Susan Rocks On
Province page 7 - full page ad - November 5th/08
Who paid for this full page ad that is masquerading as a news story - tiny
print at the top of the page....."special information report". Hmmmmm.....
"Focus on the Canada Line" - featuring new businesses along the line.
Certainly not the individual small businesses.
Canada Line? The CVBIA? Real Estate developers? TransLink? City of
Vancouver?
Provincial government?
Fabulous PR. When do the rest of the Small Businesses that have endured
three years of neglect and generic project promoting spin, have our full
page info-mercials in the Province forward news?
No mention of 'Dadeo's' - the last celebrated new business to come in after
Tomato left Dadeo's has been closed for two months now. Along with scores of
others.
I guess it might be a bit awkward to spin how many families have been nearly
bankrupted, and are desperately clinging to what's left of their once
successful businesses. I guess the nice new road is irrelevant when you've
already lost everything.
But hey. Things are so-oo pretty now, what with all the new park benches and
sidewalks. People will forget, right? They will forget how this Provincial
government just wiped out our life savings, and ran us over with their
Olympic train.
Breaking news. There is nothing to celebrate on Cambie until the despicable
way the small businesses have been tricked and treated is rectified with
compensation.
Money seems to be no obstacle for this project - to continue unmitigated, to
spend millions on slick ads to promote itself, and to fight any attempt from
the community for compensation for the loss of all we once had have, both in
and out of court.
Gordon Campbell even recently tossed another $53 million of taxpayer money
to Canada Line when they gambled and lost their operating funds in the
sub-prime mortgage market.
Petty cash for this bunch. But zilch for the families who invested their
lives in this community.
SNC Lavalin has millions in profits for this year - even in this economic
downturn, yet our government props them up, and stubbornly refuses any
operating money for the businesses that they destroyed.
There is no excuse for this abuse of power.
Susan Heyes
HAZEL&CO
Cambie Street
604 687-0721
3 comments:
Not only do they cough up $53 million without so much of a hiccup, but projects desperately in need of attention - like the Interurban out to the Fraser Valley or the decrepit E&N Line on the Island that needs repair - don't even get so much as a head turn from these guys!
And these are projects that would benefit almost half of BC's population!! The Interurban could serve over a million passengers in its area, and the E&N nearly as many.
But nary a word from Gordo, Falcon and Co, except to say, "show me the business case."
Gee, if their business cases include risky financial financial moves that require gov't bailouts, maybe they can get the cash too!
The worst part is that the E&N doesn't even need as much as the bailout was. They only need $30 million to bring the track up to safety standards, because the feds and private businesses have already kicked in, and they are waiting for the province to do its part!
Sorry Gordo & Co, you've lost my vote already.
And now the NPA has dipped into their purse to the tune of a HUNDRED MILLION to bail out the builders of the Olympic Village. Gee it's not what you know but who you know on council it seems. One can only assume the merchants on Cambie don't have the 'right' connections to the NPA council or the Lieberals in Victoria. Gawd but our politicians just love making secret back room in camera deals don't they. For the Cambie merchants squat and the developers gravy. Can't have any egg on the Olympics now can we.
Ah yes, but they are Campbell Liberal friends, different rules for the Liberal elites.
Now we can't have an Olympic project go bankrupt can we. It is just bad press.
And why did Estelle Lo quit? Was there something illegal about the bailout that Ladner and the NPA wanted to hide?
Cast your vote for him already? Pity.
Makes Gregor's $1.75 mistake look like chump change!
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