BC Budget

[inane]

It only looks fishy if one is unfamiliar with the history of the HST negotiations.

It was public knowledge that the BC government had been speaking for many years about harmonization with the feds - going back to the BC NDP government. It was regularly included in the Finance Ministry annual reports.

The two major sticking points were the transitional costs and the lack of independence in making changes to the BC portion of the harmonized tax. Both those obstacles were removed with the Ontario deal and BC was then offered the same deal on a short fuse after the election.

[Wetcoaster]

Yeah, it just happened that right after the election they able to totally overhaul the tax in short order after saying it wasn't on their radar just before. Nothing odd about that, it was just great luck!

[inane]

Nope. Timing. Luck had nothing to do with it.

[Wetcoaster]

Totally, it was just great timing. I mean to say something is not on your radar right before an election, and then to have events occur right after the election that let you put that smack in the middle of your radar and then into action in short order is just great timing.

[inane]

So you finally grasp what occurred.

It is only a conspiracy if you wear a tin foil hat and disregard the facts. Congratulations on doffing the shiny hat.

[RUPERTKBD]

Put it this way: At the start of the thread, it was all comments of "Campbell lied about the HST".

Now, once the actual timeline has been laid out for those who bought into the Zalm/NDP propoganda, it's now cries of: "It looks fishy"....

[inane]

Put it this way: At the start of the thread, it was all comments of "Campbell lied about the HST".

Now, once the actual timeline has been laid out for those who bought into the Zalm/NDP propoganda, it's now cries of: "It looks fishy"....

[aGENT]

Totally, you're totally right and I am in no way being sarcastic about any of this. It was just the timing gods smiling down on the Liberals.

[RUPERTKBD]

who cares. the damage is done.

[inane]

I care. It seems like a lot of people are unaware of the role the NDP played in causing this "damage" you speak of.

What about the budget?

[Langdon Algur]

It only looks fishy if one is unfamiliar with the history of the HST negotiations.

It was public knowledge that the BC government had been speaking for many years about harmonization with the feds - going back to the BC NDP government.  It was regularly included in the Finance Ministry annual reports.

The two major sticking points were the transitional costs and the lack of independence in making changes to the BC portion of the harmonized tax.  Both those obstacles were removed with the Ontario deal and BC was then offered the same deal on a short fuse after the election.

[RUPERTKBD]

Do you honestly think things changed that dramatically post election?  

[inane]

Not only do I think so, I know so. Post election, the offer of transition money was made by the feds. If you don't think 1.6 billion dollars is a "dramatic" change, then I don't know what to say...

[Wetcoaster]

And now more of the wrongdoing blessed by the previous NDP government is coming home to roost and BC taxpayers may well be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Back in 1988 a BC Hydro subsidiary known as Powerex was created to trade energy. No problem until under Glen Clark BC Hydro became highly politicized with the appointment of long time BC NDP insider John Laxton as chair of BC Hydro and Clark having his fingers directly in the pie by virtue of his personal delegate who was... wait for it... Adrian Dix Chief of Staff the noted forger. Dix attended the meetings on behalf of Glen Clark when the scheme was hatched but we are supposed to believe that nothing was known of this by the Premier?

What ensued is known as "Hydrogate" - a scandal involving the Raiwind power project in Pakistan.

As Rafe Mair noted:

Mr Laxton is a talented man – you’d have to be to be a multi millionaire land developer and a socialist at the same time. But Mr Laxton has done it.

Three years ago plus Mr Laxton was the Chairman of B.C. Hydro when the so-called Hydrogate scandal was unearthed. In the course of events arising out of this Mr Laxton – and there is no other word for it – lied. He lied through his teeth. He said that he had not personally invested in IPC, a private company incorporated to become a partner of BC Hydro to develop the Raiwind project in Pakistan. Mr Laxton, through a company had invested and so had his family.

Mr Laxton also denied three times that he knew anything about three other British Virgin Island companies which had also bought shares – 8 days later he was forced to admit that he and his son-in-law, Richard Coglon were behind these companies.

And as Vaughn Palmer would write John Laxton became a sacrifical lamb when the story broke:

The Raiwind power project was an ill-fated partnership-cum-offshore tax dodge involving BC Hydro and a dubious operator in Pakistan. When news of it broke on the eve of the 1996 election, Clark fired the NDP-appointed Hydro chair John Laxton and later president John Sheehan as well.

Both would later testify that Dix, acting as Clark's eyes and ears, had attended most of the Hydro board meetings where the partnership was discussed and approved.

http://www.canada.co...230f2521&k=8094

Just ancient history you say???

Unfortunately the improper actions of BC Hydro continued under the NDP and as a result today it is being reported that BC taxpayers look to be taking it in the neck for manipulation of the energy market during the 2000 California energy crisis.

B.C. taxpayers could be on the hook for hundreds of millions of dollars after a U.S. judge’s ruling that found massive market manipulation in the California electricity market in 2000.

The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission judge said the companies responsible included Powerex, a wholly owned subsidiary of BC Hydro.

California’s chaotic summer of 2000 saw waves of rolling blackouts and sky- high electricity prices and the state's Public Utilities Commission has long claimed that companies like Powerex manipulated the market for record profits.

"It's an extraordinarily important case for California and a big victory really for the consumers in California,” said Frank Lindh, the commission’s general counsel.

The judge's initial decision, released this week, cited some 20,000 violations and affects about a dozen companies. But Lindh said Powerex and Canadian firm TransAlta were among the biggest players.

If the commission accepts the ruling, as Lindh told CBC News he expects will happen, the companies will owe Californians $1 billion in refunds, plus $600 million interest.

About 30 other companies have settled for $3 billion so far, Lindh said.

BC Hydro was unavailable for comment Wednesday night.

http://www.cbc.ca/ne...rex-ruling.html

However this amount pales in comparison to what BC taxpayers could be on the hook for in terms of moneys due aboriginal bands because the previous NDP government failed to protect BC's interests in aboriginal land claims litigation. Figure billions of dollars here and that is just the beginning.

A little history.

When BC signed the terms to enter Confederation there were a number of issues - a railway , debt, etc. And one of those matters was that the feds would upon BC entering Confederation be wholly responsible for any aboriginal people in BC from that point forward. BC had very few treaties with aboriginals (basically what are referred to as the Douglas treaties after Governor Sir James Douglas who had concluded them on behalf of the British Crown). Only 14 treaties on Vancouver Island had been signed, and aboriginal title to the rest of the province was left unresolved.

And that is how things proceeded for pretty much a century. BC had taken the position that any aboriginal rights had been extinguished upon BC entering Confederation but if they had not then any settlement was the sole responsibility of the feds - hard to argue with since that is what our Constitution provided as well as BC Terms of Union. And numerous court cases throughout the years supported BC's arguments.

Then came patriation of the Constitution and the Charter of Rights in which aboriginal rights were in effect entrenched as a third order of government. Again BC was not concerned as they had been assured that these aboriginal rights remained solely a federal responsibility.

And then came the case of Delgamuukw v. British Columbia. At the provincial trial court and Court of Appeal the historical BC position was put forward and accepted by the courts. During this time the Socreds were in government and more to the point BC Deputy AG Mel Smith was running the litigation. BC was on solid legal footing as the BC Court of Appeal ruled in 1993.

http://www.courts.go...93bcca0400.html

The case was appealed to the SCOC but there was a major change. The BC NDP came to power and they not only decided to roll over and play dead in respect of extinguishment of aboriginal rights, they abandoned the legally sound position that if there was to be any settlement that was matter for the feds and anything that BC was to contribute (land, resources, etc,) was to be compensated back to the province. YIKES.

With no real opposition the SCOC ruled that aboriginal title is a right to the land itself-not just the right to hunt, fish and gather. Crown title refers to the provincial or the federal government's interest in land. Almost all Crown land in BC is held by the province. Delgamuukw confirmed that aboriginal title was never extinguished in BC and therefore still exists; it is a burden on Crown title; and when dealing with Crown land the government must consult with and may have to accommodate First Nations whose rights are affected. See Delgamuukw v. British Columbia, [1997] 3 S.C.R. 1010:

http://scc.lexum.org...dXVrdwAAAAAAAAE

As a result of this massive miscalculation by the BC NDP, BC taxpayers are going to be writing blank cheques for the foreseeable future.

So no thanks to yet another BC Dipper exercise in mis-administration, BC taxpayers are already on the hook because of past BC Dipper governments - we cannot afford anymore screw-ups.

[Wetcoaster]

Doesn't change the fact that it was obviously on their radar, they just couldn't/wouldn't act on it.

[Gurn]

The people believed they had been lied to. They knew it would cost more to switch back but chose to force the government to undue the lie. They did this because it is better to be doing the right thing, even if it now costs you more.

you don't let your kids lie, or shoudn't anyway. Why let the government get a way with it?

[aGENT]

Doesn't change the fact that it was obviously on their radar, they just couldn't/wouldn't act on it.

[inane]

The whole powerex thing is a joke. California needed energy, we sold it to them. Did we milk them? Yes, but they paid, that's capitalism baby.

[Wetcoaster]

The people believed they had been lied to. They knew it would cost more to switch back but chose to force the government to undue the lie. They did this because it is better to be doing the right thing, even if it now costs you more.

you don't let your kids lie, or shoudn't anyway. Why let the government get a way with it?

[inane]

Let's stay on topic shall we. Talking about the NDP to mask how horribly the Liberals are doing is a great trick, but this is about the Liberal budget.