New BC Political Discussion - POST BC Election 2017

[misher]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

So let me get this straight: you're okay with people breaking the law as long as we get to tax them?

No I'm saying if there breaking the law we should either bloody catch them or tax them.

The worst scenario is to push them elsewhere so we get less or no tax.

If no one ends up in jail then releasing the report was a purely political move that did nothing to benefit us.

[jlousa]

Isn't that why they got into the casino/alcohol/marijuana business to eliminate the black market and have the government take their cut?
Also not sure I get the ICBC outrage, the money was taken out at a time that ICBC was running a surplus, if this was in private hands that same amount would've been taken out via dividends to shareholders. It's not like they used the money to buy themselves toys, it went into general revenue and would've been otherwise made up by other taxes being increased. If they did run ICBC completely separate and those surpluses had been paid back to rate holders as a rebate we'd be looking at the same increases now, had they been kept in reserves the Billion taken out over several years would've been gobbed up within 9 months of the current deficit they are running.
Same goes for BC Hydro, isn't part of the point of these public utilities that the profits they would otherwise make stay with the province? We can argue if we should use Hydro profits to pay for hospitals instead of providing cheaper power, but remember under NAFTA and I'm sure USMCA they could challenge our rates as being subsidized if we kept them low, by increasing them to NA norms and reinvesting those profits in other public programs we can work around that challenge.

[misher]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Isn't that why they got into the casino/alcohol/marijuana business to eliminate the black market and have the government take their cut?
Also not sure I get the ICBC outrage, the money was taken out at a time that ICBC was running a surplus, if this was in private hands that same amount would've been taken out via dividends to shareholders. It's not like they used the money to buy themselves toys, it went into general revenue and would've been otherwise made up by other taxes being increased. If they did run ICBC completely separate and those surpluses had been paid back to rate holders as a rebate we'd be looking at the same increases now, had they been kept in reserves the Billion taken out over several years would've been gobbed up within 9 months of the current deficit they are running.
Same goes for BC Hydro, isn't part of the point of these public utilities that the profits they would otherwise make stay with the province? We can argue if we should use Hydro profits to pay for hospitals instead of providing cheaper power, but remember under NAFTA and I'm sure USMCA they could challenge our rates as being subsidized if we kept them low, by increasing them to NA norms and reinvesting those profits in other public programs we can work around that challenge.

Were thinking along similar lines. But people will grasp at reasons to be upset to support the party they were going to vote for anyway.

When something running a surplus it seems like a good idea to take it and put it towards other programs, governments don't leave money in the bank, we run a regular debt. NDP likely would have done the same at the time.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by jlousa

Isn't that why they got into the casino/alcohol/marijuana business to eliminate the black market and have the government take their cut?
Also not sure I get the ICBC outrage, the money was taken out at a time that ICBC was running a surplus, if this was in private hands that same amount would've been taken out via dividends to shareholders. It's not like they used the money to buy themselves toys, it went into general revenue and would've been otherwise made up by other taxes being increased. If they did run ICBC completely separate and those surpluses had been paid back to rate holders as a rebate we'd be looking at the same increases now, had they been kept in reserves the Billion taken out over several years would've been gobbed up within 9 months of the current deficit they are running.
Same goes for BC Hydro, isn't part of the point of these public utilities that the profits they would otherwise make stay with the province? We can argue if we should use Hydro profits to pay for hospitals instead of providing cheaper power, but remember under NAFTA and I'm sure USMCA they could challenge our rates as being subsidized if we kept them low, by increasing them to NA norms and reinvesting those profits in other public programs we can work around that challenge.

The point is the BC Liberals took money out both crown corps at an imprudent rate that would not have been done by professional management.

And rather than reduce premiums for drivers, they chose to use that cash to look like "sound managers of the economy" when they were anything but. The flip side of that is the meddling to bring in "rate smoothing" at BC Hydro at a time when the corp needed the capital for investments. And their shenanigans around crown corp debts made their budgets look better than they actually were.

A good read from the bad olds days:
Government grabbing cash from ICBC, BC Hydro as they raise rates, NDP charges

BC Hydro’s real debt has grown 1337% under Liberals…Shouldn’t someone call the cops?

[misher]

Sorry to change the topic, but anyone else hear that the Conservatives are running a candidate in Nanaimo?

Kind of unusual knowing they won’t get elected? Think they did it at the request of the NDP to split votes from the Lberals?

[Dengler Avenue]

Originally Posted by misher

Think they did it at the request of the NDP to split votes from the Lberals?

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by misher

Sorry to change the topic, but anyone else hear that the Conservatives are running a candidate in Nanaimo?

Kind of unusual knowing they won’t get elected? Think they did it at the request of the NDP to split votes from the Lberals?

[WarrenC12]

misher is like the younger, dumber version of Stingray. I wonder if they are related.

On to politics. I've heard and read some interesting year end summaries for BC and the GreeNDP. The big items in their agreement have happened, and proportional representation failed. Where does that leave the Greens? What influence does Weaver have left?

[jlousa]

Some people need to reread the rules of this forum. Final warning for the rest of you.

[NetMapel]

Out with MSP, in with EHT in B.C. for 2019

The Employer Health Tax Act sets a tax of 1.95 per cent on the payroll of businesses with revenues over $500,000. The government has said that fewer than five per cent of businesses in B.C. will pay the full tax. The majority of small businesses will be protected by the $500,000 exemption that phases out gradually, while the payrolls of charities and non-profits will be shielded through a $1.5-million exemption.

Very curious about what you guys think about the shift from MSP to EHT. According to the government, only 5% of the employers will be hit with it (only 5% of BC employers exceed $500,000 revenue???) Do you guys think this will negatively affect job investments here in BC or not at all? As far as I know, MSP was kind of "lumped in" to other taxes in other provinces so people thought we are paying extra here in BC. However, obviously that's not the case so this could also help with just that perception as well.

[bluefox]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Out with MSP, in with EHT in B.C. for 2019

Very curious about what you guys think about the shift from MSP to EHT. According to the government, only 5% of the employers will be hit with it (only 5% of BC employers exceed $500,000 revenue???

95% of small businesses, not all employers.

[misher]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Out with MSP, in with EHT in B.C. for 2019



Very curious about what you guys think about the shift from MSP to EHT. According to the government, only 5% of the employers will be hit with it (only 5% of BC employers exceed $500,000 revenue???) Do you guys think this will negatively affect job investments here in BC or not at all? As far as I know, MSP was kind of "lumped in" to other taxes in other provinces so people thought we are paying extra here in BC. However, obviously that's not the case so this could also help with just that perception as well.

Personally it feels like we’re just shifting the tax burden. Property taxes for municipalities are going up to cover it as will costs for goods and services. It makes our largest employers less competitive while benefiting small businesses.

[WarrenC12]

Originally Posted by NetMapel

Out with MSP, in with EHT in B.C. for 2019



Very curious about what you guys think about the shift from MSP to EHT. According to the government, only 5% of the employers will be hit with it (only 5% of BC employers exceed $500,000 revenue???) Do you guys think this will negatively affect job investments here in BC or not at all? As far as I know, MSP was kind of "lumped in" to other taxes in other provinces so people thought we are paying extra here in BC. However, obviously that's not the case so this could also help with just that perception as well.

Getting rid of the MSP was the right thing to do, but this implementation is a bit screwed up (double dipping in 2019).

I would have rather seen this tax burden distributed across corporate and personal income taxes, but this allows the government to still claim lower PIT and CIT rates.

Still more progressive than MSP though.

[retro_orange]

Karen Wang disgraced herself with the politics of division

By Heather MallickStar Columnist
Fri., Jan. 18, 2019

Speaking of Freud’s narcissism of minor differences, certain people in Burnaby, east of Vancouver, think certain other people don’t fit in. With them, that is. If this were a local matter confined to toxic former Liberal candidate Karen Wang, fine. But if it’s a sign of self-generated ethnic split in a multicultural nation, it is bad news indeed.

I can’t find the right metaphor for how multiculturalism works. Maybe it’s a multi-layered cake and each province is sliced according to population. But no, there shouldn’t be layers at all. Perhaps a bricklaying analogy would assist, what with bricks being identical and laid with the tidy Dutch-style grouting I favour.

But none of this explains how Wang messed up.

Being biracial makes me a reasonably good referee. As a walking ethnic quarrel myself, I tend to blame both sides. My Scottish side is at odds with my Indian side, usually when I’m buying a winter coat I don’t need and can’t afford (just buy it, says the Indian dad element) and when I’m eating delicious restaurant food.

And why should food be delicious, the Scottish mum element hectors. Food is gasoline for the engine, nothing more. Why go to La Paella when you could cook at home for a tenth of the price? (Because I don’t know how to cook paella, I say faintly. Because I am a tight-fisted sybarite. Because I will one day die.)

I’m surprised that a candidate as socially awkward as Wang was chosen to run in Burnaby South in the first place. She dug herself a hole and keeps digging, disgracing herself in her determination to become an MP, whether as a party candidate, an independent or an Edible Arrangement.

The Star’s alert Vancouver bureau discovered that Wang had said on WeChat, a Chinese social media platform, that she would win as “the only Chinese candidate” (hua yi) in the riding because NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh is “of Indian descent” (yin yi).

This implied that voters of Chinese origin would rather hold their breath and turn blue than vote for anyone with darker skin. Worse, she called herself “Chinese” rather than “Chinese-Canadian,” when multiculturalism is one of the most basic elements in Prime Minister Trudeau’s version of Liberalism.

This situation/apparition pops up often. Can’t groups of Canadians focus on what they have in common — the rule of law, Chinese food as great as Indian food, kayaking, Canadian Tire — rather than the tiny things that differentiate them? No? In the U.S., the answer is no with an AK-47.

But Canada is so baked-in multicultural that people don’t have the option of not getting along. It works beautifully in the big cities, less well in white-enclave rural Canada, and very badly, it turns out, in suburban ethnic enclaves.

The Liberals had a chat with Wang — presumably brief, frigidly polite and no tea and biscuits on offer — and she quickly resigned while digging in even deeper by blaming an intern and then saying she had been referring to Singh’s “culture” rather than his race.

There is no single culture in India. She didn’t say “Hindus are fine,” she just assumed that any Indo-Canadian candidate would repel her ethnic base, which in her riding is large. Wang says it’s normal to point out one’s background in Chinese media — I’m told this is untrue — but what about other people’s?

Her campaign photos show Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan and Immigration Minister Ahmed Hussen helping out on her campaign, as well as her chatting with Indo-Canadians. So that’s one great big wicker basket of offended people.

Then Wang recanted her resignation — good luck with that — saying “of Indian descent” is merely a statement of fact. That’s a frequent claim made by racists in Alabama but it doesn’t wash here.

I have written before about a Markham, Ont. demonstration in 2016, with some Chinese-Canadians protesting asylum seekers crossing the U.S. border into Canada. There were speeches in Chinese and chants of “go home go home go home.” One protest petition said of the asylum seekers that “75 per cent of them are from Nigeria.”

Younger, more aware Chinese-Canadians seeing the disaster unfold, leapt to the rescue of the locals’ reputation, held up signs and chanted “No hate, no fear, refugees are welcome here.”

But the damage was done. From No Dogs, No Chinese to No Indians to No Nigerians, how could anyone miss the irony of new Canadians turning on each other? In the U.K., it’s No Poles, No Migrants, No Leylandii Hedges. In the U.S., it’s just No.

Wang should have known better. Her grandparents suffered terribly during the Cultural Revolution, when communist gangs turned on individuals who seemed different: too wealthy, too well-known or — perhaps — too Jagmeet Singh.

Wang has lived in Canada for 30 years, long enough to understand Canadian silence on certain subjects: money, race, religion. “And where do you worship?” I don’t ask people at parties.

Does Wang understand the depth of her insult to Canada?

https://www.thestar.com/opinion/star-col...rself-with-the-politics-of-division.html

Well put column, it's ridiculous how Karen wants to represent 'Chinese in Canada' and not 'Chinese-Canadians' yet she wants to take part in Canadian politics.

This on top of the recent arrogant comments by the Chinese Ambassador to Canada implying Canadians are white supremacists and there will be serious repercussions for Canada following rule of law and making reasonable technology changes to our 5G network to ensure it's secure.

Recently China sounds more and more like a hostile bully that just wants to use Canada and beat up on it because it's smaller then the U.S. then be a friendly trading partner.

[CanSpice]

Wow, the Plecas report about overspending by the two senior legislature officials is wild.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by CanSpice

Wow, the Plecas report about overspending by the two senior legislature officials is wild.

It certainly put the BC Liberals in a pickle. Why were they just blithely signing off on these? It is there in black and whte so they can't dispute it. Feeds into the whole laissez-faire, money laundering, anything financially goes reputation they've developed.

[misher]

Originally Posted by whatnext

It certainly put the BC Liberals in a pickle. Why were they just blithely signing off on these? It is there in black and whte so they can't dispute it. Feeds into the whole laissez-faire, money laundering, anything financially goes reputation they've developed.

True. But I also wonder how far back does this go? Apparently they've been working in parliament for 30 years. When did it start? Hell maybe it started with the Social Credit Party.

We also had NDP Speaker's from 1992-2001. Hell Dale Lovick was pretty high up in the NDP and is still heavily involved in governance.

Lets find when the rot started so we know how to best spread the blame around. Perhaps these two learned what they are doing from their predecessors? Perhaps past Speakers partied with them? Who knows?

[bluefox]

Originally Posted by misher

True. But I also wonder how far back does this go? Apparently they've been working in parliament for 30 years. When did it start? Hell maybe it started with the Social Credit Party.

We also had NDP Speaker's from 1992-2001. Hell Dale Lovick was pretty high up in the NDP and is still heavily involved in governance.

Lets find when the rot started so we know how to best spread the blame around. Perhaps these two learned what they are doing from their predecessors? Perhaps past Speakers partied with them? Who knows?

Not exactly. Craig James is from SK (and was a public servant there); while it's true he worked in Victoria for the last 30-some years, his first job with any real administrative authority in the BC public service was interim chief electoral officer at Elections BC where he helped with gaming the HST referendum and some of the associated recall petitions. "Extinguish the HST"/vote yes to repeal to confuse voters who would otherwise think normally they'd need to vote no to reject HST was his idea. Rejecting recall petitions for BC Liberal MLAs on technicalities like counting HST as three words instead of one to put the petition over the 200-word limit? His decision. The clerk job, you could argue, was his reward for being a good doggy.

Gary Lenz was a cop before the SAA job. It's why he is constantly being quoted in the Plecas report using police abbreviations/terms to describe situations.

In fairness people are starting to point the finger at James' predecessor MacMinn for creating this culture of entitlement. And it's not necessarily about blaming one party or another for what happened because it may very well be the case that this is just a decades-long problem that got worse and worse, with officials getting more and more entitled/brazen with their expense claims and defalcation, over time.

What I'd say is that Lenz was caught up in this and didn't have the spine to blow the whistle because of the implications he might have to deal with. That's not to let him off the hook at all. The report seems to paint him as a patsy who should/did otherwise know better. The real problem is James and anyone else who enabled him. And Linda Reid, who was apparently just as much of a kleptomaniac as the clerk.

What is a disservice, given this is an issue that transcends party lines, is the political games some party leaders (you know who you are) that sought to attack the speaker and discredit him for obviously personal reasons, and are now left to frantically backpedal and claim "we need to move past this and find a solution". No kidding, Wilkinson, thanks for catching on, we were saying this in December. Horgan was right to call that out today and say this is just more BS and bluster from the opposition leader. It's disingenuous and it won't solve anything. Whatever happens, we haven't heard the last of this. Mullen has said this was just a grenade and that the real bomb is about to drop.

[logicbomb]

Based on the latest polls...The Liberals are expected to take Nanaimo with ease. Confirms what we know: intervention in the housing market and the speculation tax is widely unpopular.

The NDP's biggest failure has been trying to appease the lower class. The group that doesn't vote or care about politics.

[whatnext]

Originally Posted by logicbomb

Based on the latest polls...The Liberals are expected to take Nanaimo with ease. Confirms what we know: intervention in the housing market and the speculation tax is widely unpopular.

The NDP's biggest failure has been trying to appease the lower class. The group that doesn't vote or care about politics.

Poll taken before the news of the financial malfeasance at the legislature under the BC Liberals was widely digested.