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New ministers are hard-wiredby TOM FLETCHERParksville Qualicum Beach News June 15, 2009 8:00 PM Kash Heed wasted no time identifying his first priority after being sworn in as B.C.’s new top cop. “I haven’t had a good workout all week, so that’s the first thing I’m going to do,” said the buff and suddenly not-so-bold crusader for reform of the province’s patchwork police services. Then it’s lots of listening and working with senior ministry staff. He had been preceded at the microphone by Premier Gordon Campbell, who was asked if Heed’s appointment was the signal for a new MVPD, a mighty force of Metro flatfeet to tackle drug gangsters. “No,” said Campbell. What the premier meant was that RoboKash has some new programming. He is assigned to work with the existing RCMP-heavy structure, which he criticized in his days with the Vancouver and most recently West Vancouver city police. The Best Place on Earth can’t even afford forest rangers right now, let alone a risky experiment that might upset Ottawa as well as the local governments who share the bill for most police. It’s not well known how entrenched the RCMP is in B.C., but it is home to a third of its entire national force. These 9,500 people are the local police in all but 11 communities, and share with city forces the Integrated Gang Task Force, the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, Integrated Proceeds of Crime, Integrated Market Enforcement Teams, and so on. A new Metro structure would inevitably end up employing many of the same people, with the same disconnected technologies. The appointment of Kevin Falcon to head the giant health ministry “shocked” NDP leader Carole James, who warned that the partisan warrior from Surrey would take a harder line on cost cutting and privatization. Nonsense. Falcon is no more partisan than George Abbott, who took delight in contrasting his huge and growing health budget with the “dark decade” of the 1990s. And to talk of “cutting” health care, even now, is to deny the reality that it continues to absorb almost all new government spending. As for privatization, Falcon’s opening shot at the NDP for its “silly ideological arguments” about U.S.-style health care is pure Campbell, albeit delivered with a sharp edge. Campbell’s year-long “conversation on health” was aimed squarely at emulating a European-style mixed model. Falcon’s challenge, like Abbott’s, is to drive the ministry rather than have it drive him. That’s not to say Campbell calls all the shots. Like Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman before him, Forests Minister Pat Bell has brought over part of his former agriculture ministry, the Integrated Land Management Bureau. It is responsible for Bell’s cherished “ecosystem-based management” that controls the Central and North Coast, and also has an important role in managing species at risk such as the mountain caribou. Speaking of partisans, there is none more so than Shirley Bond, who vacates education to take over Falcon’s role at transportation. Does her appointment mean that Metro Vancouver’s apparent lock on big highway and transit projects is over? Not really. When you take out the federally funded and directed projects such as the Canada Line, you find that most B.C.-only spending already occurs outside the Lower Mainland. With an array of big-ticket projects already underway, Bond will largely be supervising what Falcon initiated under Campbell’s program. Perhaps the biggest winner in the new cabinet is Kootenay East’s Bill Bennett, who traded a short stint in tourism for an expanded Community and Rural Development ministry. Along with local government and regional economic development, Bennett’s job includes dealing with the mountain pine beetle, which has moved beyond a mere forestry issue. Tom Fletcher is legislative reporter and columnist for Black Press newspapers. tfletcher@blackpress.ca /////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// New stuffPlease see our new menu option for new items just added.Thank you for visiting our website. Please tell your friends about this website and come back soon. //////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Your comments are important to us. Send us mail ///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Please note that the coalition does not endorse any information that is found on our web links. ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
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Over a Barrel: Exiting from NAFTA
Last updated by David on 06/04/2008 10:29 PM (Read: 836 times)
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives recently released a report -- in partnership with our friends at the Parkland Institute in Alberta -- about oil and gas exports to the United States. Despite the fact that we are running out of natural gas, and that we import nearly half the oil we consume, NAFTA dictates Canada’s government cannot reduce the percentage of oil and gas we now export to the United States, even in times of domestic shortages. The report argues the only solution to this and other potential scenarios is for Canada to pull out of NAFTA’s “proportionality” clause. The full news release follows below... Why eat locally produced food?
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Cuz it's good for us and our world! The Campaign for BC Parks
Last updated by Ken on 11/30/2006 10:02 AM (Read: 2110 times)
British Columbia's provincial parks are an incredible natural legacy that have been protected through the efforts of thousands of people. They serve as crucial areas of protection for wildlife and habitat and valuable recreation for locals and tourists. These parks are now at risk. |
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