BC Elections News - 2017, 2,450 have voted already

Kate Bouey - May 1, 2017 / 11:34 am

A total of 2,450 people voted at advance polls in Vernon and Lumby over the weekend ahead of the May 9th provincial election.

Vernon Monashee District electoral officer Janice Mori said this is the first time voting has been held so far in advance of the election.

Mori said 2,200 people voted in Vernon and 250 in Lumby on Saturday and Sunday.

During the B.C. election four years ago, a total of 6,700 people in the district voted in advance polls at three locations.

The next advance polls take place at:

• Vernon Rec Centre and Schubert Centre from Wednesday to Saturday, May 3-6 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• White Valley Community Centre in Lumby on Friday and Saturday, May 5-6 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Mori encourages voters to bring their 'Where To Vote' cards that have arrived in the mail and to ensure they have photo ID.
"Voters can also come and vote in our office," Mori said.

The office is located at 1150 Kalamalka Lake Road and is open Monday and Tuesday from 9 a.m. – 5 p.m. and on Wednesday to Saturday from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

A total of 47,373 people are registered to vote in the Vernon-Monashee district, according to the Elections BC website.

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Ben Parfitt: Sneaky Liberals are planning a B.C. forest giveaway

Given the short duration of the upcoming legislative session and the provincial election to follow, a government plan to introduce a scant two-paragraph bill granting it powers to fundamentally alter the course of forestry in B.C. is disturbing, to say the least.

According to several sources who have been briefed on the legislation, the bill would give the provincial cabinet powers to grant forest companies de facto private control over public forestlands without first having to notify or consult with the public.

Instead of companies enjoying rights to log set volumes of trees on public forestlands, companies would gain dramatically expanded powers to log trees on defined areas that in effect become their own semi-private fiefdoms.

The bill follows a year in which the government has faced mounting criticism over a forest-health crisis due to decades of over-cutting and an unprecedented mountain pine beetle attack. Numerous sawmills now face closure, with all the hardships that portends for many rural communities. Read more

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Les Leyne: Staying clean when you turf an auditor general

Ousting a special officer of the legislature from his post can turn into a dirty business. So it’s best to have clean hands when you start the job.

There are new questions about whether the B.C. Liberal caucus qualified on that score when it came to picking the MLAs who would decide auditor general John Doyle’s fate.

Liberal MLA Eric Foster, the chairman of the all-party committee that decided against re-appointing Doyle, was cited in a confidential management letter from the auditor general’s office last year over inadequate documentation for a $67,000 renovation of his constituency office. But he continued to sit on and chair the committee that decided Doyle should be denied a second term.

That looks, feels and smells wrong.

But Foster has a surprising response to that concern. He denied Tuesday ever seeing the letter, or knowing anything about the adverse comments about lack of spending documentation. More

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Animation: How to get re-elected

 

Christy Clark might face a tall order in getting back to the B.C. premier's chair — but don't worry, Province editorial cartoonist Dan Murphy has three simple things she can do to win.

How to get re-elected!

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IS GREED IN SESSION AT LANGLEY TOWNSHIP COUNCIL?

It's an early Christmas present for Langley Township Council
LANGLEY TOWNSHIP/CKNW(AM980)
Janet Brown | Email news tips to Janet
12/4/2012


They've voted themselves a big pay raise.
The Mayor's salary will go from 105 thousand to 121-thousand dollars in 2016. Councillor's salaries go from 42-thousand to 48.
Councillor Kim Richter voted against it and she wants taxpayers to speak up in opposition, "I think they need to get very involved in the budget process and if they're not happy with the compensation rates, make their voices heard."
Mayor and Councillors also get a car allowance of nearly 400-dollars a month plus mileage of 55 cents to the kilometer.

Other Councillors who voted against the plan were David Davis and Bob Long.

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The race for the Ironman race!

Looks like everyone wants it. Wonder who is going to be the lucky lottery winner. So far the following communities indicated their willingness to participate in the lottery:

http://vernonblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/kamloops-to-take-shot-at-bringing.html

http://vernonblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/kelowna-in-hunt-to-host-ironman.html

http://vernonblog.blogspot.ca/2012/09/mayor-still-undecided-on-ironman-bid.html

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Rafe Mair's post mortem on the HST

HST Down, Christy Clark to Follow

Here's why I am hoping the premier calls an election as soon as possible.

By Rafe Mair, 29 Aug 2011, TheTyee.ca

In spite of every dirty trick in the politician's bag, the HST was voted down.

What will that mean for the early election that Christy Clark promised in May upon winning her seat in Point Grey? The defeat of the HST probably means we'll have to wait instead.

Which is too bad. I hope Premier Clark goes ahead and calls an election at the earliest possible date. This is the rottenest government in my (long) experience, and I have no doubt that voters will agree. Let's find out, the sooner the better.

I voted Yes to do away with the HST, but made it clear that it was for two reasons.

First, I didn't for a moment accept the Clark government would reduce it to 10 per cent in 2014 if they were in office.

Second, and much more importantly, "consumption" taxes hit the less well-off much harder than they do the better-off.

Teaching the Liberals a lesson to me was the wrong motivation. An election will handle that.

But to support yet another tax that favours the well-off was clearly wrong in my judgment.

Sold out by BC's business lobby

I should add that when the business community was so for the HST, that was almost enough in itself to cause me to oppose it. Their reasoning was that money they saved would be passed on to consumers, which was nonsense. What the HST did was reduce the chance that business might have to pay fair taxes, and that wealthier individuals could avoid higher income taxes.

No one likes taxes but if they must happen, let them be graduated, like income tax.

Indeed, the business community has a lot to answer for, as they silently watched the Campbell government precipitously raise the debt, give the environment away to large corporations, privatize our ferries and BC Rail and drive BC Hydro into penury. In fact, they weren't silent at that -- they applauded Gordon Campbell at every turn. A Campbell speech at the Vancouver Board of Trade was guaranteed a prolonged standing ovation.

Christy Clark now leads the BC Liberals, which still apparently have the unwavering support of most business. As I say, I'm eager for the opportunity to vote Clark and her party out of office, first chance.

But hold on, Rafe, do you want the NDP back! How could they possibly be worse?

One long, sorry record

Let's first recall Premier Campbell's visit to the Honolulu slammer for which he paid no political forfeit after being brutally condemnatory of any sin, real or imagined, by the NDP. Unless political morality is now so unfashionable that no one cares any more, Campbell should have done what he demanded the NDP do for far less egregious sins -- resigned and stayed resigned. Not accepting for a moment that he was first amongst equals, he saw himself as first, period.

Let's look at B.C.'s premier assets -- BC Ferries privatized, BC Rail privatized and BC Hydro in technical bankruptcy, on the brink of a crumbling cliff. All because Campbell hated publicly-manned corporations. With Hydro, it is the Chinese torture where Hydro must by the BC Liberals' order buy all the power produced by private companies at a huge loss -- what Dr. John Calvert, author of the exposé Liquid Gold, calls the "buy high, sell low method." All this as part of a ravishing destruction of our rivers.

Let's look at how this "fiscally responsible" government conducted the 2009 election.

In April of that year, finance minister Colin Hansen brought on the budget that the Liberals used in the election that followed, and as their victory celebration died down, announced that, oopsy-doopsy, the real numbers were short by over a billion bucks. Their excuse was that this was because of the 2008 recession! Somehow, the government were the only people on the globe that hadn't heard about the recession.

The fact is that anyone with half a brain, as I do, not only saw the recession coming but bailed out in timely fashion. I can tell you that the Ministry of Finance knew a recession was at hand simply doing their everyday tasks -- looking at government receipts from the sales tax, forestry stumpage and similar barometers. Campbell, Hansen and their team were either hopelessly incompetent or dishonest (one mustn't overlook the possibility of both) if they didn't know of the coming recession in 2007, before it happened, and weren't aware of it nearly a year after it happened.

How did idiots like this ever get elected? Not by any abundance of honesty, that's for sure!

HST prevarications

I've been there and well remember then-finance minister Hugh Curtis, who was both competent and honest, came to cabinet in early 1980, when the province was riding high, and told us we had to tighten up all spending because the signs were there that a recession was close at hand -- it was, and B.C. was much better prepared than other provinces because the minister of finance was doing his job.

In April 2009, minister Hansen had a document by senior ministry officials that warned that a harmonized sales tax was a bad idea. A few weeks later, Hansen and Campbell denied a coming HST, saying it wasn't even on the radar screen then. Once re-elected and safely back in their offices, they announced that there would be an HST after all. Anyone who has been in cabinet -- as I have -- knows that it takes a long time to negotiate a federal-provincial agreement of this sort and that negotiations must have been going on long before the '09 election.

Then there was the Basi-Virk trial, coming out of allegations that these two government advisors had accepted bribes in the BC Rail fiasco. By an amazing coincidence, the Crown "settled" the matter by bribing the crooks on the eve of the appearance in the witness box of the premier and former finance minister Gary Collins.

And on it goes with a government that can neither shoot straight nor tell the truth.

To the polls!

Now Premier Clark says she wants an early election so she can have a "mandate" (I hope it never occurs to her that she won't get it).

Remember when the Campbell Liberals campaigned in 2001 and brought fixed election days and how it was hailed by them as a great victory for democracy?

The author of the Liberal campaign policy was none other than Christy Clark, then deputy premier.

The policy she authored stated that, if elected the Liberals would establish "a... fixed provincial election date under the BC Constitution Act to ensure provincial elections must be held every fourth year or immediately if any government loses a confidence vote in the legislature."

This is what she said in the campaign: "... we're gonna have fixed election dates so that you will know exactly the day that you're gonna be able to hold your government to account."

Gordon Campbell, beating upon his chest, explained, "I think one of the things that is important is that we wanted to say to people, you know, we're not going to play games with you. We're not going to sort of manipulate when the election is. We happen to be popular this month we'll call an election, or unpopular next month so we won't."

What a step forward for the democracy-loving premier, now ex, and deputy premier, now premier!

We should not be surprised, given the political morals shown by this government since it took power.

Let the photo-op call her election, contrary to her pledges, as soon as possible, and let's be rid of her and her trained seals as soon as possible. [Tyee]

Rafe Mair writes a column for The Tyee every second Monday. Read his previous columns here. He also is a founding contributor to The Common Sense Canadian.

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B.C. water legislation has no teeth - Vancouver Sun

It's time for the province to lose its frontier attitude and impose penalties on water-rights abusers Tom Siddon, Vancouver Sun

Today Premier Christy Clark will be taking the chair of the Council of the Federation, as premiers from all 13 provinces and territories meet in Vancouver to unveil a new national Water Stewardship Council. It comes at a time when British Columbia's own water policy is undergoing a long-needed overhaul. While Clark takes a national lead on water, it is this writer's strongly held wish that she will take on B.C.'s water legislation as part of her personal agenda for the future - and put some teeth into what has in the past focused on largely voluntary objectives.

Water is not an issue of partisan politics. A poll recently released showed that nine out of 10 British Columbians expect better and more effective water rules, and regard clean, abundant water as the province's most valuable resource. Several years ago, the government began a process to review and update the century-old B.C. Water Act. Public response has been enormous, with thousands of letters, blog posts and meetings. With the eyes of Canada on us, there is an opportunity for the new premier to take this popular initiative, and make it her own.

The current B.C. government approach to water is not a model for the rest of the country. Unrestricted access to our streams, lakes and rivers has long been regarded as an important instrument of economic growth. Provincial policy has usually favoured industrial development over environmental protection. A frontier attitude to water licensing, based on the archaic "first in time - first in right" principle has led to widespread exploitation of our lakeshores, streams and rapidly depleting riparian areas.

Last month, a government-funded study found massive lack of enforcement for lakefront alterations and development, and only last week B.C.'s auditor-general described the provincial environmental assessment office as toothless and ineffective, having no adequate mechanism to enforce environmental compliance or to impose penalties on water-rights abusers. As a result, during recent years, a large proportion of the publicly owned, ecologically rich foreshore on our lakes and rivers has been fenced off and turned into private playgrounds for the wealthy. These alterations are often undertaken with little regard for the environmental consequences.

Environmental protection requires political will, but it can be done. In 1986, as Canada's fisheries minister, I consulted widely and presented to Parliament the world's first Policy on Sustainable Habitat for Fish. This policy incorporated the principles of no net loss of fish habitat, multi-stakeholder planning and co-management, and a net gain of habitat for fisheries enhancement on a region-wide basis. In 1989, I also introduced a 10-fold increase in fines and penalties, to $1 million per indictable offence, with jail sentences for corporate offenders. These laws are vigorously enforced to this day by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans - but they are focused on marine areas.

In contrast, B.C. has paid little more than lip service to environmental enforcement for freshwater habitats, with minimal effort to deter abusers. And unlike the federal policy to protect fish, the B.C. government has largely neglected protection for the myriad birds, wildlife and plant communities which rely on the rich riparian areas abutting our lakes, streams and rivers. Through downloading environmental responsibilities to local and regional governments, without providing the necessary funding for enforcement, there has been even greater destruction of B.C.'s unique environmental assets.

Nonetheless, the modernization of the B.C. Water Act is an opportunity for change. B.C. is also long overdue for laws to protect groundwater, water for agriculture and mechanisms to share water during shortages. Although 2011 has had a wet summer, looking just over the horizon we can see the population and the economy growing, with the prospect of snow packs and glacier reserves shrinking from climate change, while irrigation demand increases.

Water shortages for human use will place inevitable pressure on the health of natural fresh water systems, so future planning has to be based on binding, comprehensive and integrated legislative reform.

To Clark, I can only say that you have a lot of old baggage to overcome if you plan to lead British Columbia into a more water-conscious future. I trust you will start this process by setting an example for your provincial colleagues. Please take this opportunity to move forward with new legislation that addresses the water needs of the 21st century - and provide the necessary regulatory "bite" to make it effective.

Tom Siddon was the federal fisheries minister from 1985 to 1990; he served as founding chair of the Okanagan Water Stewardship Council from 2006-2009 and was awarded the Okanagan Water Leadership Award in 2009.

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Readers write - Subject: Fw: F Deceptive HST "Voters Guide" taints independence of legislature.!.

Hello:

The message below needs no explanation. Read it and weep about the deception this provincial government is perpetrating. Vicki Huntington is an Independent MLA in the BC Legislature representing Delta South. And do send it out to all the people in your email address book who live in BC -- just as I am going to do right now.

Steve Heeren

Please broadcast far and wide. Send to all your friends, whether they vote Liberal or NDP or Green.

MLA REPORT

Deceptive HST “Voters Guide” taints independence of legislature

Delta, B.C., 13 June – Did you receive the HST Referendum “Voters Guide” the other day? I did. And so did the good people whom I work with at the Ladner constituency office. The guide struck us as a peculiar, agenda-driven voter information package, so we phoned Elections BC to confirm that they had sent it.

No such luck.

An Elections BC employee advised us, in no uncertain terms, that the Ministry of Finance was responsible for the booklet – not Elections BC. The folks at Elections BC are an independent, non-partisan office of the Legislative Assembly, after all.

We’re all used to receiving sneaky junk mail designed to deceive – only usually it’s from bad credit card companies, “sweepstake” marketing surveys and the like. Not propaganda from the Ministry of Finance. Add another page to the HST’s long story of deceit.

The booklet doesn’t identify its source. The only indication that you are reading a government-produced document is a dime-sized “British Columbia” logo positioned on the front corner, brushing up next to an image of a pencil eraser. Flip to the back page though, and you see, in emphasis, an “Important Notice to BC voters from Elections BC.”

This “voter’s guide” is a government PR document deliberately designed to make you think you are receiving valuable, non-partisan voter information from Elections BC.

Exploiting an independent office in such a premeditated and consciously partisan manner is simply unacceptable. It is beneath a government to do so, and disrespects voting British Columbians. Yet it is so typical of this government, isn’t it? The more we are told “things are different,” the more things stay the same. It is almost as if this government can’t help itself.

The BC government has a long way to go to prove that “change” is more than mere electioneering. It is one thing to see that the time-old “buy-the-vote” style of politics is clearly alive and well in BC today. It is quite another observe the contempt displayed by those in power when they seek to deceive the very people whom they represent.

The brochure, at its core, is deceptive: it purposely misleads the public and sullies an independent office of the Legislature. It is unacceptable politics. Good tax or bad tax, the government deceived us. And it continues to deceive us. And I am really tired of it.

-30-

Contact:
Vicki Huntington
Office: 604-940-7924
Cell: 604-817-2129

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Breaking news: BC liberals inked ‘hidden toll’ into Sea to Sky highway deal – and we all pay for the next 25 years.

Posted on October 25, 2010 by Laila

For years, I have often wondered why, in such ’tough economic times’, the very expensive Sea to Sky highway was not tolled. I’ve called for it, many of you have called for it, and last year, even Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson called for it as an avenue for revenue to solve Translinks money woes.

What Gregor did not know at the time ( and neither did most of us ) is that the Sea to Sky highway is a very lucrative avenue for revenue – but not for the province of BC. In actuality, the Sea to Sky highway is costing the provincial government money, every single time a vehicle drives up or down the highway.

Sources have revealed to me, that the BC government inked a hidden toll into the agreement to build and maintain the Sea to Sky highway, via a model commonly known in the transportation/road-building industry as a ” shadow toll”. As a result, the provincial government will be paying a shadow toll on every vehicle that uses the highway for the duration of the agreement, which is 25 years. Where does that toll go? To the private company that operates and maintain the road – otherwise known as the ‘concessionaire’ in the agreement with the province – (read more)

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Campbell is Canada's least popular premier: poll -- By: Andrew Weichel, ctvbc.ca

Gordon Campbell tells reporters he will not resign as B.C. premier. Sept. 8, 2010. (CTV)

Date: Saturday Sep. 11, 2010

A new poll suggests B.C. Liberal Leader Gordon Campbell's approval rating has hit an all-time low, making him Canada's least popular premier.

A whopping 83 per cent of respondents told Angus Reid Public Opinion they don't trust the premier, with only 12 per cent saying they approve of the job he's doing.

"It's one of the lowest ratings we've ever seen," Angus Reid vice-president Mario Canseco said. "What's interesting is that back in early 2009, out of nine provincial premiers Campbell was number four."

"Now he's the lowest in the country by far."

Only Alberta Premier Ed Stelmach and Quebec Premier Jean Charest come close, Canseco said, with approval ratings of 17 and 18 per cent respectively.

More than 70 per cent of those polled said their opinion of Campbell has worsened over the last three months, giving a major boost to the opposition NDP.

The poll found that 48 per cent of British Columbians would vote for the NDP if an election was held tomorrow, and leader Carole James' approval more than doubled Campbell's at 30 per cent.

Despite the alarming poll results, Canseco said the BC Liberal Party could be salvaged by new leadership. "The frustration is really directed towards Campbell and [Finance Minister Colin] Hansen," he said. "The future of the Liberals may depend on finding somebody who hasn't been tainted by the HST."

Several Liberal supporters have already called for Campbell's resignation over the tax, including Steve Forseth, former executive secretary of the Cariboo-Chilcotin riding.

"The provincial government's strategy vis-a-vis the HST and the future of Gordon Campbell is woefully inadequate and needs to change before voters stop listening to us as B.C. Liberals," he wrote on his blog.

Forseth quit his job on Friday, the day after calling on Campbell to step down.

The poll, conducted online from Sept. 8th to 9th, surveyed 805 randomly selected adults from across British Columbia.

The margin of error is plus or minus 3.5 per cent.

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More on the HST

All about the HST

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HST revelations discredit B.C. Liberals - Hansen vs. the truth.

The Daily News: Thursday, September 2, 2010

We don't yet know who, but someone has lied to us.

It's time for the provincial Liberal government to provide answers about when they started negotiations with Ottawa regarding the Harmonized Sales Tax.

Yesterday, it was revealed provincial bureaucrats had been discussing the HST with their federal counterparts prior to the May 12, 2009, election.

Senior B.C. government officials began discussing the HST with Ottawa almost two months before the provincial election and far earlier than the B.C. Liberals have previously acknowledged, newly released documents show.

The documents, obtained under a Freedom of Information request released Wednesday, outline e-mail correspondence between provincial and federal bureaucrats concerning the HST between March and May 2009.

The documents fly in the face of numerous claims by Premier Gordon Campbell and Finance Minister Colin Hansen that the HST was not on the B.C. Liberal's radar screen prior to the election.

Parksville-Qualicum MLA Ron Cantelon, who was in the provincial cabinet before the election, also insisted that talk of merging the provincial sales tax with the federal Goods and Services Tax was non-existent at the time.

In June, during an interview with the editorial board of the Nanaimo Daily News, Cantelon said the government's mishandling of the HST's introduction "verifies the fact that we didn't plan on this."

If the premier, finance minister and other members of cabinet didn't know these negotiations were going on, then we have to ask just who is in charge of the government: the MLAs or the appointed bureaucrats that seemingly can hijack policy in B.C?

Hansen is on the record as saying that the first time the B.C. government formally expressed interest to Ottawa about the HST was on May 25, 2009, when he ran into federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty at a finance ministers' meeting in Meech Lake, Que. He told the legislature in November that there had been no discussion at any level between finance staff and the federal government.

The e-mails clearly show that merging the GST with the B.C. PST was under active discussion among Hansen's staff prior to the election, and that talks began between staff in Ottawa and Victoria on March 26, 2009, the day the Ontario government announced its provincial budget and HST deal.

Liberal MLAs knew, or were blatantly incompetent and should have known, that B.C bureaucrats were cooking up a deal behind MLAs' backs.

We remain skeptical because it's inconceivable that bean-counting B.C. bureaucrats would enter into HST discussions with Ottawa without the knowledge of their political masters? If the politicians didn't know this was taking place, they sure as heck should have known.

To give Cantelon the benefit of the doubt, he was obviously out of the loop of the machinations taking place to bring in the HST.

How rigorously -- if at all -- he grilled Hansen, a fellow member of cabinet, about the HST will never be known due to the concept of cabinet confidentiality.

Perhaps the Parksville-Qualicum MLA had been duped like the rest of us.

It defies credulity but remains possible.

Even so, what does that say about our representative at the B.C. legislature?

Not only do these recent revelations discredit the B.C. Liberals, they further fuel Bill Vander Zalm and opponents to the HST.

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Business coalition asks court to quash anti-HST petition

Justine Hunter

Victoria — From Wednesday's Globe and Mail Published on Tuesday, Jun. 29, 2010 3:48PM EDT Last updated on Wednesday, Jun. 30, 2010 5:34AM EDT

Just as Elections BC begins to verify the names of more than 700,000 British Columbians who have signed a petition calling for the harmonized sales tax to be repealed, a coalition of business groups has asked the B.C. Supreme Court to quash the whole effort.

This week, Premier Gordon Campbell ruled out a legal challenge to the anti-HST petition, and critics swiftly accused the business community of acting as a stalking horse for his besieged Liberal government.

In court documents filed Tuesday, the business coalition argues that Elections BC should not have allowed the petition to move forward because it aims to force the province to do something it cannot – extinguish the federally created HST.

The anti-HST petition is to be delivered Wednesday to Elections BC in Victoria. The non-partisan agency has hired 35 extra staff to help check the signatures to determine whether the petition has the support of 10 per cent of eligible voters in every riding.

While that process gets under way, the business groups, including the Mining Association of British Columbia, the Coast Forest Products Association and the British Columbia Chamber of Commerce, will ask the court to set aside the petition.

“The Chief Electoral Officer erred in law and exceeded his jurisdiction,” states the writ, based on an opinion produced by former B.C. Liberal attorney-general Geoff Plant.

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B.C.'s solicitor general resigns - By BOB MACKIN, QMI Agency

VANCOUVER -- British Columbia's top cop says he is quitting because the RCMP is investigating alleged campaign financing irregularities.

Kash Heed said in a written statement that he was informed March 24 that the RCMP was investigating his successful 2009 campaign in the riding of Vancouver-Fraserview. Heed said he informed Premier Gordon Campbell on March

26 of the investigation and learned Tuesday that the RCMP wanted to interview him.

Heed retained a lawyer on Wednesday "out of abundance of caution" and claims he did no wrong.

A special prosecutor has been hired to investigate.

"The appropriate action is to step aside pending the outcome of this investigation," Heed said.

A replacement has not been named.

Heed is in his first term in provincial politics after a 30-year policing career.

The former Vancouver Police deputy chief was hired as West Vancouver Police chief in 2007. He quit in 2009 to run for the B.C. Liberals on a law and order platform in a riding vacated by attorney-general Wally Oppal.

Ex-B.C. Supreme Court judge Oppal was parachuted into the South Delta riding but narrowly lost a recount to independent Vicki Huntington.

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For further info visit Cash Heed.

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