3/28/2009

Jim Sinclair on CBC Radio One

Tune in - Sunday, March 29 - 9:05AM - "The Sunday Edition" on CBC Radio.
>
> Jim Sinclair on CBC Radio: Is the capitalist system broken beyond repair?
>
> Friend –
> This Sunday, at 9:05 am, BCFED President Jim Sinclair will be on CBC Radio’s “The Sunday Edition” as part of a panel discussion on the economy. The program is being broadcast across Canada.
>
> The panelists and the studio audience will examine the question “Is the capitalist system, as we know it, broken beyond repair?”
>
> The two-hour forum is being broadcast on CBC Radio One.
>
> • Find the CBC Radio One frequency in your part of the province
>
> • Listen live online


Part of an e-mail from BC Mary copied and pasted for convenience (mine, broken hand)

Disguising Campaigning in Photo-ops

Most know that I don't have ready access to TV. But Since the Prime Ministers visit I have noticed some pretty sneaky things coming out.

When Harper was last in town they (including Campbell) were promoting another fluff project. I don't remember which one it was. (there are so many). But during the PM's little promotional speech He mentioned that they needed the opposition on board.

My problem with the speech is that the whole thing gave me the impression that he was talking about the Opposition BC NDP. Being a thinking person I knew that he could only be talking about the Federal Opposition but I had the nagging feeling he was talking about our Provincial Opposition as well.

I put the thought aside until dinner at the outlaws a week or so later when I saw a news cast with Campbell saying the NDP should come on board. In equating the two I thought it a bit strange. Until the other night, again at the outlaws I saw the big Photo-Op on the Canada line. Stock Day was there with a bunch of lackies and there was the statement again. This time by Campbell remarking about a ferderal project that the opposition should get on board.

Now, this incident left it clear that Campbell was talking about the BC NDP. No one else. And he was using the Media Photo-Op to convey his opinion. So my question is, who is paying for these campaign style photo-ops?

Are the media being manipulated again? If so so they realise it? Are the opposition going to get the same opportunity to voice themselves in public about these projects without paying for ads.?

Food for thought.

3/24/2009

CN Rail in Court in North Van

Case #49026 was in court in North Vancouver on Thursday March 19 2009.

Now, I usually check the court postings every morning waiting until around 0700 to do so. I'm pretty sure I checked all last week. But apparently I missed it.

So it's a good thing to do followups and check the "completed list" after I check the Court list.
The main reason I do this is because the completed list can tell us a lot about the disposition of a case or as I reported to BC Mary yesterday that things disappear quite frequently from the court list but you can sometimes find them in the "completed list". Not so for Case #23299 yesterday. But fortunately I did find #49026 this morning in the North Van Completed Court List.

CN Rails next appearance is for 25 May 2009 to enter a plea on count 4&5 under the Environmental Act sections 6.3 and 6.4.

I have no Idea what became of the third count. But the first two were tickets and were paid out before a court appearance.Did they plead the third one out or was it also a ticket? Did they make a deal? ie: drop the Third count to plead on the last two? I guess we will find out on the 25th of May.

3/20/2009

Charlie Wyse ON BC Rail

Charlie Wyse is the MLA for the South Cariboo.

On speaking with the Williams Lake Tribune to the issue of Kinsella getting $297,000 from BC Rail, and not providing details of what was done, he had this to add.


[snip] Wyse also has other concerns about the sale of BC Rail, and says that when it was sold to CN, British Columbians were told that they would get better service. "That was one of the reasons for actually selling it," Wyse says. "In actual fact, we know that is not the case. That is not what has happened."

He says the forest and agriculture industries have especially suffered due to a lack of adequate service. He says the forest industry doesn't receive railcars in either the number it requires or doesn't receive them in a timely fashion.

"That has been an issue with the forest industry almost from day one," he says, adding that due to the economic situation, any competitive edge available to the industry is greatly needed. "Being able to move the product to market with the greater efficiency of railway has been lost."

Wyse also points to the ranching industry's difficulties with CN Rail, and says CN doesn't build adequate fencing along the line to prevent collisions with livestock, doesn't report collisions with livestock, and doesn't adequately address invasive weeds.

He says the tourism industry has also been affected, due to the loss of passenger rail service along the line.

"Now we're beginning to overturn documents in which we have got an individual who has a direct connection with Premier Campbell," Wyse says. "This sum of money that he had been paid, almost $300,000, continues to taint the sale of BC Rail and the credibility of the premier in his dealing with the people of British Columbia."

In response to the government refusing to answer because of the court case, Wyse contends that the documents found in the legislative library are public documents.

"We (the NDP) believe and I believe the premier has the responsibility to come clean with the people of British Columbia, the relationship that exists between Patrick Kinsella -- a Liberal insider -- and the sale of BC Rail."

Kelli Svendsen, spokesperson for CN Rail, has previously told the Tribune that the company feels it provides enough assistance to ranchers, as it provides fencing material for those on privately owned land. Constructing and maintaining the fences should be the ranchers' responsibility, she said.

"We find this is fair and it's consistent throughout Canada," she said. "Since 1996, federal regulated railways in Canada are not responsible for constructing or maintaining fences along the railway. ... We go over and above what is regulated."

She also said CN makes every effort to contact the owners of livestock that are killed by a train, but sometimes cattle can't be properly identified.

"Ranchers have a responsibility to monitor their livestock," she said, adding that CN Rail also controls noxious weeds along the railway's right-of-way.

What they don't tell you here is that BC Rail, before it was given to CN, used to maintain the line, mend fences and destroy the noxious weeds.

As far as making every effort to contact owners of cattle killed by the trains that is pure BS. Every head of cattle is either branded and/or tagged in the ear (with a radio tag). The only time you can see these animals without these markings is from birth to branding time. And these are the calves. They are with their mothers.


On the railcars: you don't have to be a rocket scientist to see the lack of cars on this line. And don't tell me its because of the economy because I allege that part of the downturn in idustry in northern BC is caused by this utter lack of service by CN.


Its also interesting to note the 1996 date on the federal regulations here. 1996 is about the time that Campbell first said he was going to sell the railway. Coincidence? I don't think so. I allege the fix was already in.

3/13/2009

From Strategic Thoughts

David Schreck has a good take on the Campbell Cabal's answers to the layoffs at Olympic time.

March 10, 2009

Olympic Impacts

The Campbell government is pulling figures out of the air when it comes to quantifying the economic benefits of the 2010 games. The studies involve very long time spans, too long to be relevant as an economic stimulus for the current recession. The people who will feel the immediate economic consequences of the games are those who are being laid off, have yet to be laid off and who won't be able to get to work due to traffic and security. Everyone in the Lower Mainland won't have tickets to Olympic events, but everyone will have their lives disrupted - some much more so than others.[snip.....

I had another thought. The only economic uptick I can see in this mess is for big business. The trickle down effect will never reach the common man.

Revalations in the 8000 pages

BY NEAL HALL
VANCOUVER SUN - MARCH 6, 2009


Newly disclosed government documents from the Basi-Virk corruption trial reveal that the B.C. Liberal cabinet decided Oct. 1, 2003 that CN Rail was the winning bidder of the $1-billion privatization sale of BC Rail.

The controversial decision wasn’t made public until 55 days later, on Nov. 25, 2003.

But before then, other bidders were already upset about the fairness of the process, the documents reveal.

One of the new documents is a letter sent Jan. 14, 2002, from OmniTrax chief executive Gary Rennick to then-transport minister Judith Reid, indicating OmniTrax, one of the U.S. bidders, had been discussing the privatization of BC Rail with the government since 2001. ......[snip]

I was advised in a conversation recently from a fairly well placed source that this deal may well have been concluded as much as 6 months prior, making all the bidding and the Charles River reports a sham.

Question: If a company orders a fleet of vehicles, how long would it take to deliver that fleet?

Answer: It would take up to or more than 6 months.

Reason: All these vehicles would have to be fitted with special equipment such as the trucks (rail wheels) under those self propelled maintenance vehicles you see running up and down the tracks and that is not an overnight job with a fleet this size. The mechanical maintenance (land) fleet would require almost as much time. And specifications would need to be drafted, bids would have to be submitted and selected. All this takes time. A lot of time.

So how is it that all the new white trucks were in place at about the time that this deal was announced? And why did I see a couple of these units on the tracks in my area before the deal was announced? At the time I was not aware of the giveaway of BC Rail (mainly due to lack of reporting in the MSM and partly because I was in Ontario at the time) and I just thought they (CN) were given permission to use the tracks as sometimes happens.

But this equipment
was there. And some of the pieces didn't even have the logo on them.

Now we need to find out when the railcars started disappearing from the BC Rail tracks. There were a large number of CN cars appearing at about the same time as the BC Rail cars were disappearing.

There is a lot more to this than has been uncovered in the 8000 pages.



3/01/2009

The Bad Record

Macdonald accused past NDP governments of “destroying the economic welfare of our province as a whole, and destroying the lives of decent, hard-working union and non-union people in the private sectors of this province.” So what have the liberals done?

The Golden Decade:

Closed 1279 hospital beds 2002-2004

Increased wait times by 30% on average since 2001

Reduced home support services (cleaning, laundry and shopping) to
5600 residents requiring assistance in their homes. And commenced the despicable habit of separating seniors from their families. Causing (I allege) the deaths of some of those seniors

Increased Pharmacare costs for 420,000 seniors. And didn't increase their pensions accordingly.

Cut 17 drugs from Pharmacare. Thus adding additional costs to those who most need it.

Increased MSP premiums by 50%. Putting further hardship on those who can't afford it.

Cut over $200 million from programs for children and families under
the Ministry of Children and Family Development.

Eliminated the independent offices of the Child, Youth and
Family Advocates. And had to do a turnaround when finally someone died.

Eliminated the independent office of Mental Health Advocate.

Cut $50 million from child care,causing neglect and death to those most vulnerable in our society.

Broke contracts with health science professionals, nurses, health
support workers and community social service workers legislated away key job protection rights previously provided under the Labour Relations Code to health care workers and community social service workers.

Cancelled a negotiated $2.5 million wage increase for community
social service workers, and then rolled back their wages by a further $40 million.

Rolled back wages of hospital support workers by 15%.

Fired 8,000 hospital workers (87% of hospital workers in B.C. are
women).

Privatized laundry, food, cleaning and other hospital services. Bringing about poorer services and food and dirtier hospitals.

Privatization resulted in wages being cut to $9.50 to $11.00 an hour
with few benefits.

Reduced minimum wage from $8 to $6 an hour for new workers under the guise of calling it a "training wage".

Cut 550 staff at Workers' Compensation Board. And gutted the regulations making it almost impossible to get compensated for injuries on the job.

Deleted one third of staff at the Employment Standards Branch. And gutted the Employment Standards Act

Closed 177 schools. Making countless students travel further to school. Then caused the demise of some routes making it next to impossible for some children to get a proper education.

Deleted 2,500 teachers (350 teachers because of declining enrolment;
the rest because of government cuts).

Broke contract with teachers. Causing an uproar with the General Population.

Increased college and university tuition fees by 104%. After promising to have the best education system in the country.

Cut training and apprenticeship programs. Leaving the labour force to look elsewhere to find certified workers.

Cut 1,200 staff between 2001 and 2004 from the 2 main ministries
dealing with the environment; Ministry of Water, Land and Air Protection, and the Ministry of Forests. Cut regulations protecting the quality of drinking water by changing the regulations to allow the contractors to certify sewage and septic field installers to certify their own work.

Cut spending on wildlife protection and law enforcement to the lowest in 20 years.

Introduced parking fees in provincial parks, reducing provincial park
attendance by 25%

Privatized one third of BC Hydro to Accenture, a Bermuda based company. Then castrated the company by making it inpossible for it to increase its' power generation. Leaving it with only the transmission lines.

Privatized B.C. Ferries, ferry fares increased. Yet they still get involved with the ferry system by handing them candys every once in a while.

Increased ICBC rates by an average 18.6% over the last 4 years.

Increased drivers' license fees.

Increased parks, hunting and fishing fees. Cut taxes by $2.2 billion - the biggest benefit going to business and
the wealthiest.

Continues to close long term care beds and fail to open beds promised in the last election.

Continues to give non answers in question period. Calling it" question period not question and answer period" This from a government that promised to be the most open, honest, and accountable government in the history of the province.

All of this prompts me to state that whatever Campbell promises in the next election he absolutely do the opposite. Look at his past record.




On BC Hydro 's Public Billings andCalifornia's Debt

Have you ever had a BC Hydro bill that was a little larger than your monthly budget could handle? I'm sure most of us have. I get them quite regularly. Even with wood heat my bill almost doubled for December January. So I paid half the bill at the end of January and the rest will be paid today. But before I even got my paltry pension checks I received what I perceived as a threatening letter from Hydro. When you open the bill they words jump right out at you.

FINAL NOTICE OF DISCONNECTION

I never received a first or subsequent notice of disconnection. Just a final one.

Then as sometimes happens I get a forwarded e-mail from BC Mary that fits a situation I want to write about.
Someone she knows sent a request to the NDP research department asking if Hydro had ever been paid the hundreds of millions of dollars owed from the State of California.And the answer came back:

No, the State of California has not paid us. We are still owed some $300M (estimate) for electricity sold to California around 2001.

My first thought was "Has BC Hydro sent the State of California a Final Notice of Disconnection?" If they did they never acted on it because it's been 8 years and they still owe the people of BC an estimated 300 million dollars. And Premier Photo Op even had Governor Terminator up here for a visit. Did he ask him for our millions?

Then I thought "Where is the mainstream Media on this?" That money could be used to fill the gaps in funding health and education and many social programs in British Columbia. It's not only a major debt it's a major social issue and the media in this province let it die 8 long years ago. Just like they are trying (I allege) to kill the publics interest in the Legislature Raids Trial. And where is our premier on this? He's busy out having his picture taken wherever he can and he is definitely not looking after the public interest in this province.

I still can't get how the major pollsters can come up with a majority thinking that Campbell is the best one to manage our finances. He can't even collect monies owed to us. And don't think for one minute that his finger isn't in the Hydro pot. Why do you think he's privatizing it?