The BC Shell Game of Public Funds

In the 2013 BC Election, the Liberal party pledged the LNG industry would create $1 trillion in economic activity and a $100 billion prosperity fund. Tagline - "It's no fantasy"

Martyn Brown, Gordon Campbell’s former Chief of Staff, reckons Christy Clark and the BC Libs were 'patsies', repeatedly 'duped' by petro industry's sparkling promises of new investments, lots of jobs, and an endless supply of unicorn meat.

Sure, let's go with 'duped'.

"It is difficult to get a premier to understand something," as Upton Sinclair might have put it, "when her salary depends on her not understanding it."

BC In-Sights blogger and researcher extraordinaire Norm Farrell excerpts from Martyn Brown's Energy News Corp column on Clark's LNG fantasy and the gutting of BC's "2008 climate action plan":

"The Petronas precedent also gave those Asian state-oil monopolies a special 25-year indemnity that is underwritten by B.C. taxpayers.

That indemnity will save them harm from any so-called “discriminatory events.”

It assured the LNG industry that any companies covered under such project agreements would not have to face any industry-specific carbon taxes or any new industry-specific GHG reduction initiatives for at least 25 years.

If any future government changes those locked-in tax rates and benefits at a cost to those companies that is greater than $25 million in any year, or more than $50 million over five years, they will be entitled to full compensation, courtesy of B.C. taxpayers.

Similarly, any changes in government policy that impose new rules or tougher standards specific to the LNG industry, which entail higher costs relating to carbon taxes or to greenhouse gas emissions and reporting requirements, will be fully compensable above that threshold."

So what happens to that legislation now that a world glut of LNG and it's non-competitive BC market price has choked on Christy's unicorn meat? Can we repeal it?

Norm is on Canadian Glen's blogtalkradio show The View From Up Here tonight at 6pm PST to discuss the BC Hydro/Site C Dam con and the LNG debacle on The BC Shell Game of Public Funds. That's the question I'm sending in.

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Christy Clark and the Manning Centre for Building Conservatives

In March 2012, Christy Clark gave the opening remarks to the Ottawa Manning Centre Networking Conference, the yearly "conservative family reunion".

She was introduced by her then chief of staff, former senior Harper advisor, Enbridge lobbyist, and Alberta 'firewall manifesto' signatory Ken Boessenkool, who was her very first campaign manager back in 2010. 

"We have a duty to Canada" to easy the flow of products to Asia, she told her audience at the Manning Centre [a year ago]. "We support pipelines in British Columbia."

BC Conservative leader John Cummins was not invited.

Manning has in the past said he doesn’t support the political ambitions of Cummins, who was elected as a Reformer with Manning in the 1993 election, because vote-splitting on the centre-right always makes it easier for the NDP to assume power.

One-time Harper government cabinet minister, Jay Hill, also said Friday he’s backing Clark’s leadership. “I’ll do whatever I can to support her and support the B.C. Liberals."

Preston Manning, founder of the Reform Party and President of the Manning Centre, is also a senior fellow at the Koch-funded Fraser Institute.

Jay Hill was in charge of the Cons 200 page dirty tricks manual on how to disrupt and stonewall parliamentary committees back in 2007.

Also helping Christy's campaign was Chuck Strahl, former BC Reform and Con MP, now chair of the Manning Centre and chair of CSIS watchdog the Security Intelligence Review Committee since last June, at which time he had to give up working for Christy.

The only pollster to accurately predict Tuesday's election result was Christy's principal secretary and ADM in charge of "Intergovernmental Relations" till a year ago and now on contract to Christy, former Reform and Republican policy advisor Dimitri Pantazopoulos.

Premier’s Office targeted crucial election ridings for the B.C. Liberals — all on government time and your dime

"Premier Christy Clark’s former principal secretary, Dimitri Pantazopolous, and former deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad were among those involved in a comprehensive strategy that used government staff and resources to try to win swing ridings for the BC Liberals ...  serious misconduct by government employees and misuse of government funds.   

“Dimitri was the driving force behind the swing teams, from its inception through to the operational phase."

Pantazoploulos also runs the Manning Centre Municipal Governance Project and is mentioned by Calgary developer Cal Wenzel in the now infamous cel vid about buying the campaigns of developer-friendly municipal candidates in order to defeat Calgary Mayor Nenshi.

On Ken Boessenkool's twitter account at Kool, Topp, & Guy Public Affairs - the political consultancy firm formed in February - Christy's former chief of staff Ken Boessenkool and Christy's election advisor Don Guy are busy congratulating Nick Kouvalis of Campaign Research on Christy Clark's federal ConservaLiberal campaign win.  
The third partner in the firm is BC NDP campaign director Brian Topp.

and a quick tweet from Rob Ford's chief of staff Mark Towhey:

You do remember Nick Kouvalis from Campaign Research,  don't you ? 

In addition to being Rob Ford's election architect, Kouvalis is a regular speaker at ... wait for it ... the Manning Centre yearly bunfest.

Fun fact :  Founding directors of the Manning Centre for Building Democracy :

• Nigel Wright, Harper's chief of staff, currently in the news for cutting Con senator Mike Duffy a $90,000 personal cheque to cover money the Duffster owed to the Senate for inappropriately claimed living expenses for the past four years while Duffy was being investigated for it,  and 
• Gwyn Morgan, Chairman of the Board of SNC Lavalin til May 2 this year, the company being investigated for fraud in four countries on three continents, was Steve's choice for heading up his brand new Accountability commission in 2006.

Manning Centre : "Congratulations to Christy Clark on a spectacular victory. The election of a non-socialist government in BC is in the best interests of BC and Canada."
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Shorter Green-supporter Christy Clark

Shorter Christie snorter : 'Hey leftie enviros! If you're not gonna vote for 2nd-place me directly, please at least split the vote by voting for the 3rd place Green instead, promoted right here at the top of my full page ad in the Times Colonist and paid for by "Today's BC Liberal Party".'




Gotta love that "Today's BC Liberals". 
Nothing at all to do with Gordon Campbell's "Yesterday's Liberals" presumably, from whom Christie inherited her unelected premiership. 

Hat tip to RossK for Ian Bailey's pic of the Liberals' Times Colonist ad, to CBC for the May 9th Ipsos Reid poll, and most especially to :

• those $500-a-ticket fundraisers held for Christy at the Calgary Petroleum Club "targeting deep-pocketed oil patch players", 
• Gwyn Morgan of Encana for smoothing over the transition from the unre-electable Gordo to the unelected Christy, and 
• Encana itself for donating over half a million dollars to Christy's Liberals in the last three years while simultaneously lobbying the BC government about LNG terminals and fracking.

Update : And right here I was going to post Kevin Logan's video about how a combination of 

1) the June 2010 "Equivalency Agreement" between Harper and the BC Liberals and 

2) the TILMA/New West Partnership Agreement between BC and Alberta 

effectively prevents BC from prohibiting pipelines from being built across BC to the coast. 

But Norm at Northern Insight has posted it along with a nice short precis of the New West Partnership Agreement so go watch it there.
Video creator Kevin Logan's links to back up his research at his own site here.

A little background on the two gents portrayed in Christy's infomercial embedded in Logan's vid from The Tyee.

Economist Robyn Allan says BC could legally cancel the Equivalency Agreement with 30 days written notice on pipeline projects not yet approved, but first of course the Libs would have to acknowledge the effing agreement exists, which would naturally lead to questions about their non-disclosure agreements with their oilbidness buddies even as they simultaneously try to portray themselves as somehow representing the people of BC .

No mention at all of the Liberals locking BC into pipeline agreements before they are even inked in the BC media election coverage leading up to the May 14 BC election unless you count this Vancouver Sun report a whole freaking year ago.  You're shocked, I'm sure.

Monday update : Changed my mind - here's Logan's vid for all you non-clicking-through guys :

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Wednesday update : Voter turnout - 48% 

Elections BC 
Seat count : Libs - 50, NDP - 33, Green - 1, Independent - 1
% of popular vote : Libs - 44.4%, NDP - 39.5%, Green - 8%, Con - 4.8%, 
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