I could say more, however a Letter to the Editor in the Langley Advance said it best ...

I noted two news stories of interest in the papers today.  In the Victoria Times Colonist a headline stated, “$782-million sewage fix left in limbo  -- Treatment system falls two years behind as B.C. and Ottawa play waiting game” … while the Vancouver Courier had a headline saying, “Basi - Virk first anniversary renews calls for inquiry -- B.C. Liberal government paid $6 million legal bills”

Two different stories, but both again highlighting the discontent of British Columbians.

In the Times Colonist news story, writers Kim Westad and Rob Shaw, have indicated the sewage treatment system is going to be at least two years behind schedule.  Why???  Apparently the provincial government has not committed in writing to funding the $782-million project that it ordered must be done.  BC Liberal cabinet minister Ida Chong says that the federal government must commit to funding the project before it steps in, which according to the writers is a, ‘…change in policy that worries several members of the Capital Regional District board.’

The story goes on to quote Judy Brownoff, former chairwoman of the region's sewage committee,  as saying, ‘… Chong's comments are a change from what the CRD has been told from the start, and contrary to clear information from the federal government a year ago.’

So what’s the bottom line? 

THIS WEEKS NEWS ROUND-UP

It’s Friday, the weekend is upon us, and here are some of the political stories that made the news this week:

BC Hydro caught in crosshairs of Clark’s populist push
Current Premier Christy Clark has put short-term politics first, ordering the Crown corporation to scale back its plans to the bare minimum to keep rate increases in check.  Trouble is, B.C. is looking at attracting massive investments – billions upon billions of dollars – in mining, shale gas and liquefied natural gas facilities. All are huge consumers in power. 

The decisions made now at BC Hydro will decide if those industries are going to be developed with renewable energy, or if they will burn natural gas, spewing millions of tonnes of greenhouse-gas emissions into the atmosphere.

Penny-pinching B.C. Liberals bank on Clark appeal
The latest polls show Clark is way more popular than her own party, so the Liberals want to capitalize on her personal appeal … her government is broke, and Clark can't go on a spending spree unless she does one of two things: go into debt or raise taxes … here's an even bigger concern for Clark: Going into debt or raising taxes could anger right-wing supporters in her own party, and drive them over to John Cummins and the B.C. Conservatives.

BC Conservative leader talks lower taxes, less government in Dawson Creek
“We’re going to stick to principles. We’re going to emphasize the fact that government in British Columbia has to get smaller and we have to use the tax dollars we have more efficiently and effectively,” he said.

The province simply can’t afford to have your BC Liberals in office for one more term

WOW … I honestly have to say I cannot believe the BC Liberal Party.  Adrian Dix, leader of the BC NDP was here in Kamloops Wednesday, and of course they have some pretty interesting ideas about taxation.

What got me though was the out and out continuous baffle goop that the Liberals put forward to us.  It’s as if they believe if they tell the same crap often enough, people are going to believe it.

Before I continue though, here is that media release from the BC Liberals – the highlighted areas in bold have been noted by me

October 12th -- THE TAXMAN COMETH

KAMLOOPS – Adrian Dix, the chief architect of the 1990’s NDP government, is in town and it’s time for him to be honest about his plan to recklessly raise taxes to pay for pet projects and reward his public sector union bosses.

Canadian Taxpayers Federation; “Balance the BC budget”

For your information ... the following story is posted on the website for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.  It scares me because various versions of this information is showing up more and more, not just from the taxpayers federation, but in the mainstream media as well.

“A billion here, a billion there, pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

U.S. senator Everett Dirksen gets credit for the saying, but the B.C. Liberal government could just as easily lay claim to it – running the province’s public debt from $34 billion to nearly $48 billion in ten years in office.

Interest costs will top $2.3 billion this year, more than $500 for every man, woman, and child in the province. That’s more than we spend on our entire university and college system. It’s more than double the cost of the entire provincial Pharmacare programme. With interest costs running at $6.3 million at day, we need to send the politicians in Victoria a wake-up call.

In 2009, Premier Gordon Campbell said, "I hate budget deficits; I think they take away from future generations."

While running for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party in early 2011, both now-Premier Christy Clark and now-Finance Minister Kevin Falcon committed to balancing the budget by 2013/14 "or sooner," as Clark said.

Still, the provincial debt has grown $5 billion dollars. By the end of March 2012, the government’s own forecast shows total debt hitting $52.4 billion, then $55.9 billion in 2013.

When you run your credit card to the limit, you soon get a bill in the mail, and B.C. is beginning to experience the hangover from this borrowing binge of Olympic proportions. It’s time to tell B.C. politicians that we’re cutting up their credit card – the sooner we balance the budget, the sooner we can start paying down debt.

As the Canadian Taxpayers have suggested, I would also like to encourage you to tell Premier Christy Clark, Finance Minister Kevin Falcon, and our MLA’s to get on with balancing the budget and start paying down the debt.  They should be doing that rather than making interest payments, to service the cost of government debt, in the neighbourhood of $6 to $7 million dollars a day!

Christy Clark (Premier of British Columbia)

Phone:  (250) 387-1715     

Email: premier@gov.bc.ca

Kevin Falcon (BC Minister of Finance)

Phone:  (250) 387-3751     

Fax: (250) 387-5594

Email: Fin.Minister@gov.bc.ca

You can also use the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia websites MLA Finder to contact your local MLA in the riding you live in.

GOOGLE and a tale of “bc liberal doublespeak”

I was taking a look yesterday, at where some of the people being referred to my Conservative Thoughts blog are coming from.  One thing happened to catch my attention, and that was a referral for Google’s search engine – it was for the search term “bc liberal doublespeak”

Now I have to admit the search term did intrigue me – first of all wondering what story it was I had written that had caused the blog to pop up in Google’s search engine … but also wondering who else may have written something on that as well.

Guess what, when I checked that search term in Google, there were over 23 million (23,100,000) results that came up in one quarter (0.25) of a second.  Seems like that has been something often written, and thought about, when it comes to our BC Liberal government.

By now you are probably wondering about the top stories that came up when I searched for “bc liberal doublespeak” … so here they are for you to read and review:

DOUBLESPEAK SHOWS B.C. LIBERALS CAN’T BE TRUSTED ON GAMING GRANTS

The BC Liberals are creating yet more uncertainty for BC’s non-profit sector by continuing to speak out of both sides of their mouths when it comes to gaming grants, say New Democrats.

Good government is important to us all ... especially for the future of our own kids and grandkids

Recently, a classmate from my school days in Williams Lake said to me:

“Facebook is supposed to be a pleasant social networking site to share your daily life, keep track of old friends and family. It is not a political forum to share all of your beliefs with the world. I'm sure you have a nice life besides politics but no one would ever know that”

I thought about that for a while, and then responded by saying,

I appreciate your comments.  There is a lot that makes up my social life ... music I love ... family ... daily things like the paint job currently underway ... getting out on my bike … and ... politics which is bred into me cause it goes back 3 or 4 generations. Politics is a big part of what I talk about ... but it is important to me and that's why I talk about it. Until a year ago I had become part of the 50% that had pretty much given up --- BUT when we end up with those kind of numbers that keep growing, eventually we will end up with anarchy or a government we are surprised to have and that dictates everything we can or cannot do. I hope you can humour me in my passion ... good government is important to us all ... especially for the future of our own kids and grandkids :)

I have been thinking about this brief conversation since then, and I know why.  When it comes to having a social conscience, a lot of what this government is doing is wrong, and I believe it is important that people know about it.

And it’s not just me thinking and saying that what they are doing is wrong; the following are just a few of the voices that are trying to get that news out to each of us.  I hope you’ll take a few minutes to read on …

A tale of two billion five hundred and fifty five million misspent dollars

For the past few days now I have been trying to find out what the average cost would be to staff, provide equipment, and maintain, etc the average hospital operating room in British Columbia.   I haven't been able to get an answer, but I have spent a few hours on Google Search trying.

So why, you ask, was I trying to find this out??  Well I happen to be one of those people in BC who is concerned with the debt being racked up by successive Liberal governments in our province.  Most people, I believe, have no idea what our debt is, but that information is actually quite easy to find. 

For example, there is the BC governments Fiscal Plan (2011/12 to 2013/14), which was presented to the legislature on May 3^rd, 2011.  At that time, here is what Christy Clark and our BC Liberal government estimated the provincial debt will be this year ... and over the next 2 budget years.

                                                    Budget Estimates

Provincial debt:                        2011/12                  2012/13            2012/14

Direct operating debt …………         8,763                      9,267                  8,599

Taxpayer-supported debt …        36,816                    39,162                 40,500

Self-supported debt ……………      16,271                    18,060                 19,505

Total debt (in billions)          $53,437 (billion)    57,572                 60,355

Nearly 53 and a half billion in debt this year ... 57 and a half billion next year ... and an estimated total debt of 60 billion two years from now.  That's a lot of money, and trying to get a concept of what billions of dollars are, is not that easy.  We can make it easier to comprehend however, by looking at what it costs to service those billions of dollars of debt.  That is, the cost of the interest payment being made on those BILLIONS of dollars.