Successful societies are based on equitable treatment of every citizen. That is not to say that individuals must be dealt with equally, rather that fairness is always evident. Does that precept matter anymore to economic and political leaders of British Columbia and Canada? I conclude it does not. This week
Continue readingTag: BC Ferries
Northern Insight: The BC Ferry crisis is a political one
I’ll be posting more about the changes proposed by government to BC Ferries but there are a few bits of information worth throwing out before I complete a more thorough piece. While a bloated management structure continues to exist, the executives actually operating the system have suffered cutbacks. Above the
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: BC Libs Slash Ferry Service, Seniors Discounts and Will Install Slot Machines
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Recall the promises of prosperity heralded by now Premier Christy Clark. The LNG fracking and pipelines will deliver untold goodies, wealth and benefits the shameless BC Liberals proclaimed. Well folks it ain’t necessarily so! The hacking and slashing of all public funded services is underway. Routes will
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Ferry innovation? Wazzat?
With 20 directors on two boards and two well compensated ferry commissioners overseeing by far the highest priced ferry managers in the world, BC Ferries should be world leaders in innovation. Not quite. Norwegian ferry operator Fjord1 has a dozen LNG ferries in service or on order, with the largest
Continue readingNorthern Insight: On BC Ferries with Ian Jessop, CFAX1070 Nov. 1
If you cannot see the audio controls, your browser does not support the audio element Here is a list of directors that served British Columbia Ferry Services Inc. in the fiscal years 2009 through 2013. In this five year period, fees paid BCFS directors totalled over $3.3 million. According to
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Bridge for sale, cheap
Province columnist Michael Smyth is technically correct about the status of the corporation, when he writes, “B.C. Ferries is a private company that acts independently of government, even though the government still technically owns it.” But, if he believes the statement to be accurate, I’d like to offer him a
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Pushing back on the pushback
Anonymous reader argued through earlier comments that comparisons between BC Investment Management Corporation and Washington State Investment Board are inappropriate “apples and oranges.” The person attempted to justify huge increases in executive compensation because “Much of the compensation is based on results over the past 4 years.” This question was
Continue readingCowichan Conversations: BC Ferries Block 20 Year Old Woman From Ferry Over 10 Bloody Cents!
Richard Hughes-Political Blogger Rules are rules is the official line from some demented BC Ferries spinner after a rules and regulations freak would not allow a young woman on the ferry over a dime! Her ‘Experience Card’ was short a dime and rather than slip her 10 cents they required
Continue readingLeft Over: One Dime Short and a Day Late…BC Ferries Sucks
BC Ferries refuses woman 10 cents short on ferry fare Company spokesperson says the rules are the rules CBC News Posted: Jun 24, 2013 8:46 AM PT Last Updated: Jun 24, 2013 8:45 AM PT Was there no one in the line – up to give/loan this woman
Continue readingNorthern Insight: BC’s slow ferry fiasco
Heading to Vancouver Island January 4, I noted something while checking BC Ferries schedules. Here are the vessels in service today on major routes to the island: Horseshoe Bay to Nanaimo Queen of Oak Bay (built 1981) Queen of Coquitlam (1976) Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay Spirit of British Columbia (1993)
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Wazzup, ferry riders?
A few days ago, Mary Polak’s Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure announced the “B.C. coastal ferries consultation and engagement process”. They invited,
“input on considerations to achieve $26 million in savings to 2016 and input on establish…
Cowichan Conversations: BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix Speaks Truth To Vancouver Board of Trade
Richard ‘Hub’ Hughes-Political Blogger BC NDP Leader Adrian Dix is offering BC Voters, including the business community, a thoughtful and measured approach to governing after years of a troubled and polarized BC under the control of the BC Liberal government. Give him credit for showing up and speaking truth to those who have been
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Thumb in the eye of BC taxpayers
The BC Liberal policy is firmly established. Reward your important friends and give the rest – teachers, paramedics, etc. – a firm kick in the ass. Of course, agency directors and senior bureaucrats, especially ones who know where skeletons are buried, are prime beneficiaries. Remember when David Hahn “resigned” in
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Reinventing the wheel, timidly
British Columbia has established significant domestic production of natural gas and there are enormous reserves of recoverable gas newly discovered. Western Europe has identified major new gas fields and North America has vast reserves of natural gas. So has Russia and, using technology developed in the last decade, China is
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Fact free radio
Friday morning on BC Liberal radio, one of the trio assured us that BC Ferries has been cutting administration costs and its overheads had little or nothing to do with financial problems. Shall we test the accuracy of the comment? Combined passenger and vehicle traffic in 2012 is down by
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Lying like a cheap rug
Perhaps the largest barrier making re-election of Christy Clark’s government unlikely is its lack of credibility. The Liberal brain trust decided long ago that veracity should always rank behind expediency. The infamous 2001 platform document A New Era for British Columbia demonstrates that deceit was a Liberal strategy from the
Continue readingNorthern Insight: No news is likely bad news
With the first quarter of British Columbia’s current fiscal year ending, public agencies and crown corporations will soon release annual reports and audited financials for the year ended March 31, 2012. A vast quantity of money is wasted, filling these PR publications with purple prose and graphics that few persons
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Coastal discouragement
Before being elected government in 2001, BC Liberals promised to appoint an independent inquiry into the “mismanagement of BC Ferries.” That promise, like many others made by Gordon Campbell, fell by the wayside. The primary reason was that the claim of mismanagement was myth not reality. The corporation had been
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Record of lethargic indifference
Considering amounts extracted from taxpayers for BC Ferries brilliant management team, imagine the tab if they’d been competent and successful. David Hahn departed to enjoy one of the most costly pensions ever given a public servant in British Columbia. Behind, he left a faltering operation with declining ridership, mounting financial
Continue readingNorthern Insight: Raeside scores
Adrian Raeside has been drawing cartoons portraying the ferry fleet for over thirty years. From breakdowns, groundings, the Fast Ferry Fiasco, the Sunshine Breakfast, German-built ferries, the Million Dollar Man (David Hahn) and fuel surcharges, Raeside has covered it all in his unique style. The best of these hilarious and
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