Category: BC Politics

Family Day; It’s coming sooner than you think!

Family day: Phone calls from the Unemployment Line

This week,apart from the budget,all the talk has been about next years family day. The newspapers are full of interviews from ecstatic parents detailing how they can hardly wait to spend an extra day off with their families.

Turns out a lot of them might not have to wait until next February to achieve that goal.

It will cost a small business a small business with 5 employees $1135 if they stay open and pay those employees to work that day.( Time and a half on a statutory holiday accounts for that) .

If they close, the cost will vary dependent upon what those employees normally get paid but it is still a significant increase to the bottom line.

What is a business to do? Apparently a lot!

I have had several calls from clients in the last week advising their full-time hours have been cut back to part-time hours. Those same people advise at the same time their places of work have added new part-time employees.

I broached this topic at this weeks Chamber of Commerce meeting with several business owners I converse on a regular basis with and the consensus was that a lot of business are streamlining and doing just that.Changing full time jobs to part-time jobs and having employees work less regularly and in a lot of cases not qualifying for statutory holidays at all.

Increased turnover? Maybe? But there are a not many places to find a new job.

This is actually nothing new. if you can afford it,go to a restaurant of your choice 3 times in the next few weeks and see if you get the same waitress. Probably not and this trend would be why.

In 2009 The Ontario government shouted that their economy was strong enough to handle another holiday.

Three years and one Drummond report later their economy is in tatters.The job losses are staggering. Obviously they were wrong.

Bottom line is their provincial government introduced a frivolous way of getting your vote at a time when other costs are going up.

The B.C. Liberal government has now followed suit.

The end result, as in the Ontario example, is that this day will probably end up costing you more than you thought! Maybe even your job.

How does that make you feel?

As always your comments are appreciated!

Open,honest,accountable government in BC? Not now……

Gimme a break! Be open,honest and accountable? Why change whats worked for 11 years?

I hate to keep harping on the budget day tweet by the premier,but she had no reason to do that. She could have kept quiet and let Kevin Falcon present the budget and that part of the day would have been fine.

But she didn’t,she lied.

This from a Premier who ran her leadership campaign on open accountable honest government.

It’s not happening and as taxpayers you have a right to be choked.

There are lots of other hidden taxes other than the aforementioned MSP Lie.

Ethan Baron presents some of them in his excellent article today.

Why not come clean and tell the taxpayer what they are. Why do politicians think we are stupid?

50% of the people in BC didn’t vote last time,maybe they are fed up with their intelligence being insulted.

Maybe they want open,honest,accountable government. They are certainly not getting it now!

That’s the shame of it all.

What do you think?

Premier starts the day with a Twitter lie!

I am the Premier and I can fool all of the people all of the time!

The Premier Lied! She went on Twitter in the Morning and said there would be no new tax hikes in the budget and then increases your MSP Premiums. A Premium is another word for tax.

Finance Minister Falcon Shrugged it off by saying it’s only $5 per month ( $60 per year).

In the BC Liberal world it’s only $60,in ours it’s a LIE.

This is just another in a long line of gaffes By the B.C.Liberal Premier.

She promised to do politics different and she starts her budget day with a lie.What could be worse?

Kinda makes you think the Premier is in over her head,doesn’t it?

Kinda makes you wonder if you can believe this whole budget thing too ?

Geoff Plant Speaks” If you grow it it should be legal”!

Hey Martha another day and these suckers will be ready for picking!

“I have always had a problem with the idea that the state should criminalize an act which is essentially no more complex than putting a couple of seeds in your back yard, waiting a while and then, when something grows, you put it in your pocket, you chew it or you smoke it,” Mr. Plant said.

So says Geoff Plant in a recent story in the Globe and Mail.

Problem with that quote is there are a lot of things easily grown.Opium is one. Pick it boil it and hammer back a cup of tea.

By former B.C. Attorney General Geoff Plant’s logic that should be legal too!

What do you think?

Ontario’s Drummond report is a cautionary tale for B.C.voters

BC's Economic D-Day should be now,not after Election 2013

This week in Ontario Don Drummond,chair of commission on public service reform , released a 688 page report that should serve as a cautionary tale to voters here at home in B.C.

We have a little over a year until we have our own provincial election and we have plenty of time to ask those who are running what they are planning and what will it cost.

We should not have to wait for the writ to drop do know exactly where we stand fiscally and where the parties will take us.

All during the last election we heard that the deficit was in the area of 495 million only to be told right after that it was in the billions. The B.C. Liberals told us no HST and then brought it in right after the election.

Today,Adrian Dix and the NDP have a number of promises and plans so how much? What is your plan to get us to where you want the province to go.

Adrian says he doesn’t want to be in the limelight. Guess what Adrian ? You are applying for the top job in the province and a formal interview is in order!

Every politician should now and always be in the limelight.They want to spend your money!

An independent economist should be appointed and have to release a no B.S state of affairs. Both the opposition and government should have to read it and tell us well in advance of any election what they want to do and how much it will cost.( Not just now but before every election)

This report is not to be confused with the upcoming smoke and mirrors budget. This week the government will say and do anything to try and boost their standing in the polls.

Rather we need to know exactly where we stand financially right now. Ontario found out after their election,a little to late to do anything.

People held the government’s feet to the fire on the HST,why not on this?

People and politicians alike always say what they do now will help generations to come.

As the Drummond report shows nothing could be further than the truth.

If we don’t do this, we vote and will get more of the same and have nobody to blame but ourselves.

Why would you want to vote and place your trust in somebody who will not stand in front of you and tell you the truth,tell you their plan?

Do you want 4 more years of that?

Hasn’t this gone on long enough?

Families First Agenda in Tatters!

The Spin:BC Hydro folks have families too!

Your Hydro Bill will increase 7.7% starting this April. This will come at at time when the cost of things such as gas for your car is also expected to rise.

Based on available information,the Hydro increase comes courtesy of the B.C.Liberals ,I mean ,BC Hydro’s practice of deferring current spending practice into future years.

Given the amount of folks Premier Clark has thrown under the bus lately ,Minister of Energy and Mines Rich Coleman who conducted the review, is probably a bit nervous.

Can’t wait for the next poll to be conducted.

Will The Premier’s numbers pass Gordon Campbell’s when the party threw him ….

And more importantly just who’s family is the Premier putting first,certainly not mine,how about yours?

BC Liberals Continue trend,Throw Seniors under the bus!

BC Liberals:We are going to need a bigger bus!

The busiest person in the BC Liberal Party lately has been the Proverbial Bus Driver.

To Recap:

The Taxpayers were thrown under the bus with the sleazy introduction of the HST.

Then Finance Minister Kevin Falcon was tossed under the bus by the Premier over the resultant fallout from the aforementioned HST.

Christy Clark has thrown Gordon Campbell under the bus time and time again, when she blames his government for all the mistakes caused by the Liberals.( It’s a given that since Clark has had her fingerprints over a large part of what the Campbell government did,she threw herself under the bus too! She just doesn’t realize it)

Next on the list: New Minister of Justice Shirley Bond. She no sooner said the issue before the courts with the TV cameras was over, then Premier Clark promptly tossed her under the bus with a statement about soldiering on and finding a way to get them in there.

Now comes word, the BC Liberal Government for the last 11 years has collectively thrown the Senior population under that same bus. The BC Ombudsman put together a scathing 400 page report on the inadequacies of the system and presented it yesterday. Worse news is that the Liberals have had it in their hands for some time ( they have had part of the plan since 2009) and have done nothing with it.

Admittedly people like Clark,Campbell,Falcon and Bond belong where they were thrown. But the Taxpayers and Seniors?

It kinda makes you wonder who’s next,doesn’t it?

HST Transition Rules to be Rolled out Friday !

HST Transition-We will sneak that in Friday!

Finally we get good news that the transition rules regarding HST will be rolled out Friday.

We all wait with bated breath to see how long and what will happen with the transition.

Finance Minister Falcon says that we will find out Friday because they still have some last minutes negotiations to finish up.

Fridays are also known as bad news days in the government and the business world.Aptly named because most people don’t follow the news as much as other days and it is ripe for sneaking in bad news.

Did I say sneak in relation to news about the HST,that would be far to generous!

While the Premier dithers on,the court rules against her TV broadcasts!

Come On Caller,I might be doing a Faux Throne Speech,but call by-elections?

In a ruling that was not shocking,given the judges comments last week,Provincial Court Judge Malcolm MacLean tossed out the application to televise the riot trials today.

This following a morning of listening to the Premier on the radio telling the world she is going to review this and review that.

She has been on the job for 11 months and she is just getting around to reviewing the processes that most people have been complaining about for some time.

She had a great chance to show leadership on the issue of by-elections,but of course she didn’t. She said she would get around to calling them soon.

If you live in Chilliwack or Port Moody,the Premier just “Whatever’d ” you. How did that make you feel?

Nope, Her interview this morning was classic Paul Martin,lots of dithering,little substance.

Government Staff Appreciation Programs in Action !

I wish I could say I am shocked,but I am not.

I am not sure what is worse,the government having a 1.5 million dollar staff appreciation program or Linda Terras head of the B.C Public Service agency defending the program by saying it ONLY works out to $52 per employee.

This was uncovered in an excellent piece of reporting by Michael Smyth.

As John Cummins ,leader of the BC Conservatives , points out in the piece,there are a number of different ways the program can be abused.

This comes on the heels of Mr.Smyth’s excellent series on Bullying in the government.

It makes you wonder what else is going on and why the people we elected are doing nothing about it.

Mr and Mrs.Taxpayer" It's only $52 per employee,who cares"

UPDATE