blocking it; make believe you are much more
hampered than you need be; then make a Report that looks as if it were written
by someone in the Prime Minister’s Office.
The whole thing was
as mawkish and ill-handled as it could be.
Was it those
things intentionally?
The only thing
worse was the treatment the release of the Report got on CBC’s “The National” on April 24.
All participants
from Peter Mansbridge on acted as if the Report was all there is to say about
the corruption involved. No one reminded the viewers that the Conservative
Party of Canada pleaded guilty to election violations in the 2006 election –
after fighting Elections Canada for five years.
No one reminded
viewers that the Conservative Party of Canada was found in violation of
Robocalling rules in 2013 and paid $78,000.00 in fines to the CRTC in April of
2013.Trying to interfere in the
objective Electoral Boundary changes in Saskatchewan, the Conservative Party of
Canada oversaw thousands of illegitimate Robocalls in Saskatchewan.The only reason it didn’t face criminal
charges is because the Conservative government resists all regulation of
electoral violation and the bringing of such violations clearly into the
Criminal Code.
In the midst of
the phoniest attempt at fraudulent legislation in the last half century – The (Un)fair
Elections Act – Yves Cote produced what must seem to many, besides Duff
Conacher, as the wrong decision in the 2011 Robocall Scandal “investigation”.
One would expect
that “The National” would have provided an anatomy of election fraud and
violation in the last eight years. (Peter Mansbridge’s “Introduction”.) And … that
it would have placed the Yves Cote decision within that frame. Not at all.What the public got was, to my mind, a piece
of amateur theatre so bad that I thanked the gods of communication that I don’t
watch television.Chantal Hebert, in my
opinion, looking as if she just had her hair dyed black, acted as if she is a
mixture of Shakespeare’s Falstaff and Lady Macbeth.
With the apparent
cooperation of everyone else on the show – except the journalist from The
Huffington Post – Ms. Hebert asserted that journalists make mistakes and they
would all have to step back … and even apologize for their attitudes to the
2011 Robocall scandal.No criticism of
Cote.No placing of the investigation.
No facts. As she – metaphorically speaking – rolled her eyes and beat her
breast the dreary little piece of theatre played itself out.
The representative
from Huffington Post tried to enter criticism of the nonsense in front of
her.But she seemed, obviously, to be considered
of a lower order in the group that considers present issues.When she attempted to speak, Peter Mansbridge
cut her off.No time.
I am describing a
situation as I saw it.I mean no insult
to the Huffington Post journalist.She
seemed to me unfit for the job, inexperienced, too wordy, not able to dislodge
the others though she had the best case.I couldn’t help but think that “The National” has no intention of
placing a more excellent person in the place she fills.
That speaks to the
larger game of the CBC.Its panels are
tired, rarely using really sharp and informed people.There are hundreds capable … but they never
get time on the CBC.Bloggers all over
the country are better than most commentators/critics on CBC.Those non-CBC voices are never used on
CBC.
Instead, Canadians
watch Rex Murphy. He is a CBC regular who the CBC pretends is an independent,
outside contractor.He provides, on the
rare occasions I can bring myself to watch him, regular doses of reactionary
commentary valuable to the Harper forces.No more need be said….
I have been saying
things here as if all was impressionistic response.But a number of things are clear.The CBC won’t do its job.Whether from fear or for other reasons, it
repeatedly , throughout its programming from The Current, As It Happens, The
180, The Sunday Edition, “The National” … and on, and on does the same
thing.Whether speaking of Cuba,
lawsuits involving El Salvador, issues in the Ukraine or Syria, Conservative
violations of trust and decency in Canada, the CBC refuses to ask real
questions informatively and responsibly. It refuses to have hard-hitting,
historically informed commentators. That fact was screechingly clear on “The
National”, April 24, 2014.
Just for instance,
Jim Brown of The 180 allowed Preston Manning (Brown didn’t interview someone
opposed, of course) to make outrageously reactionary statements without asking
an intelligent question. (April 8, 2014) As Manning said such hyper-stupid things as
that pipelines wouldn’t go through without demand and that decisions by
government must be accepted by the people or the rule of law is undermined, Jim
Brown accepted.In the face of a government
that misinforms and gags Canadians every day, Manning insisted Canadians must
obey a trust factor in relation to government.
Not a single
probing question was asked by Jim Brown then (and when facing The Oil Industry representatives
or people one might call ‘powerful’, my recording is that Jim Brown NEVER asks
a probing question, ever).
When Anna Maria
Tremonte finally had a good, intelligent analyst on the history that brought
the Ukraine to the state it had reached by the April 9, 2014 broadcast, Ms.
Tremonte got the speaker in and out without a serious question asked. It was as
if she was afraid of letting the analyst say more for fear he might … upset …
someone. Keep quiet.Get rid of the speaker as soon as possible.
Don’t let anyone suggest the U.S./NATO have anything to do with the mess in the
Ukraine.Don’t let anyone say the Harper
attacks on Russia are the idiocies of a kneejerk Reactionary scarecrow waving
his arms in a field where no crows fly.
Ms. Off of As It
Happens (April 2, 2014) interviewed in Mons, Belgium, a person from Command
Centre of NATO who informed her that physical takeovers are no longer
acceptable (in relation to the Crimea, I believe).Ms. Off didn’t ask what that meant about the
War in Iraq, the smashing of Libya, the NATO War (unapproved by the UN) to take
over Kosovo ... and the endless sabre rattling over Iran.From Ms. Off, not a probing or serious
question!!!
The examples of
huge CBC failure to inform Canadians multiply until one comes to believe the
Corporation has thrown in the towel and is willing to crawl on its belly before
the Harper cabinet. If that is the case, and the CBC believes it must abase
itself, must flatter the Harper neo-fascists … then it has gone to the wall and
is its own destroyer.
That is because
the adversities of history have given the CBC a chance to do brilliant and
heroic things and to be an invaluable part of Canadian history in the first
quarter of the 21st century.
To answer the
thuggish cuts to its funding, the CBC should cut where necessary to increase
News staff, to launch rapier-likeinvestigative reporting, to call in brilliantly informed and critical
commentators, and to bare the democracy-destroying corruption in Canada.
f only the CBC would
deal with the news that matters in Canada now – at this moment…. If two
reporters at the Ottawa Citizen can expose the election corruption of the
Harper goons, then the CBC could do fifty times more.Instead it masks, and fluffs, and pads, and
sentimentalizes, and avoids, and misleads, and fails to report or to ask
central questions.
Public
broadcasting has gone to the wall, because the CBC hasn’t the guts to be what
it should be for Canadians.Weep.Mourn. Wail. Tear your hair. Lament.You are cursed by the fear and self-loathing and
cowardice of people who are especially chosen to protect democracy in Canada …
and who refuse to do their job.
"Day after day I`m more confused, yet I look for the light through the pouring rain"....
Don`t have much to say as of late, shaking my head wondering why, wondering why our media has turned into simple minded repeat after Simon, 200 plus members of the BC Liberal spin/ communications gang, also known as Simons, well, at least as far as our cowardly media is concerned they are Simons, ....Simon says...
And like trained seals they flap their flippers, begging for Simon to handfeed them herring, doesn`t anger me anymore it saddens me..Keith Baldrey is the epitome of a social and professional loser, obsessed with Twitter followers, he believes he is important, he isn`t, no spine, no guts, no courage, no soul, no talent, unless you count being a blind mouse gorging on Liberal cheese a skill...
Christy Clark`s war on teachers, thanks Adrian Dix, that`s on you, imagine declaring through the backdoor that LNG plants and infrastructure don`t require an environmental assessment, that is beyond sick it`s deranged, who needs a stinking environmental assessment, can`t even one media figure of standing put 2 and two together, the big energy companies aren`t building anything in British Columbia unless they get it all, carte blanc power to obtain free land, construct, no taxation and free power, go through our provincial parks, conservancies and protected areas, and no environmental assessment or we`ll take our LNG ball and go home, halfway through 2014 and still not one final investment decision..
The big race, hurry hurry hard...build build build before Australia, Papua New Gunea, East Africa, Qatar and the mighty USA get there first, oops, nevermind they are already there while British Columbia muses about what colour socks to wear with our running shoes..
"And I`m feelin` the strain, oh, ain`t it a shame" oh, give me the beat, boys and free my soul"
School districts now must sell assets, sell schools, sell property and pay for their own earthquake upgrades, all those old brick and mortar schools laying in wait, ready to crush, maim and snuff the life out of our children, a BC Liberal promise made a decade ago to earthquake proof all schools in short order just got cancelled, no money, Christy Clark doesn`t care about children, or families she cares about what oyster bar she is seen in and with who..
Those million new workers claim, and by 2020, yet those troublesome school districts refuse to sell all the silverware, all their assets, who needs future thinking when LNG will be the end all to every need imaginable..
When the big earthquake comes and a school collapses it will not be an unpreventable accident it will be an on purpose, with malice of forethought, with knowledge it was coming, some towns have but one schools, an entire community with all their children dead, kinda reminds me of that tragic Korean ferry disaster..
Selling assets to claim a balanced budget, wheelchair fees, MSP increases, hydro rates skyrocketing, ferries cut, more booze, more slot machines, more bridge tolls and transit increases, all those heinous acts while a corrupt Government proclaims a $trillion dollars is within reach..
Been busy, working 14 hours a day for the last 2 months, was hoping to finish the task at hand by May 1st, it will take another week at least, mom is selling her home, I have fixed everything, the list is long, my leg is thrashed, can`t even walk when I wake up, it takes 3 coffees and 4 Advil just to take the edge off, that`s why the days are long, can`t stop midday or I won`t be able to restart, not sure what mom wants to do, she might move in with me in Garden bay, one level house and no stairs, she can`t manage her big Burnaby home with the steep walkway on her own, we aren`t leaving any money on the table, from an old house to a brand new sparkling treasure, she`ll do well, it will give her options, a domestic house person to assist her?, her own new home? or...Or with me, she`s a political junkie and loves my cooking, ..Well, she did divulge her recipe secrets to me..
"I wanna get lost in your rock `n` roll and drift away"
Need to go fishing, ocean is calling, damn home, one man, hundred repairs, house is looking really good and boy do I miss my dad, May 1st is his birthday, MAYDAY, think I`ll have a beer and raise the glass to memories and theatre of the mind, when I fish everything is dad, including duct tape and clamps, that`s how my dad fixed everything..
Near $200 million for training workers for jobs that don`t exist, what ship-building jobs and when, what LNG jobs, there still isn`t a single final investment decision, these big energy companies aren`t hiring British Columbians even if they do decide to build, talked to a high ranking energy expert and he explained it like this, ...
"why would British Gas want to train an entire green workforce when they have an experienced LNG plant build crew with idle hands ready to go?"
No new money for training workers for imaginary jobs merely redirecting Paul`s education money for Peter, and Simon says that the media promote this fraud of cutting education funding through stealth, where`s the herring Keith Baldrey?
"The world outside looks so unkind I`m countin on you, you can carry me through"
I`m hoping John Horgan lights a fire under the NDP and gets down to brass tax and call this BC Liberal Government out for the wholesale fraud they`re engaged in, my dad taught me to take no guff and call a spade a spade and oh how I wish I could hand him a screaming reel, to see his eyes light up, big grin and pride, pride in his only son...
"Families First" bullshit, a media made up of sock puppets, at least we beat Enbridge, that project is dead, your help was vital in destroying Janet Holder, don`t know if we can stop Kinder Morgan..
Mom is so happy, her house hasn`t looked this good since the day we moved in, dad, mom and my siblings, 40 years later and the clock never stops, at best you can hold the pendulum at bay but for a moment....CAPP has taken control of our federal Government and every provincial Government too, they won`t come to our rescue we the people are going to have to do all the dirty work..
"And when my mind is free you know your melody can move me and when I`m feelin` blue the guitars come through to soothe me"
Christy Clark and Co. are complete failures, a school drop-out for a painted premier, and a media that closes it`s eyes and reports what Simon says, they shed no tears and care of nothing, I wonder what the parents of Keith Baldrey, Vaughn Palmer and Bill Good would say to their children, I`m curious, think they are proud, seeing their children as liars, spinners and yes men...
Thanks Dad.....and Happy May 1st Birthday, let`s go fishing...
"Oh, give me the beat boys and free my soul I wanna get lost in your rock `n` roll and...."
Canadians are forever being informed, explicitly or
implicitly, that the solution to the crisis of the day, or decade, is a
freedom-sounding word called “privatization”.This, the free-marketeers tell us, will solve our problems.
The reality is invariably the opposite.“Privatization” -- also known as bailed-out,
highly subsidized corporatism – is in fact the problem, not the solution.
Furthermore, the crises being addressed are often
manufactured for the express purpose of rolling out a parasitical regime of
corporatization that profits from calamity, even as its “host”, the public, is
fleeced.
Canadian author and social activist Naomi Klein identifies the
process as the “shock doctrine” and/or “disaster capitalism”; author,
environmental activist, and economist Winona LaDuke calls it
“predator economics”; writers call it neoliberalism, and corporate media
pretends it doesn’t exist.
A tattered thread is woven into a seemingly endless series
of crises, and it is the public sector, the commons, that is invariably being exploited.
Neo-conservative strategists disguisethe real problem, and deflect attention from
it, using a myriad of strategies, all of which serve to instil what insurance
whistle-blower Wendel
Potter calls FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt—in the collective mental
landscape of the masses.
Instead of identifying the real problem –
neoliberalism/predator capitalism/shock economy—neo-cons typically scapegoat
other polities.
According to neo-con politicians, union bosses and their
minions, as well as public servants, and public institutions, are the causes of
our economic woes, even as these are some of the few remaining polities that
mitigate the damages caused by predator capitalism.
Two of Canada’s “emblematic” institutions, currently being undermined
so that they can be replaced by inferior models, are “universal” health care,
and Canada Post.
Canada’s public healthcare system is in distress.Community hospitals are closing, wait-times
are long, and the public is dissatisfied.Corporate messaging proclaims that since the status quo of public
universal healthcare is failing, then the answer must be
privatization/corporatization.Consequently, the 2004 Health Accord has not been renewed, and the
federal government will be cutting $36 Billion http://www.canada.com/health/Federal+health+cuts+will+total+billion+over+decade+Premiers/7000240/story.html
over ten years from its Canadian Health Transfers (CHT’s) to the provinces.
he manufactured crisis in healthcare is chronic
under-funding, and the solution is more comprehensive public funding, not
corporatization.Since 1981 hospital
funding has decreased significantly as a share of Canada’s health
care budget.
Corporate health care is less efficient, and more expensive,
than public health care.The more it is corporatized,
the more expensive (and less accessible ) health care becomes.
clearly shows that the “private” components of health care
far exceed its public counterparts in costs even as they deliver less. Listed
below are some (of numerous) examples identified in the article:
Ontario paid 75
per cent more to for-profit labs than it had to non-profit community labs
over theprevious 30 years, for
the same tests.10
Public-private
partnerships are 83 per cent costlier to finance than public projects.11
* (Canadians)spend
roughly half of what the private US system spends per person,16and we get better coverage
and outcomes.
Studies comparing
US and Canadian outcomes for heart attacks, cancer, surgical procedures
and chronic conditions show that Canada does at least as well, often
better.21
A recent Canadian
study found that expedited knee surgery in a for-profit clinic costs
$3,222 compared to $959 in a public hospital (with worse return-to-work
outcomes).24
Clearly, the false “solution” is making a bad situation
(under-funding) worse.
Canada Post is also suffering
from a manufactured crisis.Marianne
Lenabut argues in "What
Happened To Canada" that Canada post ran a profit for the last
16 of 17years, and that it has yet to receive a tax-payer bailout.Yet the “solution” to the illusory crisis has
been the creation of a real crisis, consistent with Shock Doctrine
economics.Canada Post is being
restructured so that service costs increase dramatically even as services are
deteriorating: bulk stamps will cost .85 cents and a single first-class stamp
will cost a dollar, door-to-door urban delivery is being ended, and 8,000
postal positions are slated to be eliminated.
The crisis is being engineered so
that the public will become frustrated, blame the victim (Canada Post), and
welcome a false “market-based solution” so that the private sector can roll in,
and further erode the public domain.
James Clancy of the National Union Of Public And General
Employees argues in "President's
Commentary: Privatization is not the answer at Canada Post, modernization
is"that“when the final play is made in this game, Canadians will see
private companies selling mail service at a higher cost. There will be no
accountability mechanism if this happens because the public will no longer own
the service.”
These two important examples are, nonetheless, the tip of
the iceberg. The list is long, but the strategies are consistent: create a
crisis to undemocratically impose inefficient, expensive corporate models in
domains best suited to public funding.
Internationally, the same strategies are being used, and the
descriptors are the same: predator economics, shock doctrine economics,
neoliberalism. But, when supranational
polities such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund (IMF) impose
these strategies on other countries, the process is called colonialism.
So grandiose were Christy Clark and Rich Coleman`s promises as to the bounty British Columbia would reap from exporting liquid natural gas that as expected, as expected the big climbdown was coming, and today it arrived.....
Let me refresh you on just some of the ridiculous spin.....
Pamela Martin....."What would you do with a $trillion dollars from LNG"
Christy Clark, Rich Coleman and the BC Liberals, all off them..
"We have an opportunity for a $trillion dollars windfall.....We can pay off our provincial debt...We could remove our provincial sales tax.../..We will create a $ 100 billion dollar prosperity fund for future generations......Revenue sharing with First Nations....Monies for northern communities affected by an influx of LNG employees and infrastructure.....Crdebts paid off....Bridge tolls removed....Capital build monies for schools and hospitals..."
All these 2013 pre-election promises, all that largesse being paid for with LNG cash from Asia, from Japan and China.....Roads paved with gold and unicorns for every child in British Columbia....
Our spineless corrupt media, they helped sell it, they are still attempting to sell it, especially BC Liberal flagship T.V. station Global B.C. and BC Liberal booster club, also known as cknw radio..
Oh how they promoted Christy Clark`s snake oil elixir, a mere handful of alternative media outfits and a few dedicated bloggers shredded the BC Liberal`s LNG fantasy..
David Broadband and The Straight Goods tore the advertised LNG fiscal numbers and employment numbers from ear to ear....
In fact, a post last month I stated that very soon both the financial returns promised, the employment numbers proferred would soon see a giant climbdown from earlier claims, as in before the 2013 election earlier claims...
Let me remind you what Rich Coleman said about employment numbers if just 3 LNG plants were built....
Rich Coleman on February 22/2014 made this outrageous statement while giving a 30 minute speech on LNG..
Read it carefully..
And I quote..
I get a kick out of some of the other folks out there saying: 'You're behind schedule.' "No we're not. We're actually right on the time frame that I established."
One thing that works in the government's favour is the scale of the enterprise. The values are so vast that even delivering a fraction of the potential could count as a win.
Coleman said: "They say: 'They can't all go ahead.' "I say: 'OK. Let's have three.' That's $100 billion. That's 100,000 jobs."
It's that comfort level that's giving him the kicks, and the amusement. snip..
Here is a BC Liberal Government press release a mere 2 months ago....Look at all those promised jobs, look closely at those job projections
_____________
"61,700 jobs are required to support LNG operations including workers required to drill, produce, process and transport the natural gas required to feed the export facilities. In additions to these jobs, there will be thousands of spin-off opportunities created and supported as a result of LNG"
And who could forget what BC Liberal Government Deputy minister Dave Bing said to a business crowd in Vancouver...
"BC will see a million job openings by 2020, most within the next three years..
There are 47 projects in the province on the books worth over half-a- billion each. Dave Byng told a business audience on Friday that three quarters of the work associated with them are in northern BC and are associated with liquid natural gas.."snip
_________________________
Dave Bing told a business crowd that BC could never fill all those LNG related jobs with domestic British Columbia workers, or even Canadian workers, Deputy minster David Bing reiterated to this invited business crowd that British Columbia Would definitely require temporary foreign workers...
I think Christy Clark and the BC Liberals have some serious explaining to do...
But before we get there....Here was The Straight Goods totally debunking both the promised revenue numbers and employment numbers advertised by these BC Liberal Government conmen/woman..
I wasn`t alone, David Broadband through FOI and stymied FOI requests also suggested that Christy Clark and the BC Liberals lied their faces off on promised jobs..
__________________
From David Broadband..at Focus Magazine
Did the BC government fake LNG numbers before last year's election?
"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?........
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,...... . 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........ _______________________ And today, April 22nd/2014 the truth was revealed, forget those employment and job numbers advertised by Dave Bing, Rich Coleman, Christy Clark and all BC Liberals.....
As written by David Broadband and The Straight Goods, those advertised job numbers were utter bullshit...
And as for the revenue promises, debt eliminated($70 billion and counting)..plus a $100 billion dollar prosperity fund for future generations, crown debt paid, sales tax removed, tolls removed..
Forget the whole shebang....
Who are we to believe, those BC Liberal liars mentioned above or a spokesperson for CAPP..Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers....
What did CAPP say about BC`s LNG industry???...If it happens....28,000 jobs possible by 2035.. $116 billion added to BC`s GDP by 2035.....
GDP is not Government revenue, to get $100 billion dollars into a prosperity fund for future generations alone...!....Forget about all those other BC Liberal promises, just the prosperity fund LNG would have to add at least $1 trillion dollars to BC`s GDP by 2035...If what this CAPP editorial on cknw says is true our BC Government would be lucky to receive $7 billion dollars by 2035...
Well, let`s have President of Capp Dave Collier tell you himself...
"Hi, I`m Dave Collier the president of CAPP, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, Responsible natural gas production is fundamental to the prosperity of British Columbia, B.C. has extensive natural gas resources, enough to meet current demand for many generations, but our traditional markets are shrinking and we need to focus on Global markets where demand is strong and growing, especially in Asia, we could help meet Asia`s demand with this cleanest burning hydrocarbon provided we establish a liquefied natural gas industry on the West Coast that can compete with the global LNG market, the potential rewards are significant, employment in BC`s natural gas sector could grow from the 12,000 jobs today to about 40,000 by 2035, increased natural gas investment could contribute $116 billion to real GDP growth in B.C. between now and 2035, and Government revenue in the way of royalties and taxes are also significant, this is a tremendous opportunity for British Columbia and our industry, to realize it, industry, Government, First Nations and other stakeholders must work together with a sense of urgency to ensure we get this right, the opportunity is now, we should make the most of it"
(cue up April 22nd/ 5:00 pm...This editorial from the CAPP president Dave Collier took place at roughly ...5:20 PM...
___________________________
Here it comes folks, cknw is so stupid, they don`t even realize what they aired on their station...CKNW thought it was useful, it wasn`t, it was a shot across the bow from CAPP directed at the BC Liberal Government..
First off, CAPP wants the LNG industry, meaning the plant propossls to NOT have to go through an environmental review, Mary Polak and the BC Liberals have NOT officially rescinded that hideous order in council that made LNG facilities exempt from environmental assesments..
Also, Dave Colliers`s code words
"provided we establish a liquefied natural gas industry on the West Coast that can compete with the global LNG market"
That is code for what Jack Mintz wrote, ..Mintz(who is the on the board of directors for Imperial oil)wrote that the province of B.C. has no legal authority to tax LNG twice, meaning the only tax regime that is acceptable to the LNG industry is the B.C. royalty scheme where the resource is taxed at the wellhead and the wellhead only..meaning it doesn`t matter WHAT any LNG plant sells the resource FOR in Asia or Japan, those export revenues are off limits according to CAPP and Jack Mintz..
Here is the complete story on the Jack Mintz thoughts on LNG taxation..
So....Here`s the deals....LNG operators want to be exempted from environmental reviews and assessments.....LNG plant owners refuse to be taxed on sales, on export sales, Jack Mintz and the LNG industry believe it is illegal to tax the resource(in this case natural gas) a second time...
Job numbers, straight from the horse`s mouth, the president of CAPP Dave Collier..
"employment in BC`s natural gas sector could grow from the 12,000 jobs today to about 40,000 by 2035"
28, 000 net new natural gas jobs, over 21 years...That my friends works out to roughly 1,300 jobs per year..!
I recommend you listen to the audio vault..
Hmmm...Christy Clark and Rich Coleman have some serious explain to do....
Who to believe on LNG job projections..an industry expert or Rich Coleman and Christy Clark?
I wonder if any of our big BC Media will even bother asking question..
We know Vaughn Palmer and Bill Good wont...And as for Keith Baldrey..He is neither a journalist or media, he`s a belligerent corrupt stooge with a bad hairpiece!
What was it that Christy Clark said during our 2013 election and beyond, and I quote..
"British Columbia can receive 5 to 6 times the North American price for our natural gas in Japan"
Now that`s funny!
One more thing, Kitimat city council officially rejected Enbridge`s northern gateway pipeline tonight...4 to 1..
Glen Clark in the late 90s told the media that "British Columbia will have three aluminum smelters, count em three" ...Glen Clark`s musings didn`t actually work out too well.....Gordon Campbell sold dozens of BC Rivers to BC Liberal party donors and insiders in the independent power game, Gordon Campbell told our media and the public that British Columbia was going to be an electrical exporting superpower, again, Gordon Campbell`s musings didn`t have the desired effect either, in fact now because of Gordon Campbell`s Liberals BC Hydro is now bankrupt and domestic hydro electric rates are skyrocketing,.....BC hydro has $7 billion dollars of debt stashed in deferral accounts, that is the legacy of Gordon Campbell`s electric superpower dreams, not to mention millions of dead fish..
Timing is everything and for the most part bullshit baffles brains, Christy Cluck Cluck Clark with nothing to lose going into our last provincial election developed a scheming plot based on total fabrication, the $trillion dollar LNG fantasy, Christy claimed BC would pay-off our debt, eliminate tolls, remove our sales tax, create a million jobs, create a $100 billion dollar prosperity fund for future generations, First Nations and northern communities would all reap the rewards, all this largesse coming from LNG, from natural gas exports.....
Pammy Martin tweeted "what would you do with a $trillion dollars" an entire election campaign wrapped around imaginary money generated by an industry that doesn`t even exist in British Columbia, kinda funny when you think about it, our lazy do-nothing media played the game, asked no questions, they pretended Christy Clark`s musings were based in fact...Well, Christy say anything Clark to win really didn`t think her corrupt political party would win, therefore no election promises to worry about...Just blame the NDP for not making it happen....Except something funny happened on route to the polling stations, Adrian Dix stuck his head up his ass and smelled his own celebratory roses before he crossed the finish line.....
What was Christy Clark to do, how can she get out of her grandiose election promises, how long can she run the $trillion dollar wheel of fortune gambit, can she carry the same lie through another election, 2017...Can she actually deliver with...."10 count em, 10 LNG plants, with the first LNG plant up and running by 2015" Christy Clark
We won`t have an LNG plant up and running by 2015...not 2016...not 2017....maybe one plant by 2020, maybe, maybe not..
Timing is everything, resource extraction is fickle and unforgiving, Walter Mines laid off near 800 coal miners yesterday, no notice given, workers donned their hardhats, entered the mine and were told, adios, your laid off.....Such a good corporate citizen Walter mines is, they tossed the workers aside, corporate screws stated that we aren`t making any money, let`s leave the resource in the ground, Walter Mines was not interested in breaking even for the sake of workers and the town of Tumbler Ridge, no profits, no work, no quarter given.....Your fired!
This article isn`t about anything written above, well not really, this posting is about curiosity!
Walter mines stated that coal for export to China had dropped in price from over $200 per tonne to a mere $110 per tonne, curiosity sent me far afield to find out why, why had coal prices declined to such low unprofitable levels and lo n behold the answer hit me in the face like V-8 juice..!
China, Asia, our saviour, energy company`s prey, the elusive, mythical not able to corner Asian buyer of B.C. LNG is entering a recession, China`s GDP has fallen to a 24 year low, China hasn`t seen such anemic growth since 1990, manufacturing for export in freefall, electrical use falling fast, the one truly believable indicator of China`s economy is electrical usage, exports of finished products down down down, imports of raw resources down down down, so worried of civil unrest is the Chinese government domestic interest rates have been cut, stimulus packages rolled out by central Government, railway infrastructure and low-cost housing were targetted, the Chinese Government is in fear of a massive population tearing down their walls, hundreds of millions of Chinese workers surviving pillar to post, no safety-net, nothing, millions of Chinese without jobs makes a beleaguered Chinese government an endangered species....
Wow, curiosity provides an explanation as to why coal prices have crashed, no steel making means no coal imports required, an end to building ghost cities means workers hands go idle, our friend the devil loves idle hands, Australia and Brazil who provide China vast amounts of iron ore are in trouble too, those countries planning on selling high-priced LNG to China are also in trouble, no steel making, manufacturing in decline, imports of raw goodies on the down low means a cascade of economic events and timing is everything considering Japan who for the first time in near decades are now suffering massive trade deficits because of over-priced liquid natural gas are in a big rush to reverse that trend and step one is starting up their shuttered nuclear plants at the same time Australia, USA, East Africa, Papua New Gunea and others have gobs of liquid natural gas export capacity coming online, timing is everything and Christy Clark`s $trillion dollar "10 count en 10 LNG plants with the first one online by 2015", Gordon Campbell`s electrical superpower ambitions along with Glen Clark`s "3 count em, 3 aluminum smelters" are phrases to be enshrined in history like "Dewey Wins the presidency" for scholars, historians and future comedians to feast on...
Indeed....Let energy companies chew up our parks, conservancies, protected areas, spend $12 billion on a Site C dam for gifting and palm greasing, outrageously with an Order -In-Council remove environmental assessments for LNG plants then bring them back when First Nations rightfully cry foul, First Nations now know with that one brutal order in council that BC Liberals are as trustworthy as a Bernie Madoff investment, they won`t let anything overturn their worm-filled apple cart, don`t scare away the mythical always in hiding final investment decisions, the skies the limits and nothing will stop this latest BC Liberal game of propaganda promises except.....oops..
Simple math..
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China's growth slows to 24-year low
Growth in retail sales, factory output and investment also slowed, raising the possibility of politically dangerous job losses. Chinese leaders have signaled they are willing to tolerate growth below the official target so long as the economy keeps creating enough jobs to avoid potential unrest. In a sign of concern about employment, they launched a mini-stimulus in March of higher spending on construction of railways, low-cost housing and other public works. In a speech last week, Premier Li Keqiang, the country’s top economic official, said the economy still faced “downward pressure” but ruled out additional stimulus. He said Beijing would focus on “long-term efforts to achieve sustainable and healthy development.” The latest growth numbers are the weakest since China’s economic growth tumbled to 3.8% in 1990 following the crackdown on the Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests that led to Beijing’s international isolation. Weaker growth could have global repercussions, hurting Asian economies and others such as Australia and Brazil for which China is the leading market for commodities and industrial components. Chinese imports suffered an unexpectedly sharp contraction of 11.3% in March in a sign of weak raw materials demand from manufacturing and construction. “A hard landing in China’s economy is one of the biggest risks clouding the outlook for the rest of emerging Asia,” said Capital Economics in a report this week
Timing is everything and unsustainable economic activities will be halted..
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Japan's fuel imports contribute to record trade deficitTOKYO, Jan. 27 (UPI) -- Soaring fuel imports in the aftermath of Japan's 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster, amid a weaker yen, have contributed to the country's record annual trade deficit, a government official said. Japan Monday reported a trade deficit of $112.07 billion in 2013, up 65.3 percent from the previous year. "Energy imports have been rising significantly since the nuclear accident," causing per capita costs of around $293 in Japan, Kyodo News quoted Yoshihide Suga, chief Cabinet secretary as telling reporters. "It is important for us to ease such a burden as much as possible." All 50 of Japan's working reactors currently remain offline, pending safety checks.
Curiosity and asking questions, our domestic media only ask when they can cash their paycheques and as for curiosity, Bill Good won an award for journalism, surely true journalists like Sean Holman and Bob Mackin must be curious as to what kind of hallucinogenic frog the judges were licking...
I did mention how unsustainable economic practices will be halted, either by hook, by crook and even if your nickname is the Snook(presiding over Snooklandia)....
In all seriousness friends, Japan has no choice but to start their nuclear facilities, and or build new thorium reactors, I`m not alone in these thoughts..I recommend every B.C. pretend journalist and even those Shaman now occupying the writing desks read this next article...
Who knows, it might just make our mainstream media curious....Well, maybe not.
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Why Japan Can't Quit Nuclear Power
Perhaps not. The mostly idled nuclear fleet offers a taste of life without the atom: In summer 2012, the country faced electricity shortages, forcing the government to push citizens toward power-saving measures such as restrictions on big users and reduced air-conditioning. Productivity suffered as workers labored through sweltering heat. Just in Tokyo, electricity costs, already among the highest in the world, rose by an average of 8.5 percent. Eight of Japan’s 10 power utilities reported heavy losses—$8.5 billion total over six months—from the cost of buying more oil and gas to replace idled reactors. The two profitable power companies had little or no generation from nuclear. All this from a temporary stoppage. If Japan goes to zero nuclear power, as the protesters and former Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda want, the resulting increase in fossil-fuel imports would cause an outflow of national wealth equivalent to 0.6 percent of Japan’s gross domestic product, according to research completed in January by the Institute of Energy Economics, Japan. That would lead to an increase of Japan’s enormous $74 billion trade deficit. “You have to pay a lot, a lot, a lot for LNG imports,” Hirai says. “If something happens in the Strait of Hormuz today, that makes—oh, I don’t want to think about it,” he adds, shaking his head. A nuclear phaseout would also lead to a rise in electricity prices, increasing the burden on households by $10 billion ($115 per household). Japanese businesses would suffer from hiked electricity costs, with an increased burden of $22 billion. The fallout could cost some 420,000 jobs, according to IEEJ. All of that, in turn, would lead to an approximately $11 billion annual decline in corporate tax revenue and what the institute refers to as a “vicious cycle,” escalating the already massive debt problem faced by the world’s third-largest economy. “We don’t want to pursue such a miserable path,” Hirai says.
GRAVITY’S PULL
Towering along the seashore in Japan’s Shizuoka prefecture is a 60-foot-tall anti-tsunami seawall. The massive structure—one of many countermeasures that Chubu Electric Power has implemented at its Hamaoka Nuclear Power Station since the 2011 temblor—shows just how far, and high, Japan is willing to go to hold on to nuclear energy.
Curiosity and timing, that`s what this post is about, that and those governmental statements politicos, historians and comedians find so ......useful..
"10 count em 10 LNG plants with the first one up and running by 2015"
P.S......The above music video really rocks at about the 3:53 mark and continues through the entire next 16 minutes...
CKNW radio all through April/2014 can be described as nothing more than a spindoctoring propaganda pandering BC Liberal bootlicking ad nauseum drone...."Putting B.C. to work...Skills shortage" jobs jobs jobs, blah blah blah all the while promoting British Columbia as a one trick pony relying on resource extraction.....
Clearly Billy Good and company have the BC Liberal election platform guiding their lame amateur producers...Talk about boring radio....they trotted out guest after guest preaching from the corporate bible, industrial scripture based on lore, on fable, fairy tales and bold-faced lies targeting weak-minded rubes, targeting those who can`t add 1 and 1, targeting those who not only can`t think but those who don`t want to think...Sheep, mindless grass munching sheep..
Corporate scripture indeed, millions of new jobs, resource extraction creating wealth beyond our dreams, drill it, dig it, burn it, boil it and ship it off to China in exchange for more money than we can count.....Oh how sad Billy Good, Global BC, Balderdash Baldrey and Vaughn Palmer have become..
These clowns have turned their backs on the truth, journalistic integrity has been replaced by three stupid monkeys sitting around scratching their asses while eating bananas, my gawd, ....How on earth can they even look in the mirror, so deep into the cesspool of putrid bullshit, descended below the lowest sludge barrel rung....
For years now, at least a decade corporations in Canada have been beating the drum about the need of millions of workers, more jobs than grains of sand on all the world`s beaches...
Such utter bullshit, self serve gas stations, teller-less banking, factories of workers reduced to factories of robots, company X employs 100 workers today in 10 years company X will employ 4 workers and produce more, ......Examples, we have examples right here in British Columbia..
Kitimat-Rio-Tinto smelter upgrade, oh for sure, Rio-Tinto is spending a pretty penny upgrading their smelter in Kitimat, newer, faster, more efficient, once complete can compete is their motto..
The old Rio-Tinto smelter employed 1500 employees while operating, the new upgraded smelter will employ 50% fewer employees...roughly 750 workers..
More aluminum smelted by half the employees......Mines too are becoming more automated, robot trucks, disposable workers, temporary foreign slaves available as easily as ordering a pizza..
The biggest corporations in the world are playing the game of slash and burn workers, oh those so rare skills that can`t be filled, coffee servers, burger flippers, form strippers, ditch diggers, oh indeed, McDonalds, Tim Hortons, Earls, to name a few...
Shouldn`t honest media report how Rio-Tinto`s upgrade is being executed to slash its workforce in half, that`s newsworthy...
Resource extraction, a future tradesmen and women can depend on according to industrial corporate scripture...Remember HD mining, the need of coal miners, well....
I had cknw droning as background noise today, .....As reported, all month long cknw has been blathering about the need for more trades, welders, miners, the coming boom and creation of 1 million new jobs by 2020...Yet on their newscast, all day long not one word mentioned about the layoff of 700 miners, a longterm layoff at that...
Isn`t the layoff of near 800 hundred miners worth even one mention on cknw`s radio news, ah...but that would be contrary to their month-long blather about job jobs jobs, everywhere are effing jobs..
Here`s the deal, Walter mining paid $3.3 billion dollars several years ago to enter the coal mining game, coal was $200 per tonne, today coal, because of excess supply, a slowdown in China and stockpiles of coal everywhere has dropped to $110 per tonne, ...the Walter group stock value has plunged by over 90%, ....Executives decided it`s more prudent and financially savvy to leave the coal in the ground...
Bang bang bang....Workers, miners in Tumbler Ridge showed up for work and were told to hit the bricks, no notice given, no warning, just peons, expendable workers punted out the door, told to pack their gear and have a good life...!
Oh, and what about the hollering by the Port of Vancouver and Delta Port, the urgent need for coal export terminal expansion, oops....I guess they really don`t need those proposed coal terminals after all....
Resource booms come and go, now you see it now you don`t, if ones reads the above linked article two things are apparent, these layoffs are for years, maybe forever, and the most important point in the article, when there is a glut of supply commodity prices crash
I want you to remember that above bolded statement of fact...
What a delicious turn....if one was to believe the incoherent blather from Christy cluck cluck Clark..
"British Columbia LNG will wean China off that dirty thermal coal"
Coal mines in British Columbia employ anywhere from 400 to 600 employees....The largest LNG plant proposed will have roughly 200 to 250 employees, if what Christy Clark said was true any jobs gained in LNG will be offset by job losses in coal mines, net gain in jobs not, ....
So many corporate greed monsters playing the game, use, abuse, bullshit and promise the moon, but soon as the gravy train runs dry those oh so valued tradespeople are discarded like soiled diapers.
When there is a glut of supply commodity prices crash
At present there is no shortage of LNG for sale, plenty of supply with gobs of new supply coming online from places like Papua New Gunea..Australia, East Africa....New supply coming online from the USA too...Furthermore, Asia, China and Japan know how to play the spin game, oh indeed, yes they talk a big game, offering up monies for equity shares, 10% of this plant, 20% of that plant, a nibble here and a bite there, wink, wiggle grease the palm with vague commitments.....Why...?
When there is a glut of supply commodity prices crash
Already new LNG plant proposals are finding it near impossible to get longterm gas buying contracts at prices making the investment worthwhile, not by accident but by design..
No LNG liquefication export plant will get built in B.C. unless the provincial Government offers the moon and surrenders 80% of their originally proposed taxation royalty scheme, ...
When commodity prices crash, just like the coal mines the corporation will just lock the doors and send the workers home, there are no guarantees in the resource extraction commodity game...
Our media never talks about this fact, pom pom waving rose coloured glasses wearing corporate owned stooge media concerned with nothing but feathering their personal nests while dropping turds on the gullible sheep below..
There was another interesting article this week, a very important story that our BC media ignored, pretend they never saw it, like children chanting I can`t hear you while their hands are firmly pressed against their ears..
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Solar Cheaper Than LNG in Asia Power Generation, Bernstein Says Solar power is cheaper in many parts of Asia than electricity from liquefied natural gas, meaning photovoltaics don’t need subsidies to compete with fossil fuels. The Middle East will consume less oil, off-grid areas in developing markets will reduce kerosene and diesel demand, while Asia, the U.S. and Europe will burn less gas as the adoption of solar accelerates, according to a report by Sanford C. Bernstein& Co. The market for costly plants built to supply electricity at peak daytime hours could collapse, while distribution utilities which shut out rooftop solar projects that reduce demand for grid power will drive consumers to start storing energy in batteries, according to the report. The rise of solar may begin to depress fossil-fuel prices within the decade.
Here is what we do know, last year Japan bought 39% of all the world`s LNG....Japan spent in 2013 $69 billion dollars on LNG...That with all their nuclear plants shut down...Shinzo Abe is going to start up Japan`s nuclear plants, maybe not all of them but most of them over the nest 2 years, Japan in 2014 will be buying less LNG than they did in 2013 and pay a cheaper price for the gas...
For argument sakes, let`s assume Japan buys $70 billion dollars worth of LNG each of the next 10 years...
$700 billion dollars spent on LNG over 10 years and what would Japan have to show for it?
Nothing!
Nothing but increased greenhouse gas emissions and right back at square one, having to buy, and buy and buy some more gas..
Do any of you really believe Japan will do that....How much clean, green reusable solar, tidal, electrical energy could $700 billion buy?
How much new, clean, nuclear waste free thorium reactors could Japan build with $700 billion dollars?
Fuel for electrical energy generation is in rapid change mode....China and Japan are playing both sides of the same coin....First off China and Japan are moving fast into a new technology era while Canada under Stephen Harper, British Columbia under the BC Liberals are being led by greedy oil corporations, selling a tired old saw that all we can be is hewers of wood and drawers of water, stupid bought and paid for politicians chasing the 19th century past, like a cat in heat or male teenagers following their penis....
Actually, our governments are more like a mule chasing the unattainable carrot because eventually the cat and teenager will find the pot of gold..
When there is a glut of supply commodity prices crash...
When commodity prices crash corporations discard those oh so valued tradesperson like soiled diapers..
