Yesterday (March 21st) in a Globe and Mail Update, part of a story by Robert Matas wrote on how NDP MLA Norm MacDonald (Columbia River-Revelstoke) had a difference of opinion with Liberal Premier Christy Clark, and was calling for a full public inquiry into the government sell-off of BC Rail – this was in his MLA Report in the one of the areas local community newspapers, the Golden Star. Of course as noted in this blog, and in all media, this is something that has been ruled out by Clark - in his MLA report in the Golden Star
Apparently in his MLA Report he had indicated that the $6 million dollar Basi / Virk defense fee pay-off one of several issues to be investigated, he wrote. In the story he went on to say government was told the railway company must be sold because it was losing money, but this turned out to be an inaccurate assertion. MacDonald says, as everyone is aware, that BC Rail was not being sold but rather leased – however the term of the lease was 99 years. And third her went on to say that government and the people were told the bidding process would be fair.
It's alleged that top level BC Liberal political operatives received bribes to provide inside information to potential bidders. Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm MacDonald continued,. "While this close connection to the BC Rail scandal must be a strong disincentive for Premier Christy Clark to investigate any further, it is clear that all British Columbian's deserve to know what really happened."
Quite some time back however, BC Conservatives were calling for a Public Inquiry – as well as for the preservation of documents and files from the Basi / Virk trial -- in the hopes that there would eventually be a public inquiry.
McGrath was quoted as saying, “We are concerned about preserving the integrity of the files for a future Public or Judicial Inquiry into the sale of BC Rail, pending the next BC election. These documents should be held by Crown as we strongly believe that a judicial inquiry is required — this will not be possible if all the documents are not available.”
“The position of the BC Conservative Party is that there should be a Judicial Inquiry into the sale of BC Rail — and the Basi - Virk affair — where witnesses will be required to testify under oath. The evidence should be available to such an Inquiry”, continued McGrath.
Perhaps Christy Clark needs a refresher on a comment from then Attorney General Mike De Jong made on October 18th of last year – he stated that paying the defense fees (for the Basi / Virk lawyers) contravened normal government policy.
Oh but now Premier Clark is indicating that should situations like this arise in the future, she will walk the public through the process. Well we have the Basi Virk situation right now, and she needs to call a public inquiry into why that payment was made. .
De Jong also indicated that while Basi and Virk did pay a small amount towards their defense, the legal services branch said there was no hope government would ever see the $6 million spent on their defense by taxpayers.
Shouldn't we know just exactly how much was this ‘small amount’? Was it $100 … $1,000 … $10,000 … $100,000?”
BC Conservatives – the public – everyone for that matter -- should be continuing to demand there be a public inquiry into the matter. The whole situation stinks to the high heavens, and we as taxpayers deserve to have answers to the question that have been asked around the sale of BC Rail ... and defense payments for Basi and Virk.
I'm Alan Forseth in Kamloops, and those are the thoughts of one conservative.
No comments:
Post a Comment