Norm Farrell calls a spade a spade, always has. The handling of the Site C Dam project has been an exercise in deceit and conflict from the outset. Both the BC NDP and BC Read more… The post BC HYDRO Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead first appeared on richardhughes.ca.
Continue readingAuthor: Norm Farrell
Northern Insight / Perceptivity: Smile
[View the story “Sleepwalken the plank” on Storify]
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: NEB – not what government claims it to be
Greg Rickford, Conservative Minister of Natural Resources Canada, a lawyer with eight months experience running a department of government, spoke recently about the National Energy Board at the Economic Club of Canada. “We have got to have an independent, arms-length board, panel and process that makes science and fact-based decisions
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Similarities, including the price
For roughly the same amount Pavco paid for modifications to BC Place, Poland built, from the ground up, Stadion Narodowy, an 58,145 seat arena and conference centre with similar retractable roof technology and parking under the heated, natural grass pitch for almost 2,000 cars. It opened in January 2012. There
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Heroes and victims
Being troubled by patriotic zealotry and glorification of war, I feel vaguely discomforted by Remembrance Days, particularly when craven politicians take centre stage at memorials. While struggling to find words that conveyed my reservations, I read Stephen Lautens. He mastered the expression that eluded me, offering indisputable truths with Wars,
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: If the numbers are not known, invent them
Reviewing BC Ferries financial statements this week, I was reminded of a radio interview I heard early in the tenure of the current BC Ferries CEO. That was shortly after he banked a $200,000 bonus, provided to him by the ferry corporation because he was not going to collect bonuses
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Solar power heating up
Here comes the sun, Mother Jones, November 2014 “Last week, an energy analyst at Deutsche Bank came to a startling conclusion: By 2016, solar power will be as cheap or cheaper than electricity from the conventional grid in every state except three. That’s without any changes to existing policy. In
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Special treatment for special friends
Andrew MacLeod of The Tyee is reporting that BC Government officials aim to exempt natural gas producers from requirements they contribute to an industry fund that would pay to clean up toxic spills. “The gas sector would be exempt through a system that redefined what substances would be described as
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: NEB sham exposed
It is been long apparent that the National Energy Board is not an industry regulator. It is an industry facilitator that is staffed by people who serve the fossil fuel industry and work to deflect public concern about whatever projects industry plans. Scroll down through previous Northern Insight articles about
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Should BC taxpayers promote fossil fuels?
If British Columbia continues to encourage the production and transport of coal, gas and oil, we are blowing poisons into the faces of earth’s future generations. I know something about that, I did it to my children. When a young adult, I smoked tobacco. Initially, it was an effort to
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Northern Insight / Perceptivity 2014-10-29 22:45:00
[View the story “Gary Mason on Manitoba NDP” on Storify]
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Different ways, different results
Note 11 from a study by John Calvert and Marjorie Griffith Cohen of Simon Fraser University, Climate Change and the Canadian Energy Sector: “In this regard it is interesting to compare the approach of Alberta with Norway. While the timing of their respective production rates varies, both jurisdictions have produced
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: "…A lot more electricity being needed."
British Columbians are fortunate to be guided by wise and experienced leaders, people able to analyze events and foresee the future in ways that more practised experts cannot. One of my favourites is Bill Bennett, a man particularly qualified to make decisions on how the public ought to spend tens
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Ready, fire, aim
Andrew MacLeod provided the title above in a Thursday Tweet linking to his column in The Tyee. Slots on Ferries a Complicated Bet, Warned Finance Ministry: “After Transportation Minister Todd Stone announced BC Ferries’ proposal to put slot machines on its vessels last year, the finance ministry began compiling a
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Official opposition on resource development
John Horgan in the Legislature, October 8, 2014: “…Three years ago the Premier told B.C. families that she would make B.C. a leader in private sector job creation. Three years later we’re No. 9. When it comes to LNG, three years ago she said we’d create 100,000 jobs, we’d eliminate
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Words and meanings
BC Liberal Throne Speech: “The core services this government provides need to be protected, and the inescapable truth is that they can only be protected if we can afford them.” Translation: The core services this government provides [ like subsidizing business, funding the Premier’s trips and photo ops, employing hundreds
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Repeaters, not reporters
Ever notice that corporate media seems to speak with one voice? On balance – or rather, on lack-of-balance – they do. It is the voice of big business. Vaughn Palmer, with American shale gas boom a major threat to B.C. exports, is the latest columnist lobbing fat pitches into the
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Pretending less is known than we know
At times, I wonder if mainstream political journalism in BC is written by the uninformed for the uninformed. Gary Mason provided an example to consider when he commented on the latest threat directed at BC Liberals by Petronus, an Asian energy company. “While senior officials in the government tried to
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: $6.2 million inducement ended BCR corruption trial
A study¹ reported in the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology examined plea bargaining and innocence. It revealed, “…that more than half of the innocent participants were willing to falsely admit guilt in return for a benefit. These research findings bring significant new insights to the long-standing debate regarding the
Continue readingNorthern Insight / Perceptivity: Reporters as stenographers
Two years ago, the corporate media published headlines about ferry subsidies. This report, which came during fiscal year 2013, was enough to stir the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation into action. They warned that subsidies to business might have to be cut if government wasted more money on citizens. CTF did not
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