Wow. Things can change pretty quickly in a day. Apparently the Port Mann Bridge P3 was just too ridiculous. Jeff Nagel already has a very interesting article in the Surrey Leader on the cancellation of the public private partnership. He includes the following quote from the Partnerships BC boss Larry Blain. Critics have long said [...]
Entries from February 27th, 2009
Cancelled P3 saves $200 million
February 27th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services
Tags: P3·Port Mann·transportation
Death of a P3
February 27th, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services, Provincial budget & finance
And so the P3 financing deal for the Port Mann Super-Bridge died, conveniently right when it will get the least media coverage. Here’s the breaking news from the Sun: The province has been unable to reach a finance-arranging deal with the consortium that was to build the new Port Mann Bridge, transportation Minister Kevin Falcon [...]
Tags: P3·Port Mann·transportation
Behind the dramatic drop in the budget of the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts
February 27th, 2009 · Iglika Ivanova · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Provincial budget & finance
Budget commentators across the province (including Marc Lee on this blog) noted the lack of drastic spending cuts to government programs. While there were some cuts to the budgets of particular ministries, such as Aboriginals Relations and Reconciliation, Community Development and Finance, most of those did not seem debilitating (see Table 1.4 on p. 11 [...]
Tags: arts and culture·budget·tourism
Axing the Forest Service: The Cuts Continue
February 27th, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Well it looks like they’re getting ready to wield the axe yet again at the Ministry of Forests, and that the latest victims will join a long list of their sisters and brothers whose jobs were to protect the public interest and ensure that our publicly owned forests were responsibly managed. In its latest annual [...]
P3s? Fairly ridiculous
February 27th, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Privatization, P3s & public services
They keep moving the goal posts for using public private partnerships (P3s) in BC to procure large projects. Government officials have argued in the past that the magic bullet for P3s was the combination of risk transfer and private investment. The government transferred risk to the private sector and private companies risked losing their investment [...]
"The (not so) slow de-industrialization of the province"
February 26th, 2009 · Geoff Mann · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy, Employment & labour, Environment, resources & sustainability
Yesterday, Catalyst Paper announced the closure of the Crofton kraft pulp mill, a week after shutting the doors at its 350-employee mill in Campbell River and “restructuring” (laying off 127 workers) at its Powell River facility. That’s 850 job losses in basically one shot. It is not the first shot, either, and it definitely won’t [...]
Tags: BC Federation of Labour·Campbell River·Catalyst Paper·forestry·unemployment
Partisan claims and the BC economy
February 23rd, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy
BC’s recession and election together mean things are going to get nasty in the political realm. Already we seeing plenty of sneering commentary from our esteemed cabinet ministers. Consider this jibe from Colin Hansen, the Minister of Finance, in his annual address to the brethren of Sigma Chi: “I want you to think about one [...]
Tags: campaign·employment·inequality·Liberals·NDP·Olympics·recession·tax cuts
Where’s Our Danny Boy?
February 23rd, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Give Newfoundland Premier Danny Williams credit for leading by example and doing what no BC politician in recent years had the guts to do: force the issue on what, exactly, the public deserves by way of public returns from publicly owned resources. Williams’ well publicized decision in December to yank back AbitibiBowater’s public timber and [...]
Tags: Danny Williams·forestry·free trade·Mackenzie·Newfoundland·pulp and paper
Not the usual sceptics
February 22nd, 2009 · Keith Reynolds · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Provincial budget & finance
Scepticism about the provincial budget last week is extending beyond the usual sceptics. BC’s Credit Union Central has published its take titled “The Bandage Budget” (read here) and it is raising some questions about assumptions being presented. On the size of the possible deficit: The projected deficit in 2009/10 is small in absolute ($495 million) [...]
Tags: budget·Credit Union Central·deficit·employment·housing
Electricity Policy in BC: "Buy High – Sell Low"
February 20th, 2009 · Marvin Shaffer · Comments Off · BC Election 2009, Economy, Energy
It was only a one-liner in the budget — the government plans to spend $10 million to advance the $400 million Northwest transmission line project along Highway 37, a project it says it will develop in partnership with the private sector. But this not-so-little initiative raises major questions about electricity policy (and sustainable economic development [...]
