British Columbia’s Auditor General reported to the BC Legislature and there is interesting commentary throughout. Carol Bellringer qualified her opinion as to the fairness of the province’s financial statements and…
Chris Hedges wrote many words for the New York Times; some of them wrong. He participated in false reporting that helped orchestrate invasion of Iraq by the coalition of the…
Nearly half a million children are missing school days this year because government believes that spending restraint is imperative. Restraint in collecting taxes, at least from ordinary citizens, is not…
BC’s Minister of Energy and Mines says the $7.9 billion budget for Site C is “reliable” and the estimate of “direct construction costs” of $3.8 billion has “an 18% contingency.”…
This week, radio Station CKNW played commercials aimed at promoting public confidence in the absolute safety of Trans Mountain pipeline operations and marine shipments of petroleum products on the west…
Andrew Weaver, MLA for Oak Bay Gordon Head, spoke to the Legislature on October 9, 2014. This is an excerpt, with emphasis added: “The undeniable truth is that British Columbians…
An excellent recap of the reasons behind the call for individuals to appear before the Public Accounts Committee to explain extraordinary financial transactions. Sept 15 2014 SSC PAC Corrigan to…
A comment left by Lew on an earlier article deserves to be featured. Here is Christy Clark, the premier of our province, speaking as a radio show host just before…
Puffery is an exaggeration or overstatement expressed in broad, vague, and commendatory language. According to Law for Business (Barnes et al., 1991), “The elements of misrepresentation are ordinarily given as:…
A New York Times article, The Surprisingly Large Cost of Telling Small Lies, quotes a successful English business person about the need to confront truths, even uncomfortable ones, “…telling lies…
The Globe and Mail reported September 19, 2014: “Internal Canada Revenue Agency documents confirm the agency is cutting some of its most highly-trained staff and folding international tax evasion units……
In 2013, the consulting firm Ernst & Young was hired to review trends in compensation across the BC Public Sector. It is now available through the Legislature’s public documents. Reports…
I wrote the following article 3½ years ago. It demonstrates how little has changed. On the day George Abbott became the first Education Minister to speak at a convention of…
Surveying corporate media coverage of the education dispute, I noted a column by Vaughn Palmer that displays his particularly usefulness when BC Liberals want information distributed. More about education later…
“I see a lot of sense in the BCTF’s insistence on eliminating E80 from the package for consideration in binding arbitration… “As is true of any negotiation, the respective bargaining…
In November 2001, after NDP MLA Joy McPhail reported a government plan to increase medical service plan premiums, Canadian Press quoted Liberal Health Minister Colin Hansen, “Joy MacPhail needs a…
Recognizing that workers have the right to bargain collectively as part of their freedom to associate reaffirms the values of dignity, personal autonomy, equality and democracy that are inherent in…
I bet Jack Webster’s spirit twitches when the $175 a plate bun toss named for him recurs and this town’s higher purpose people gather to honour worthy journalists, not all…
Regular readers are aware that British Columbia’s natural gas industry provides surprisingly little return to the province by way of royalties for depleting non-renewable public assets. In the last two…
Examining British Columbia’s natural resource sector, I was surprised that public returns had declined although produced quantities increased and values rose exponentially. Not long ago, British Columbia thrived on resource…
