Sunday, August 10, 2008
Saturday, August 9, 2008
Have They No Shame?
Apparently not.
Almost doubling the salaries of deputy ministers in the BC government seems a reasonable and appropriate action for Mr. Campbell.
Except that he tried to sneak this offense in under the cover of the opening of the Beijing Olympics.
Well, it isn't reasonable or appropriate to most of us.
Most glaring of all is the listed salary of one Leslie du Toit. She is the deputy children's minister. Her salary last year - and now about to climb considerably - is $234, 180.
This is a ministry that is utterly dysfunctional.
It is a department that is outright dangerous in its disregard for suffering children.
This is the ministry that, using the most sophist benchmarks unimaginable, is eager to cut off support for children who may have an IQ of 71 and therefore be way too smart for support.
Jim Sinclair points out that we have the lowest minimum wage in the country and that number has been on ice for over seven years.
Mike Farnworth says, "I don't know what planet the premier's living on, but it's not the one that the rest of us are. At a time when we're being hit by carbon gas-tax increases, high ferry cost increases, higher fuel increases, tolls on bridges, increased housing costs -- the premier's deputy gets an $105,000 increase? I'm supremely ticked off."
Just the Facts, Ma'am
Light Rail Guy has left a new comment on your post "Bus service may be halved: TransLink":
Here are some facts that may further contribute to the TransLink fiasco.
- Expo Line rebuild + 10 km. extension in Surrey - $3 billion.
- Cost of SkyTrain to build - almost $200 million a km.
- Cost of Véléz Malaga (Spain) new LRT - $7 million a km.
- Cost of Canada Line subway - $2.5 billion+
- Capacity of Canada line subway as built - 15,000 persons per hour per direction.
- Cost of LRT on Arbutus Corridor - $20 million to $25 million a km.
- Capacity of LRT on Arbutus Corridor - 20,000 persons per hour per direction.
- Capacity promised with the SkyTrain Expo Line - 30,000 pphpd
- Capacity by contract, Millennium Line - 26,000
- Capacity of Expo Line, delivered - under 15,000 pphpd.
- Maximum capacity achieved by Hong Kong's Tuen Mun (at-grade) LRT - 25,000 pphpd.
- Estimated cost of a Vancouver to Steveston LRT (using the Arbutus Corridor) - $800 million.
- Operational costs of SkyTrain is about twice of that of LRT.
- Lifespan of LRT line before refurbishment 30 to 50 years.
- Lifespan of SkyTrain line before refurbishment - about 30 years.
Cities operating LRT - over 600
Cities operating SkyTrain - 5
It seems SkyTrain and its very high costs are strangling TransLink, yet we build more!
Friday, August 8, 2008
Bus service may be halved: TransLink
Apropos of my Transit post this morning, try this:
Frank Luba
The Province
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Looming cuts at TransLink are a big concern for bus drivers' union boss Don
MacLeod.
"It's always the bus service they go to first," said MacLeod, president of
Local 111 of the Canadian Auto Workers.
"We make all these commitments and promises but we have no money to support
it," he said of TransLink plans.
Provincial legislation requires TransLink to have a balanced budget, so when
its accumulated surplus of $400 million runs out in 2011, there will have to
be $150 million annually in cuts.
For "simplicity," according to the transportation authority's recently
passed 10-year transportation and financial plan, that massive cut is
achieved by cutting more than half the region's bus services.
There are 4.181 million bus-service hours scheduled for 2008 and that total
is projected to grow to 4.722 million by 2011. In 2012, and out to 2018,
that number is chopped to 2.122 million.
"If expenditure reductions are required, we would effect a reduction through
a combination of reduced bus service, roads funding and administration and
program support costs," reads the plan.
The bus service, which carries about 80 per cent of transit users,
represents the biggest opportunity for cuts with an expected expenditure in
2011 of $668 million.
TransLink spokesman Ken Hardie identified annual administration costs at $48
million to $49 million and funding for the road network at $55 million.
"Ultimately, there's not nearly enough money in those budgets to offset the
$150 million," said Hardie.
"Our goal is to not cut anything."
But unless a ready source of ongoing funding materializes, there have to be
cuts.
"After 2011, we'd have to find $150 million in savings somewhere," said
Hardie. "Some would come from programs and some would come from service."
There was a huge outcry in 2001 when TransLink cut just 160,000 hours of
service in response to not getting its reviled vehicle levy approved.
Looking for a Miracle
Hi Jesse
What has happened here in Fairview along the Canada Line route - in a
democracy that is brimming with money for every Olympic whim of our
Premier - is a travesty.
It was preventable and most definitely undemocratic.
The world will be watching, and looking for examples of the consequences
both good and bad of bringing the games to our city. After three years of
suffering, and of having our concerns dismissed then whitewashed with pretty
banners, this Liberal totalitarian regime could still do the right thing and
reimburse us for this negligence.
There is no excuse for the meanspirited abuse of power that has resulted in
the near collapse of all we have built up over years.
I am already talking to foreign press who are very interested in stories
from small businesses - like the one about the hardworking, tax paying,
involved in the community single mom who was forced to take the unthinkable
step of legal action against every level of government - while losing
hundreds of thousands of dollars and nearly losing her 25 year old
business - lied to and continually mislead about a several Billion dollar
way over budget transportation project that was funded, rammed through and
rubber stamped by the government as part of the bid to win the 2010 games.
Film at eleven.
Nothing for Canada (Line) to be proud of - especially in a democracy.
Dr. MacDiarmid understands fully the effectiveness of timely preventative
medicine. The families along the Canada Line route were given a fistfull of
costly placeboes, and have been left to die by the roadside.
The cure for RAV disease is available, and still within the grasp of a
person with itegrity and courage who is trained to assess and heal.
Dr. MacDiarmid has what it takes to be this person.
The malpractice that has occured here will not be forgotten any time soon -
until the appropriate treatment is dispensed. Money. Credit. Rehabilitation.
And in an IV transfused directly into our life's work. The autopsy results
are conclusive.
While the good doctor is making her rounds in our neighbourhood, she will no
doubt be mindful of the consequenses of ignoring the oath to "do no harm".
I guess we're looking for a miracle.
In the meantime I will continue to press forward my legal case for full
compensation.
Regards
Susan Heyes
Hazel&Co
3190 Cambie Street
Vancouver BC
604 687-0721
A Breast of the Times
This is Vancouver's idea of a controversy.
Mothers breast feeding in a clothing store.
Yah, world class city.
Oy.
Would everyone please grow up.
Quote of the Day
Hedy Fry calls her political position "energetic, progessive thinking."
This worst of all MP's in living memory has been elected and re-elected five times.
She has shamelessly courted the gay community in the West End and accomplished nothing substantive of which we are aware.
When will people, gay, straight or purple, realize that simply having some fool gush over you does not mean that he or she has something real to offer. In fact, it is usually a guarantee of the opposite. POepl with real policies feel no need to salivate.
Justice Mockeries on Parade
House arrest for a Hell's Angel associate dealing cocaine.
Oh, and no guns please, sir.
Duh?
Tom Sandborn, filling in for vacationing Allen Garr in the Courier, reminds us that Mayor Sullivan promised to reduce Translink fares.
Of course, that never happened.
Instead, fares have risen and service continues to decline.
The Premier's carbon tax is a long-winded route to a cleaner environment. It doesn't work.
Reduce transit fares, improve service at whatever cost. That's why we already pay taxes.
Then more people will ride the system.
World Class Chumps
Vaughn Palmer's recounting of Campbell and Co being utterly hoodwinked by a con man and scheister is so hysterical you simply have to read it to believe it.
In honor of which, you will find below Robert Preston and the original stage company's lusty version of "76 Trombones" from "The Music Man," an homage to con men and country hicks everywhere.
Thursday, August 7, 2008
M.D. - Me Doctor!
"Never marry a doctor!"
Those words of wisdom came from one of the most beautiful, accomplished women I've ever met.
She and two of her friends had dreadful experiences dating doctors. All three women found doctors to be arrogant, self-absorbed shmocks.
"They think they're God. How much fun can that be on a daily basis? At the clinic, they play with life and death and everyone answers to their every whim. Then they come home...and HELLO!"
These warnings came to mind this morning as I was reading the story about the local bones who won't treat a child because they can't get along with her parents.
Huh?
Some doctors treat patients in the midst of gunfire, famine, flood, insurgency.
Then there's this home-grown group of geniuses who expect everyone to be nice.
Here's the telling moment.
Dr. Doug Cochrane, vice-president of medicine for BC Children's Hospital no less, writes, "Everyone is trying to do the right thing, but faith, trust and honoring the expertise of the doctors is important."
Ah, yes.
Where in the
Hippocratic Oath
does is say something about treating children only when they have lovely, cooperative parents?Get over it, Doctors. Do your job. Treat the patient, who, in case, you haven't noticed is a helpless child.
Next!
When I read this morning that 3 NDP MLA'a would not be returning at the end of this term, I thought this was a clear sign of trouble at the ranch.
I shouldn't have been surprised then to read Vaughn Palmer saying much the same thing in his column abut retiring MLA David Chudnovsky.
The elephant in the room that is not being openly discussed is the leadership of Carole James.
I admire James. I think she's a gutsy and smart and interesting person.
But in politics one either has "the Royal Jelly" or one doesn't.
James doesn't.
The provincial pickings are almost ripe.
Enough citizens are tired of the Campbell signature and serious gains if not an outright win is there for the plucking.
But this will most likely not happen with Carole James leading the NDP into the next election.
Adrian Dix?
Jim Sinclair?
Wednesday, August 6, 2008
New Blog Policy
After considerable consideration, I have decided that I will no longer publish other people's columns on this blog.
I will however point to a column from time to time in the same way that I point to a news story.
This evening, for example, I would encourage you to read Justice Wallace Craig's excellent piece published today in the North Shore News.
It is about holding politicians and police accountable, and it comes from a particularly informed and thoughtful position.
Where there is smoke...
A friend has breast cancer.
She is taking the usual round of radiation and chemo.
The chemo makes her sick.
Two bites of a marijuana cookie and the nausea is gone.
I have absolutely no problem with that.
Marijuana, in this case, is an analgesic, as legitimate at ASA, morphine, codeine or any other pain reliever.
I smoked marijuana when I was a young man. Lots of marijuana. It was great fun. I danced and laughed and indulged my senses.
I stopped using alcohol and drugs when I was 26. Just flat stopped.
Today, I might have a small glass of wine with dinner once a month.
But...
I am not cruising around a drug dealing house in my car filled with bags of dope, ready for the sale.
This was the circumstance in a recent case now thrown out of court.
Selling marijuana is against the law. It is also a huge industry. It is also violent and volatile and dangerous to the participants and to innocent citizens who happen to be nearby.
So the Delta police stop this guy because he is cruising, etc and they smell what seems like pot and they search the car and Bingo!
But, no. No, says the Provincial Court judge - accent on Provincial.
What the Delta police did was conduct an illegal search based on a "hunch."
And what the judge did was safeguard the dope dealer's rights of privacy.
No consideration, of course, for my right to live in a drug and violence-free community.
The courts in general have ruled, we learn, that just because a cop smells pot smoke, that doesn't mean there's anything illegal going on here.
Look, kids...
I smell pot smoke walking down the street at least once a week.
I don't care if little Benny and June College student want to get wacked this afternoon. Good luck to them.
But I care A LOT if Donny Dealer wants to set up shop next door to me. I care if guns are blazing in the night. We are talking here about big money, big, illegal money and the grief that follows.
The courts continue to be an ass.
The courts continue to NOT reflect the sentiments of the community.
The courts continue to make of justice a vaudeville.
For shame.
Crazy to Kill?
The Greyhoud Headchopper stabbed a total stranger numerous times, cut off his head and then cannibalized him.
Charge? Second degree murder.
What kind of knife are you carrying at this moment? How big is it?
The killer came on the bus pre-armed. Mayhem was his script.
This was premeditation and calls for first degree murder.
Now, the psychiatrists and psychologists will salivate all over him and release their scholarly findings.
But ordinary citizens, armed with common sense and single syllable words, understand the reality here, even if the professionals and the courts do not.
Life without parole, ever. 'Bye Bye.
Tuesday, August 5, 2008
The War to Help Drug Lords
It has long been my position that Canada should not be sending troops into harm's way to support a drug culture in Afghanistan.
This morning's NY Times editorial agrees calling the country a "narco-state."
America
You might think that race is no longer an issue in America.
You'd be wrong.
Check out this cautionary tale about the upcoming Democratic convention in Denver.
Scary.
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