Spendthrifts Ballem and Hayden exposed by Canadian Taxpayers' Federation

So what if the Ottawa Senators are out of the Stanley Cup playoffs? 

Their logo is that of a Centurion and they play in Kanata, not Ottawa. 

Anyways, the lockout-shortened 2013 NHL campaign is being played under a big, fat asterisk. 

In a matter of days, the worst-kept secret will be made official. The Kanata Centurions will be the opposition for the Vancouver Canucks at B.C. Place Stadium in the NHL’s Stadium Series of shinny gargantuan gimmick in 2014. An NHL advance crew was in B.C. Place earlier in May to plan logistics for the event, expected to draw up to 59,000. They even measured where the temporary rink will go on the synthetic turf surface. 

"Petro Penny"

Who was more entertaining and productive than Daniel Alfredsson this week? Jordan Bateman of the Canadian Taxpayers’ Federation's B.C. office. He scored a pair of hat-tricks on the Freedom of Information front against spending sprees by Vision Vancouver and B.C. Pavilion Corporation bigwigs.

First he scored expense reports for Vancouver city manager Penny Ballem, chief of staff Mike Magee and Mayor Gregor Robertson’s sidekick Kevin Quinlan.  

Among Ballem’s expenses are tanks of gas purchased in Whistler, where she has a cabin with her partner Marion Lay. 

Mayor Gregor Robertson was not interested in answering my questions about Ballem's spending when I saw him at the media-invited opening ceremony of the Society for Information Display convention on May 21 at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Robertson claimed he had to get to a tour of the convention floor and didn't have time to answer my lone question about Ballem's spending. Luckily, CKNW's Janet Brown cornered Robertson a day later, but his answers were a tad weak.

Then Bateman notched a hat-trick and a bonus marker over the expense reports of PavCo poobahs. 

CEO Dana Hayden bills taxpayers $2,200 a month for her Vancouver accommodation and spent $50 on fuel to travel to Langley to meet with PavCo chair and Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender (the Surrey-Fleetwood Liberal MLA-elect). 

"Harbour Air Hayden"

Fassbender’s city hall claims to be environmentally sustainable. Instead of using a phone or Skype, Hayden drove all the way to Langley. 

In September 2012, when Coal Harbour neighbours were meeting with PavCo officials to complain about floatplane noise and fumes, Hayden was commuting to Victoria.

“Harbour Air” Hayden’s expense report shows flights on Sept. 10, 13, 17, 20, 24 and 27. The first three were for $160.82 each and the other three $168.32 each.

Howard “Was He Pushed Or Did He Jump?” Crosley became B.C. Place Stadium’s ex-general manager on May 21. Hayden sent a memo to staff a week after the provincial election to announce Crosley’s departure after 15 years at the helm. 

Crosley’s expenses include $115.65 on June 11, 2011 for maintenance at Morrey Nissan, $42.46 for tire repair for a Nissan Rogue on March 22, 2011 and $224.48 for tire purchase for a Nissan Rogue on March 26, 2011. 

Crosley was replaced by Ken Cretney, the Vancouver Convention Centre general manager who was elevated to chief operating officer of PavCo. 

Warren Buckley’s departure from the CEO role in summer 2012 opened the door for Hayden. 

His expense report shows a $41.54 meal on Sept. 6, 2011 for a peacemaking meeting with Josh Blair of Telus and then-CEO Paul Barber of the Bell-sponsored Vancouver Whitecaps. 

Bateman 

That was three weeks before the reopening of B.C. Place, which was supposed to become Telus Park. The government eventually paid the Liberal-friendly telecom $15.2 million.

A $69.55 meal expense on March 25, 2011 shows Buckley lunched with John Christison of the Washington State Convention Centre. During the 1990s, Buckley and Christison were partners in a consultancy that was called, wait for it, Buckley-Christison. 

Buckley said he was invited to visit the Seattle Sounders and met Christison for a tour of his facility, and to discuss convention business and industry trends, “but certainly no connection to Buckley-Christison.” 

“I never participated in the practice and earned no fees at all," Buckley once told me. "He did continue however to use my surname.”

Burrard Bridge's safety secrecy

The May 23 partial collapse of the 1955-built, Interstate 5 bridge over the Skagit River in Washington has sparked a renewed interest in the structural safety of bridges across the continent. 

In Vancouver, the Burrard Street Bridge will turn 81 years-old on July 1. The 1932-built concrete and steel bridge cost $3 million to build, but is visibly crumbling and rusting. A seismic upgrade program finished in 2006. Bike lanes were installed in 2009 at a cost of $1.3 million. 

The Burrard Bridge's uncertain future was the focus of my Investigators segment on the Simi Sara Show on CKNW AM 980 on May 24. Unfortunately, neither city hall's chief engineer Peter Judd nor city hall spokeswoman Mairi Welman responded to my requests for comment. 

In 2012, City of Vancouver paid almost $1.24 million to Associated Engineering to conduct a series of reports. More than 500 pages of were released to me via Freedom of Information, but almost 380 pages have been "greyed-out" -- withheld in their entirety, like the one on the right. City hall claims the reports contain advice that, if disclosed, could harm the city financially. 

The minuscule amount of information that is visible claims the bridge is in fair or poor condition. While it does not indicate imminent danger, the lack of information disclosed raises important questions about whether it really is safe. The detailed report card on the bridge and cost estimates were censored. Why does Vision Vancouver want to hide information from you about such an important piece of the city's infrastructure? 

The reports I received via FOI are linked below. Click on the titles and see for yourself. Notice all the censored pages. 

Burrard Street Bridge Coating Assessment 2011 

Vision Vancouver: "Greyest City 2013 Secrecy Plan"

Burrard Street Bridge Condition Assessment Report 

Burrard Bridge Deck Rehabilitation Deck Cross Section, Rev. B

Bridge Evaluation Report

Burrard Street Bridge Girder Strenghtening

Burrard Street Bridge Rehabilitation Design Load Rating 

Burrard Bridge Rehabilitation Vessel Impact Protection - Revision 1

Burrard Bridge Close-up Visual Inspection of Sliding Bearing Areas

Detailed Inspection and Condition Assessment for Approach Bearing Replacement

Burrard Street Bridge Expansion Joint Rehabilitation 

Burrard Street Bridge North End Widening Feasibility Study

Burrard Street Bridge Rehabilitation Pedestrian Fence Options

Routine Inspections by Marco Biagini

Smart meter info kept secret until after the election

So-called smart meters were among the multitude of grievances British Columbians had with the ruling BC Liberals, who were surprisingly given another four years to govern on May 14 when not enough voters showed up at the polls to force a change.

While Health Canada claims there is no public health risk, the Electronic Privacy Information Center has a multitude of concerns about the new technology's proliferation around North America. There are also interesting connections between the Liberals and the smart meter industry and questions persist about why the program was exempted from full regulatory vetting by the B.C. Utilities Commission. Is this billion-dollar program really about energy efficiency?

Meanwhile, outgoing Auditor General John Doyle blew the whistle on BC Hydro's deferral of billions of dollars of costs. As Doyle put it, the Crown corporation has created "the appearance of profitability where none actually exists." As such, Rafe Mair boldly predicts that BC Hydro will be privatized.

So how did smart meters not become part of the election discourse? Premier Christy Clark and her Liberals set the agenda by pushing pipelines. The media became fascinated by polls. Adrian Dix and the NDP were too little, too late with criticism for the Liberals. Smart meters were part of the low-hanging fruit that the NDP ignored to their detriment. And BC Hydro exploited B.C.'s weak and poorly enforced Freedom of Information laws.

On Jan. 30, I made a request for information about the smart meter program's one-year completion delay. BC Hydro finally sent me the documents on May 15.

The day after voting day.

Here is my Business in Vancouver story. The documents are below.

BC Hydro smart meters update, disclosed after the election by BobMackin

Exclusive: Management shakeup at B.C. Place

One week after the BC Liberals were re-elected, a management shakeup at B.C. Place Stadium. 

B.C. Pavilion Corporation CEO Dana Hayden notified staff on May 21 that Howard Crosley, the stadium’s general manager of 15 years, is out. 

Crosley

Vancouver Convention Centre general manager Ken Cretney’s responsibilities have been expanded to cover B.C. Place. His new title is chief operating officer.

“I know we all wish Howard well, and I want to thank him for his work and dedication over the years,” said Hayden’s memo.

Crosley managed the stadium through the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the $514 million, taxpayer-funded renovation. Under his watch, however, the November 2006 death of janitorial worker Pritam Kaur Sandhu went unreported to WorkSafeBC and the roof ripped and collapsed in a preventable January 2007 incident that led to the controversial renovation. 

Reporting to Cretney are B.C. Place assistant general manager Kathy deLisser and Vancouver Convention Centre assistant general manager Craig Lehto. 

Cretney

The stadium’s director of sales and marketing Graham Ramsay and convention centre’s vice-president of sales and marketing Claire Smith report directly to Hayden. Stadium spokesman Duncan Blomfield and his convention centre counterpart Jenny Wu report to Kate Hunter, PavCo’s director of communications and stakeholder relations. 

Expect a PavCo board shuffle soon. Chair Peter Fassbender was elected as a BC Liberal MLA in Surrey-Fleetwood in the May 14 election. He did not step aside while seeking political office, despite Board Resourcing and Development Office Conduct Principles. Director Suzanne Anton won election for the BC Liberals in Vancouver-Fraserview. 

Meanwhile, National Hockey League staff planning the 2014 Stadium Series paid B.C. Place a scouting visit earlier this month. The official announcement is coming soon. The Vancouver Canucks are expected to host the Ottawa Senators in front of as many a 59,000 people next March. 

Of Times of India and Taxpayers of British Columbia: The Sequel

The B.C. Liberal government did its best to keep Times of India Film Awards information away from you and me during its successful re-election campaign.

On Jan. 22, via Freedom of Information, I asked for records about the controversial April 6 B.C. Place Stadium Bollywood awards. I wanted the contract and the business case. Jan. 22 was the day Premier Christy Clark announced TOIFA and, coincidentally, when thousands of film industry workers gathered at North Shore Studios to promote the Save B.C. Film campaign.

After the government invoked a delay, I finally received some of the records from the Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training Ministry on May 13 -- the day before voting day. I reported on the documents on The World Today with Jon McComb on CKNW AM 980. I got some more documents from the Finance Ministry on May 17, three days after election day.

I have published those records below. I am disappointed to say that there are still more questions than answers. You will see that the government has withheld most of the information.

Below you will see a Financial Impact Assessment dated Oct. 9, 2012 and the Nov. 27, 2012 Treasury Board approval from Finance Minister Mike de Jong (who danced for the crowd of 35,000). Notice in de Jong's letter to Pat Bell that the funds came from contingencies. With four months remaining in the fiscal year, de Jong was already dipping into the rainy-day fund for non-essential spending. This is the same Finance Minister who claimed on Nov. 28 that he was controlling spending.

The contract with Times of India subsidiary BCCL International Events Private Ltd. was dated Dec. 12, 2012 and the government previously claimed it was worth $9.5 million, but there are no dollar values visible. Which begs the question: how much did this event really cost British Columbians?

Organizers failed to sign any mainstream, Canadian national advertiser as a corporate sponsor. There simply was not enough time. BCCL eventually found a title sponsor. Lux Cozi is a Kolkata-based underwear company that you might say has some dirty laundry. Chairman Ashok Todi was charged by Indian authorities in connection to the 2007 death of his son-in-law. Todi, who has not been proven guilty, and daughter Priyanka were on-stage in B.C. Place Stadium. The awards are scheduled to air on Sony Entertainment Television in India on June 16.

In the contract, the government required BCCL to create an "online virtual data room" -- a glorified website -- containing records about its services. But the very next line in the contract says that any records held by BCCL are beyond the reach of the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. This is a new trick that I hope Information Commissioner Elizabeth Denham will deem illegal.

The government has the power to show you and me as much or as little as it wants. In this case, it chose secrecy. It conveniently chose to cloak this very expensive event behind the closed doors of cabinet because it knew this was not for the benefit of all. How can we believe the information contained in the government's propaganda?

It is obvious that the Clark Liberals wanted to avoid questions about TOIFA spending after Ontario media outlets got the line-by-line list of costs for the 2011 International Indian Film Academy Awards via FOI. Despite that, Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty parlayed IIFA into his re-election. McGuinty's chief of staff was Don Guy, who was part of Clark's 2013 campaign backroom.

Remember: there was no involvement by the Canadian Tourism Commission nor the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. This was not about building bridges between the vibrant South Asian community and the rest of B.C. This was not about multiculturalism. This was about the Multicultural Outreach strategy -- the expenditure of public funds to benefit the ruling party's bid to perpetuate its hold on power.

For $9.5 million, how many more cops could have been investigating unsolved murders and rapes in B.C.? How many homeless people could have been housed? How many cancer patients could have been treated? How many more scientists could have been in labs, trying to solve diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's? 

Times of India Film Awards contract by BobMackin

TOIFA-FIN-2013-00029

Not Done Properly: Dix's Dips failed British Columbians

Media and scholars will study for years to come how the BC Liberals defied the odds (and the polls) and won British Columbia's 40th provincial election on May 14. 

Liberal sources told me they were truly surprised at what happened. They would've been overjoyed with a minority government for Christy Clark, but were already resigned to hearing the words "Premier-designate, Adrian Dix." 

Dix departs on day 1: flawed from the start.

I haven't found any members of the so-called 801 Club, but I found sympathizers who vowed to stay home on election day. They would never vote NDP, but they said they couldn't vote to keep Clark as premier. 

Ultimately, it was the triumph of a fear-based advertising campaign. Fear and greed are the two most basic motivators of humans. The Liberals painted Dix as weak and voters were told time and again they should fear what he might do if given power. It was built on the premise that repetition can sometimes be perceived as reality, even if the message is false. The same spin doctors portrayed Clark as strong. It was laughable for her to claim fiscal responsibility, but more people bought it than bought the NDP narrative. 

The Weathervane ad, showing Dix's head swivelling in the wind under black clouds in a thunderstorm, was the last big salvo fired in the ad war that began with the infomercial that starred various Liberal insiders (who were portrayed as average British Columbians). The Liberals audaciously employed a weather metaphor when they had a dismal record in that category. The NDP had nothing to counter it. 

On the ground, the Liberals spent the last weekend promoting Green Party candidates in some swing ridings, hoping to split the NDP vote. On election day, Liberal candidates, such as Peter Fassbender, Suzanne Anton and Richard Lee, used social media to bash the NDP and/or get the vote out, despite the Elections Act's ban on transmitting or publishing advertising messages on election day. They finally stopped and deleted their messages. Those weren't the signs of a party confident of victory. 

As much as Dix was delivering a bright, positive Barack Obama-inspired message of hope and change, his campaign was too little, too late in expressing criticism of the Liberal record. When the NDP became critical, the Liberals framed it as being negative. The NDP could have prevented this. 

Re-using the Jack Layton playbook from the 2011 federal election was ill-conceived. Layton was not running to be Prime Minister, he was running to be the Opposition leader. Dix's fatal error was not highlighting the 12-year Liberal record of incompetence and corruption on a daily basis. Showing how the Liberals wasted resources and grew government would have been simple. Simple, just-the-facts storytelling (with a dash of humour) would have done the job and reminded British Columbians that it was time for a change in government. 

One practical step at a time? Dix should instead have been urging British Columbians to take a giant leap away from the Liberals. 

How could he have done so? By revealing the incidents of Liberal mistakes and misconducts one-by-one throughout the campaign, in a daily advent calendar-style opening, complete with historical newspaper quotes and broadcast clips. The only problem would have been choosing which 28 issues and incidents to highlight and in which order. Quick Wins, Wood Innovation and Design Centre, Liquor Distribution Branch, BC Hydro smart meters... those are just the tip of the iceberg. The list is so long, as per Laila Yuile's 100+ Reasons the Liberals Must Go.

While the Liberals spent a year-and-a-half reminding voters of Dix's 1999 backdated memo, Dix and the NDP should have reminded voters of the boxes and boxes and boxes of documents hauled out of the Legislature on Dec. 28, 2003 by police officers investigating the corrupt procurement process around the sale of BC Rail. There were more than 25,000 pages entered as evidence in Dave Basi and Bob Virk's bribery trial. 

Van Dongen's BC Rail cookie. (Facebook)

Dix's tour bus should have included trips to the former BC Rail terminus in Prince George and the recently demolished station in North Vancouver. It was not good enough to simply promise a two-year, $10 million judicial inquiry in the platform. The $6 million legal indemnity deal resonates with citizens but the NDP did little when the documents the government didn't want you to see were finally revealed during the campaign by Global BC's Jas Johal. In fact, independent John van Dongen did more to highlight the issue than the NDP did by publishing a photo of a themed cookie by an Abbotsford baker on Facebook and Twitter. 

The May 2 poll release from Angus Reid Public Opinion said the $6 million legal indemnity deal mattered a lot or somewhat to 67% of respondents -- 1% more than the way the Harmonized Sales Tax was introduced in 2009 by the Liberals.

People are mad as hell and not tolerating corruption anymore. Since the global economic crisis of 2008, corruption has been top-of-mind around the world. Consider the troubles in India listed in this BBC report. Or how new Chinese president Li Xinping is battling corruption (and how there is a BC Liberal connection, according to the Globe and Mail!). Closer to home, B.C. taxpayers need to keep an eye on embattled Montreal engineering firm SNC-Lavalin; the Evergreen Line contractor was blacklisted by the World Bank and is facing corruption investigations on four continents.

It was also not good enough for the NDP platform to focus solely on a BC Rail inquiry. A top-to-bottom overhaul of government is necessary. The Office of the Auditor-General proposed whistleblower protection. The Information and Privacy Commissioner has offered ideas on increasing transparency and accountability, including a duty to document law. The NDP didn't offer a new vision for openness and accountability. It was simply not confident in its ability to set and adhere to higher standards and deliver the good government that British Columbians truly desire.

The NDP needed a focussed plan to restore public trust. It didn't. It failed British Columbians.

Breaking: Liberal campaign manager's plea to the party

Its time running out for the BC Liberals?

Central campaign manager Mike McDonald sent out the memo below just after 5 p.m. to party faithful, claiming voter turnout is low. 

But I am told McDonald is tossing a Hail Mary and hoping someone, anyone, will be in the red zone to catch it. A source tells me that the part of the email claiming the election is close is not accurate. Liberal internal polling indicates the party could have as few as 17 MLAs by the end of the night.

The Liberals are not getting out the vote like they wanted, which is one reason why several high-profile candidates, including Mike de Jong, Suzanne Anton, Darryl Plecas, Peter Fassbender and Richard Lee, were Tweeting earlier today and contravening Elections BC's ban on election day advertising. They eventually stopped and deleted their Tweets. But not before dozens of Twitter users notified Elections BC. 

Subject:	There's still time: let's win this!
Date:	14 May 2013 17:05:43 -0700
From:	Mike McDonald <campaign.director@bcliberals.com>

Dear BC Liberal members, I'm sending this as we head into the final three hours of voting for the most important provincial election in a generation. Premier Christy Clark and our outstanding team of candidates need your active support tonight. Overall voter turnout is still pretty low as of 5pm so we will gain the edge by continuing to turn out our vote. Let's pull out all the stops! 1. If you haven't already, please VOTE as soon as possible. Click here for voting locations. 2. Phone, knock on doors, email, Facebook, Tweet... let everyone know they must vote by 8pm PT. 3. Think about people you know around the province. We need to pull votes in the North, the Cariboo, the Thompson-Okanagan, the Kootenays, Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and Vancouver Island. Do what you can to make sure your network is voting wherever they live. Few expected this election would be this close ... let alone the Opposition. Now, it's our chance to keep BC's economy on the right track. Please make that extra effort tonight. Collectively, it will make the difference. Let's take charge of our future and make this happen. Thank you for your support, Mike McDonald Campaign Director

The government doesn't want you to know

British Columbians go to the polls for the 40th time in the province’s history on May 14. They will get to do what billions of people around the world cannot: Say yes to change and no to corruption. Democratically and peacefully.

This has been a nasty election, marked by attack advertising from the ruling party and a lack of discourse around important issues like healthcare, education, crime and the declining trust in public institutions. 

Christy Clark and the BC Liberals hyped their natural gas pipe dreams and the NDP under Adrian Dix opposed pipelines and tankers. The Liberals spoke deceptively about deficit and debt. The NDP admitted it would speed-up spending, perhaps sell a stadium and order a judicial inquiry into the 2003 sale of BC Rail.

When the Liberals came to power in the 2001 provincial election, they swept aside a worn-out and corrupt NDP. The Liberals had a bold, "New Era" plan for a prosperous B.C. that included the pledge to be Canada's most open and accountable government.

But did they achieve that goal under Gordon Campbell during his decade at the helm? Or under Clark for the last two years? No and no.

Consider these 10 stories.

The Liberal government was obsessed with selling the warehousing and distribution operations of the Liquor Distribution Branch in 2012 after being lobbied by Exel Logistics, a division of the giant Deutsche Post DHL. Proceeds from the sale were supposed to help balance the budget. One of the drivers of this plan was none other than Patrick Kinsella. Then, suddenly, tendering was cancelled and the B.C. Government and Service Employees’ Union’s new contract was the convenient excuse. 

What was the real reason? 

The government doesn’t want you to know. 

The Private Career Training Institutions Agency of B.C. is a Crown corporation that regulates private post-secondary education. Last fall, it moved to shut down two schools: Royal Canadian Institute of Technology and Prana Yoga Teacher College. PCTIA registrar and CEO Karin Kirkpatrick admitted that RCIT had no financial problems or student complaints. 

Kirkpatrick approved the hiring of the law firm Lawson Lundell to represent PCTIA in these actions. 
There was no formal tendering process. 

One of Lawson Lundell's partners is Kirkpatrick's husband Murray Campbell.

Why was this potential conflict of interest allowed?

The government doesn't want you to know. 

The Province of B.C. was the guarantor for VANOC, the organizer of the 2010 Winter Olympics.  Yet, the City of Vancouver (which derives its power from the province) was given authority to cut a deal with the Canadian Olympic Committee and VANOC to seal the financial records, board minutes and legal correspondence away from the eyes of the public until the year 2025. 

Why keep the people who paid for the Games in the dark for so long? 

The government doesn’t want you to know. 

B.C. Place Stadium was renovated for $514 million to the benefit of the Vancouver Whitecaps and B.C. Lions. Do the Whitecaps and Lions pay fair market value for rent?  Why did the Whitecaps get a taxpayer subsidy for a training centre in Premier Clark’s riding, when the team’s managing director has a personal hockey rink at his mansion in Whistler? 

The government doesn’t want you to know. 

B.C. Pavilion Corporation called me frivolous and vexatious and tried to have me blacklisted from making Freedom of Information requests about the operations of money-losing B.C. Place. Then it withdrew the complaint at the 11th hour. The net result? PavCo succeeded in delaying my FOI requests until after the election. Whose idea was this? 

The government doesn’t want you to know. 

The SNC-Lavalin engineering firm is one of Canada’s biggest companies. It is under investigation for corruption on four continents, yet the B.C. government felt it was worthy of receiving the contract to design and build the $1.4 billion Evergreen Line Rapid Transit Project in the Tri-Cities. The company was also blacklisted for bribery by the World Bank from receiving construction financing for development projects. 

The government doesn’t want you to know. 

BC Liberal appointees to the Premier’s Office were found to have broken rules of their employment when they did party work on government time, using the public’s dime. Only one person lost her job. Deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad quit, and therefore was ineligible for severance. She showed up at Clark’s riding campaign office during the election as a volunteer. Pamela Martin, Brian Bonney and Barinder Bhullar also remained party insiders, despite dishonouring their commitments. 

We will have to wait until the week of June 10 before we can see some of the 10,000 documents gathered in the Quick Wins, in-house investigation by John Dyble. 

We should have been able to see the records before election day. 

But the government doesn’t want you to know. 

Did complaints from Bell, Rogers and Shaw over the direct awarding to Telus of a $1 billion 10-year government-wide service contract lead to the cancellation of the $40 million, 20-year Telus Park naming rights for B.C. Place? 

Evidence I have gathered suggests there is a link. 

But the government doesn’t want you to know. 

Life is simply awful for some of the most vulnerable children and youths in British Columbia. Some of those who struggle with addictions, abuse and mental illnesses are housed in the Maples Adolescent Treatment Centre in Burnaby, where staff complain they work in a climate of fear. 

WorkSafeBC found that incidents were covered up. 

Why? 

The government doesn’t want you to know. 

The Times of India Film Awards business plan and contract (below) was finally released to me the day before the election, even though I asked for it on Jan. 22. All the dollar figures were censored and only 18 pages of the 168-page file were released. There is even a clause that protects financial information about the controversial April 6 awards show from public scrutiny -- as long the records are held by the Times of India. 

Why did the government spend $9.5 million (out of contingencies, no less!) on a Bollywood Awards show and omit the Hollywood North film industry from the B.C. Jobs Plan? Why did the government do this deal, while claiming that it was controlling spending? 

The government doesn’t want you to know. 

Times of India Film Awards contract by BobMackin

More perspectives on the 12 years of Liberal rule include:
Five Reasons to Turf Christy Clark's Liberal Crew, by Rafe Mair from The Tyee;
Why not to vote for the BC Liberals, by James Plett;
100+ Reasons the BC Liberals Must Go, by Laila Yuile;
and, finally, Richard Giroday's Tangled Web of BC Liberal rule infographic. It is a must-see. 

Blizzard of documents says Port Mann #IceBombs were preventable

There are eight ridings up for grabs in Surrey in the May 14 provincial election. At dissolution, they were split between the ruling Liberals and opposition NDP.

Surrey is the province's second-biggest city and British Columbia is well-known for its blacktop politics. Build a bridge. Rebuild a highway. Remind voters which party spent their hard-earned tax dollars to give the project the green light.

That is the modus operandi of the ruling BC Liberals, who took it to another level when Premier Christy Clark gave the go-ahead to slash the toll on the new Port Mann Bridge tolls from $3 to $1.50 per crossing.

Clark opened the bridge, the highlight of the $3.3 billion Highway 1 project, on Dec. 1, 2012 with a photo and video opportunity. Just 18 days later, on Dec. 19, 2012, the infamous "ice bombs" incident happened. Some 350 vehicles vehicles were damaged by falling ice and snow that had been allowed to gather on the bridge cables and towers.

This had been a problem on other cable-stayed bridges in North America and Europe and the documents below show that engineers knew it was a risk at the Port Mann. Some seem to have believed it would be a manageable risk, while others were concerned about safety. Transportation Investment Corporation, the Crown corporation set-up for the project, did not have a fulsome plan before the bridge's grand opening.

There was another issue.

The bridge opening was hurried along for the Premier's photo op. The bridge was opened during B.C.'s notorious stormy season, yet it did not have its own weather station. In fact, the closest Transportation Ministry weather stations were in Abbotsford and West Vancouver. One was finally bought for $100,000 and installed in February.

With better understanding of the conditions about to happen and as they were developing, the people that operate and maintain the Port Mann could have halted traffic earlier and avoided damage, injury and embarrassment.

Below are documents I obtained via Freedom of Information that include reports and correspondence from the files of Transportation Investment Corporation and contractor Kiewit-Flatiron.

The documents were part of a 500-page-plus release that included the lengthy U.S. Army Corps of Engineers technical report on superstructure ice protection by Charles Ryerson from April 2009. 

If ice accretion is up your alley, you can download the Ryerson report here. 

FOI 12012 - PMH1-Icebombs

Surrey Liberal candidate contests lawsuit, faces regulatory challenge

The two sides in a medical negligence lawsuit disagree on many counts, but the most important fact cannot be disputed. A baby boy was not born to an immigrant from India.

Why it happened and who is to blame (if anyone is to blame) are at issue. Saroj Bala filed a medical negligence lawsuit in late-2010 against four doctors. One of them is the BC Liberal candidate in Surrey-Green Timbers.

Tung 

Dr. Amrik Singh Tung is looking for a new job in Victoria. He is challenging NDP incumbent Sue Hammell to become the riding's MLA.

Tung was the lead doctor in treating Bala's pregnancy, which ended in tragedy when the fetus was stillborn on May 21, 2009.

Bala claims she was traumatized and sought psychiatric help after the death. Tung claims he followed procedure and denies the allegations.

Below are Bala's statement of claim and the statement of defence by Tung et al.

None of Bala's allegations has been proven in court. 

Here is my story from Business in Vancouver.

Bala separately complained to the College of Physicians and Surgeons of B.C. against Tung. The College concluded that Tung's record-keeping was insufficient and he did not ensure timely transfer to an obstetrician.

Bala was not satisfied. She wanted action against Tung. An appeal to the Health Professions Review Board was successful. It directed on Sept. 14, 2012 that Bala's complaint be sent back to the College for further review.

HPRB panel chair Lori McDowell refers to Tung not by name, but as "Registrant No. 1," in her findings. In considering the autopsy, McDowell wrote that "the only possible contributor to the stillbirth" is chronoamnionitis (fetal membrane inflammation due to bacterial infection).

"No conclusions could be drawn by the existence of gestational diabetes and no other findings were made to explain the stillbirth. There is no definitive cause of death noted. No reference is made to natural causes."

McDowell concluded:

"The disposition concluded that Registrant No. 1 be directed to meet with Registrar staff for a concluding interview to review these criticisms and secure his commitment that he will make changes to improve his record keeping and proactively direct similar patients to receive appropriate care...
"With regard to the complaints against Registrant No. 1 I find that the disposition was not reasonable. I direct that the matter be sent back to the Inquiry Committee for reconsideration with the following directions:
"(1) The Inquiry Committee must provide more information regarding their final directions to Registrant No. 1. In particular, the Inquiry Committee must detail the remedial approach if one was applied, specific education requirements, learning outcomes, follow-up, monitoring if that was required and any other consequence applied in this case.
"(2) The Inquiry Committee must provide information regarding the commitments obtained from Registrant No. 1 to ensure improved record-keeping and continuation of care for future patients."

Tung did not respond to my repeated requests for comment on the lawsuit and regulatory matters.

101223 Bala Tung Claim by BobMackin

121223 Tung Bala Defence by BobMackin