Monday, September 28, 2009

That Ho is a Bad@$$: Friends in High Places

David Ho is no stranger to danger, no stranger to getting caught in compromising situations. He generally does quite well having any charges go bye-bye due to friends in high places one might speculate, at least in the past. How come he was busted on all of this back on December 28th 2008 and we’re just hearing about now and charges are proceeding? I smell somethin’ fishy about all of that. Hey, that's a funny little coincidence, I remember something else happening on December 28th 2003.


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Billionaire Vancouver businessman David Ho Charged

Vancouver Sun. Sept. 28 2009.

VANCOUVER - David Ho, the billionaire entrepreneur who moved to Vancouver 25 years ago from Hong Kong, used to have a movie-prop police car parked at his $4-million Shaughnessy home to scare off would-be burglars.

On Dec. 28, 2008, at about 5 a.m., a real police car arrived at his Hudson Street home in response to a 911 call from neighbours involving a woman Ho had met online.

Ho, who in 2005 was named business leader of the year by the Vancouver Junior Board of Trade, faces seven criminal charges, including unlawful confinement, various firearm offences and possession of a controlled substance under schedule 1 of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act, which covers cocaine and heroin.

Ho was also a big donor to candidates for Vancouver’s Non-Partisan Association and to former Liberal prime minister Paul Martin, whose leadership bid received $100,000 from the entrepreneur.

The B.C. Liberals also benefited from Ho’s generosity. His donations to the party have totalled more than $100,000 since 2005.

Ho told The Vancouver Sun in 2003 that he first met [Vern] Campbell in the mid-1980s, when Ho served a two-year term on the Vancouver police board and Campbell was a police superintendent.

"He was the only guy willing to help me with some things I didn’t understand at the time," Ho told The Sun, crediting Campbell with assisting him in his assimilation into Canadian society.

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Total Charges - unlawful confinement, unlawfully causing bodily harm, storage of a firearm contrary to regulations, unauthorized possession of a firearm, possession of prohibited or restricted firearm with ammunition, possession of a prohibited firearm without a license and possession of a controlled substance.


Global BC Video: Billionaire Vancouver businessman David Ho faces criminal charges

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Ho fucking Ho? Harmony Airways owner David Ho allegedly pulled over by police with two prostitutes, Global TV reports

Bill Tieleman. March 02, 2007.


Global TV's John Daley reported last night that David Ho, owner of Harmony Airways, was recently pulled over by Vancouver Police in the company of two sex trade workers.

Global reports that a crack cocaine pipe was also found in the car and that Ho was given a 24 hour roadside suspension at the time.

Ho's name most recently came up in December 2006 when former BC Liberal Finance Minister Gary Collins quit as Harmony Airways CEO after just two years on the job. Collins recently joined Belkorp Industries as a senior Vice-President.

Ho is a major BC Liberal donor and supporter, donating more than $102,000 to the party.


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CTV exposes Graham's connection to Hong Kong criminal network.

Click on the video link under the Graham's Incompetence collection of stories.
Scroll down almost to the bottom and click on the CTV video.
BC Revolution.

"Ho has been transferring large sums of money to various VPD fundraisers. Ho is filmed in the above video at a VPD ODD squad fundraiser dinner."

Ho has been reported to contribute money to the Vancouver Police Foundation.

The stories mention "Ho was caught by the VPD with a large sum of cocaine, yet the VPD dismissed all charges...." [According to CTV video report above, Ho was caught with 30 grams of crack cocaine].

"Ho's family is allegedly one of the many Hong Kong members of the Big Circle crime syndicate that was recently exposed (in a W5 passport scandal report) as having close ties to the upper brass within the RCMP and Federal government. "

VPD says Graham will be cleared in current
controversy
By Charlie Smith. Georgia Straight. Dec. 1 2005.

Vancouver police Chief Jamie Graham is being investigated under the Police Act in connection with donations to the Vancouver Police Foundation.
The Vancouver police department issued a November 23 news release stating that three contributors-Electronic Arts, the Wosk family, and Harmony Airways-gave approximately $50,000 to the foundation. Half came from Harmony Airways, which is owned by entrepreneur David Ho.

According to the VPD release, a "senior member" of the department had concerns about tax issues and asked for a review by the RCMP commercial crime section. "

The results of the investigation conducted by the RCMP, assisted by the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency, was that there was no wrongdoing by anyone and that was confirmed by a Special Prosecutor appointed by the Attorney General's office," the VPD stated.

The VPD claimed in its news release that media falsely stated that Ho had paid for hotel rooms at a conference of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police in Vancouver in 2004. "

In any mass conference booking of hotel rooms it is common for the hotel to include a few complimentary rooms," the VPD purported. "Chief Graham and two other executives of the CACP stayed in those rooms and all others were billed."

The VPD also insisted in the news release that Graham will be cleared because the investigation concerns the same issue that the RCMP already reviewed.

Ho is a former Vancouver police-board member and owner of MCL Motor Cars. Several years ago, the Burrard Street dealership supplied a Jaguar, decked out in RCMP colours, to the North Vancouver RCMP detachment for community relations. At the time, Graham was the commanding officer in North Vancouver.

Tuesday, September 22, 2009

Appreciation Goes a Long Way: Public Service Careers Imploding

Price of Breaking the hearts and destroying the futures of tiny children with autism: $5 million for BC's early intensive behavioural intervention program

Number of Autistic Children "taking up that slack": 70.
(Direct quote from Mary Polak, Minister of Children & Family Development).

Busting Managers from MCFD spending money on a staff party in the Park: Priceless

BTW: The name of your Ministry is the "Ministry of Children & Family Development." You would think one would be aware of that. Wonder if those MCFD employees that have been losing their jobs are "Appreciating" life these days?

Bzzzzzzz, Cut, slash, burn, timmmmmmber.
That's sound you hear in the BC public service these days. Disappearing, redundancies, consolidations, tears and sadness as colleagues say goodbye and the sound of bumping and morale dropping even more into the toilet. And those lucky to stay know they'll be run into the ground with the work of too many.

There are so many points in time we will look to with fond reminiscence and say "in the good old day, you know, when our government took care of our most needy, most vulnerable..." Those days are done in BC.

Changing Outcomes - Watch Mary in Action here and here explaining away the unexplainable.

Public Eye Online

Last week, Children and Family Development Minister Mary Polak said the government was "not seeing any appreciable improvement in the outcomes" for autistic children in its early intensive behavioural intervention program - at least when compared with other treatment options. That statement was a reference to a four-year-old report by University of British Columbia special education professor Pat Mirenda. But, in a scrum today, Minister Polak said those outcomes weren't among the reasons why the program is being shutdown. See for yourself if there's been a change in messaging. Minister Polak also stated the government didn't consult Prof. Mirenda prior to making that decision.

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Is this really the best we can do for babies who could have died?
Question: Would it have been long enough to charge him with murder if that life-saving hero didn't find those children and seek emergency help for them before they expired from heat exhaustion?

Lesson learned: If they don't die, it's okay to leave them alone for a while locked in the car, maybe crack a window and leave 'em a couple of bottles next time. Wouldn't want your kids to get in the way of a fun night of partying.

If these were dogs, the owner would have been charged with Cruelty to Animals.
Are children really worth less consequences than animals in 2009?
Why is Herman worth more?
Man Charged after Strangling and Beating Herman the Cat

No charges after children left in van
CBC News. September 21, 2009
Quotes:

Abbotsford police will not be recommending charges against the 26- year-old father, because they were not able to establish how long the children were in the vehicle, according to Const. Ian MacDonald.

Police were called to the scene by a woman who overheard the father at a beer garden at the fair saying he'd left the children in the vehicle.

Kids left in locked van in Abbotsford: police
CBC News. August 1, 2009.

A woman who alerted police to two young children left in a sealed van for hours may have saved their lives, Abbotsford police said Saturday.

Police said they were doing routine checks at about 1 a.m. PT at the Abbotsford Agrifair when a distressed woman alerted them that two children, ages two and four months, had been left in a van for hours while their father was drinking at the Fat Pig Saloon.

Const. Ian MacDonald said the car was locked, all of the windows were closed and the children were in grave condition.

"They were extremely distressed, as you can imagine. They're still awake and they're in a locked vehicle probably with strange surroundings … they had soiled their diapers and they were extremely dehydrated," he said.

What the HELL is wrong with our world these days and what are we doing to stop this madness?

Saturday, September 12, 2009

BC Government Work Environment Surveys: A Collosal Waste of Time

None of the Above
Sean Holman. Public Eye. September 10, 2009.

A senior children and family development bureaucrat suspected "quazi (sic) job action" was one of the reasons why the ministry's employees were slow to participate in this year's annual government-wide workplace environment survey. With six days left to complete that survey, chief operating officer Mark Sieben reported on April 23 that just 63 percent of those employees had done so, lagging behind other ministries. Mr. Sieben advanced several explanations for that lag. In emails sent to fellow executives between April 16 and 23 and obtained by Public Eye via a freedom of information request, he suggested:


Comment to above story:

It's so funny how bureaucrats look for external reasons to blame for lack of participation in these ridiculous workplace surveys. Here are the real reasons:

Government does not listen to employees anyways, so filling out internal surveys is a waste of time and staff know it.

Government spins the numbers anyways, so it is irrelevant to waste time better spent elsewhere - PROTECTING CHILDREN.

Another reason, government has made it clear to their employees that when they offer feedback that is deemed "negative" that government is tracking the "complainers" and making note of them. Talk about Orwellian. Government has threatened and intimidated their staff by telling them "we know who you are" because of your IDIR and we know you are a negative nellie complainer and there is no room for that around MCFD.

Where is the evidence that MCFD has made improvements related to survey results of past Environmental surveys?

Staff, BCGEU and many other stakeholders have been telling the leadership of MCFD what they need to do to improve the work environment for years and years AND THEY DON'T LISTEN.
Examples -
- They are cutting staff and have plans to cut more, that is the single most harmful thing being done to employees and IT'S BEING DONE BY THE "LEADERSHIP" OF MCFD.
- By failing to adequately ensure the safety of employees who often work alone, or in isolation.

Here's some questions - how much taxpayer money has gone toward paying fines to WCB for failures of OSH, to decrease violence toward employees, to create safer working conditions? How many times has MCFD been cited and fined by WCB?

Employees in MCFD, with the exception of management and senior bureaucrats of course, are too damn busy to waste their valuable time filling out surveys that are meaningless and are not going to be acted on. They are busy doing things like PROTECTING CHILDREN AND SUPPORTING FAMILIES.

For some real honest answers to a survey, Pivot Legal Society's report Hands Tied: Child protection workers talk about working in, and leaving, B.C.’s child welfare system.

What did MCFD learn from that survey and change to improve retention? Not one thing and they continue culling the herd.

Any Ministry that would create "Appreciation Champions" as a way to cover up their vast incompetence and failure to adequately support and care for their staff, ignoring years of internal and external recommendations for improving working conditions should not be surprised at low response rates to yet another meaningless survey that will go nowhere.

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Budget-linked Layoffs hit Child Protection Workers in North West BC

BCGEU. Jul 16 '09.

Child protection workers in Terrace, Prince Rupert and Kitimat have received word that six full time positions will be eliminated in their region because of provincial government budget cuts.

Staff-who work with vulnerable children and families at risk-were told by their managers that the cuts are necessary to ensure that the office can balance the costs of front line social workers with the money allocated by the Campbell government to pay for salaries.

It's anticipated that child protection and guardianship services across the north will face similar cuts.

Darryl Walker, President of the B.C. Government and Service Employees' Union:

"The Campbell government is leaving children and families at risk and will add to the overwhelming caseloads of social workers," says Walker. "Instead of cutting staff in this high stress occupation, Victoria should be boosting funding and lowering caseloads."

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Solving the Problem of Mental Illness & Homelessness is Simple: Meet their Needs

It's a particular pet peeve of mine when people start whinging about how "difficult" or "complex" the homeless problem is. How there are "no easy solutions" and other sorts of nonsense. Actually, it dead simple, not hard at all.


The mentally ill and homeless require housing. Now. First. Before anything else. Every human being in this world needs a space to be inside, to have a place to keep their belongings, to have belongings that mean something to them. A place to have some dignity. How would most of us handle not having anywhere to do our business in private, to shower, or bath? Don't we all want to have a place to keep the world out, or to have people visit? Seems pretty basic to me.

And food. Nutritious food. With enough of it. Not from dumpsters. Not thrown out from restaurants. Not past their best buy dates. A place to cook, to have stores of food.

From there, the mentally ill need treatment. They need to be able to get in the front door of their local mental health clinic. Into the hospital when they need it. The research is clear, short-term stays aka "tune ups" do not work for those with chronic and serious psychiatric illness.

We have to stop moralizing about drug use and we need to treat addicts and those who become mentally because of drug use like the sick people they are. Sometimes they need to be hospitalized, they have a right to care for their complex health issues. Addictions are a health issue and part of the DSM-IV and as such fall within the domain of hospitals to treat. We don't get all moral at people with MS, with cancer, with diabetes. We give them health care. And when they need to, they stay in hospital.

Another beef I have with how we frame the issue of the "mentally ill" is to presume that there is some sort of homogenous group of "the mentally ill." Each and every one of us walk by people every day who are diagnosed with some sort of "disorder" and perhaps are on medication.

There is a continuum of mental health on which each and every one of us shows up on at some point along a line. And we can go back and forth depending on many factors.

What being labelled mentally ill does is creates an arbitrary, socially constructed category of people and then exposes them to socioeconomic and cultural vulnerabilities and risk factors that often lead to their marginalization and social exclusion from the privileges and benefits many of us take for granted as citizens who happen to appear at one side of a continuum at a particular point in time in our life.


How is it fair that our governments construct this sort of frivolous and socially sanctioned discrimination against a group that any one of us could slide into given a bad enough set of circumstances? Those with mental illness don't ask to have it. They don't set their sights on living on the sidelines, slaves to something that is often completely beyond their control. But even if it is in their control, why would we still not help and support those who need it. It serves our own self-interest to do so as a society. Public disorder flourishes with lack of access to care for mental illness and addictions and the health impacts. That harms all of us.

Fix the broken mental health system. That is a solution too. If you can't get into a mental health clinic to get an assessment and you can't get into a mental health clinic without an Axis I diagnosis, how does anyone get anywhere? When mental health centres can stop taking patients for a while, where do those people go? How many end up in jail like the good ol' American style of care for their mentally ill?

Fix the Broken Child Welfare System. Think about this, each year the BC Liberals are in power in BC, we are adding to the next generation of mentally ill, homeless and criminal populations. There is no debate, no spin, no BS. A generation of children have grown up with profound systemic and governmental negligence. Some have died because of it. Many have been hurt, raped, abused, neglected. School districts are being forced to cut hot lunch programs for kids for god's sake? BC has led Canada in child poverty for six years in a row because our government does not care whether our next generations of children live in poverty, have enough to eat, or anywhere to live. Whether they have people abusing, or hurting them. Because if they did, they would do something to improve the future viability of our kids. Our children simply do not matter to the BC government and it's high-priced incompetent bureaucracy. While they are creating "Appreciation Champions" they might consider creating Champions for Childrens' Safety & Protection.

How many kids, before they are even adults, actually get mental health services?
If a government will cut funding to children who have been sexually abused, they have crossed into a place of no return. A place of true evil. A place where the next generation of mentally ill and addicted citizens get their start, at the hands of their own government, who then throw them out like garbage dumped down at Main & Hastings.

There are many things we could do to help those who have mental illness, to offer them dignity, care and support. But our governments are not doing that. Because they quite simply do not care.


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Dignity for All:
The Campaign for a Poverty-free Canada


I believe that freedom from poverty is a human right.
I believe in equality among all people.
I believe we are all entitled to social and economic security.
I believe in dignity for all.
NOW is the time to end poverty in Canada.


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Mentally Ill and Homeless

The Victoria Times Colonist - The Gazette, Montreal

September 10, 2009

In the almost 50 years since Canada first began discharging mentally ill patients from psychiatric institutions to live in the community, homelessness has become an intractable problem for many Canadian towns and cities.

Grandly declaring that mentally ill patients had the right to decide for themselves whether to get treated, governments across the country shut down psychiatric asylums. The fact that the state thereby saved millions of dollars didn't escape the attention of the patients' families, friends and doctors. They complained, but to little avail.

Today, desperately ill psychiatric patients are seen in every major Canadian city: Some ramble incoherently; others can be seen digging through garbage bins.

No one doubts that the mentally ill form the bulk of the homeless population. Research from Ontario shows that they make up 66 per cent of those without homes.

The Ontario research found that in the year before they lost their home, six per cent of homeless people had been in a psychiatric facility, 20 per cent had been treated for substance-abuse problems, 25 per cent had received psychiatric outpatient services and 30 per cent had spent time in police stations or jails.

In a move that has been a disgracefully long time coming, the Canadian Mental Health Commission is launching a $150-million program to see how best to help the homeless. Five cities have been chosen to participate in the four-year-long project: Montreal, Toronto, Moncton, Winnipeg and Vancouver.

The homeless chosen to take part in the project will be divided into two groups. Those in the control group will carry on as usual in their chaotic existence, bouncing from shelter to jail cell to hospital. The other group, numbering about 300 homeless, will be housed and followed by as many experts as are needed. The idea is to find out whether a home and services adapted to the individual will allow that person to lead a more stable life.

British Columbia has already tried this "experiment." Compared with the $694 million a year that homeless people cost in police, hospital and homeless shelters, B.C. found that using a combination of subsidized housing and social services would cost $32 million less.

It isn't necessary, surely, to take another four years to prove the same thing.

© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

What Price are We Willing to Pay for Our Soul: Culling the Herd BC Liberal Style

I tried to call a welfare office today, one of many that are reported to exist in the Ministry of Housing & Social Development. I was on the phone for over 45 minutes, pressing GD buttons, desperately trying to get to a human. I NEVER DID! Or even a place I could leave a message for someone, anyone who might be able to help.
  • I do not have Schizophrenia or any other major mental disorder and need care.
  • I am not an immigrant with little English.
  • I am not a woman who's been beaten again who needs to leave before he kills her, or one of her children.
  • I'm not disabled from a work accident & I can't get WCB.
  • I haven't lost my job and my EI has run out, there's no jobs where I live, I can't afford to move and I don't know how I'm going to feed my kids.
  • I didn't get sick, or have an unexpected accident and find I can't work, can't get EI, or I've been waiting for 3 and a half months now and they still haven't "processed my application."
  • I am not homeless.
  • I am not being pimped, beaten and drugged so my "boyfriend" can make money off of me and I grew up in foster care.
What is happening in BC, to our very most in need of public services, is a crime - A CRIME BEING PERPETRATED AGAINST THE PEOPLE of BC.
I am a taxpayer, have been for many years now. I want MY money to go towards helping those who need it. It benefits them, it benefits me and our society at large. There was a time I needed it and there may be a time I need it in the future. My money is no damn good being siphoned into the Olympics instead of providing aid and support to my fellow citizens.

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Ombudsman recommends improvements to income assistance

Last Resort: Improving Fairness and Accountability in British Columbia’s Income Assistance Program

The report follows a lengthy systemic investigation that was initially prompted by complaints about income assistance that the British Columbia Public Interest Advocacy Centre (BC PIAC) brought to the attention of the Ombudsman’s office in 2005. The Ombudsman’s office issued its
first report on this investigation in March 2006, and has now concluded the systemic investigation.


“In order to be fair, government programs must be accessible to those they are designed to serve. Policies that are unfair or unreasonable must be changed. It is also necessary for the government to ensure it is complying with its own policies and standards, and to use objective and reliable methods to measure its own performance,” Ms. Carter said.
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Canadian Charter of Rights & Freedoms

Legal Rights

Life, liberty and security of person

7. Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of the person and the right not to be deprived thereof except in accordance with the principles of fundamental justice.

[Ed. How many among us, our citizens, have died because their right to life was comprised because their government would not help them access a basic income, or shelter. ]

Treatment or punishment

12. Everyone has the right not to be subjected to any cruel and unusual treatment or punishment.

[Ed. Denying income assistance and public services to the poor, the disabled and the abused is cruel, intolerable and SHOULD BE unusual treatment in BC and Canada. It has become accepted and acceptable and that is NOT the province, or country I grew up in, nor want as a taxpayer. ]

Equality before and under law and equal protection and benefit of law

15. (1) Every individual is equal before and under the law and has the right to the equal protection and equal benefit of the law without discrimination and, in particular, without discrimination based on race, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, sex, age or mental or physical disability.

[Ed. The poor are not equal under the law in BC. They have no rights, they have NO protections, they have no equal benefits, they have nothing. They do not even have the right to vote in their own province, or country. No ID, no vote].

Enforcement of guaranteed rights and freedoms

24. (1) Anyone whose rights or freedoms, as guaranteed by this Charter, have been infringed or denied may apply to a court of competent jurisdiction to obtain such remedy as the court considers appropriate and just in the circumstances.

Application of Charter

32. (1) This Charter applies

(a) to the Parliament and government of Canada in respect of all matters within the authority of Parliament including all matters relating to the Yukon Territory and Northwest Territories; and

(b) to the legislature and government of each province in respect of all matters within the authority of the legislature of each province.

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United Nations
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
and its Optional Protocol came into force on May 3, 2008. Convention aims to ensure that persons with disabilities enjoy all human rights on an equal basis with others.

Article 10 - Right to life

States Parties reaffirm that every human being has the inherent right to life and shall take all necessary measures to ensure its effective enjoyment by persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others.

Article 13 - Access to justice

1. States Parties shall ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities on an equal basis with others, including through the provision of procedural and age-appropriate accommodations, in order to facilitate their effective role as direct and indirect participants, including as witnesses, in all legal proceedings, including at investigative and other preliminary stages.

2. In order to help to ensure effective access to justice for persons with disabilities, States Parties shall promote appropriate training for those working in the field of administration of justice, including police and prison staff.

Article 28 - Adequate standard of living and social protection

1. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to an adequate standard of living for themselves and their families, including adequate food, clothing and housing, and to the continuous improvement of living conditions, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right without discrimination on the basis of disability.

2. States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to social protection and to the enjoyment of that right without discrimination on the basis of disability, and shall take appropriate steps to safeguard and promote the realization of this right, including measures:

a) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to clean water services, and to ensure access to appropriate and affordable services, devices and other assistance for disability-related needs;

b) To ensure access by persons with disabilities, in particular women and girls with disabilities and older persons with disabilities, to social protection programmes and poverty reduction programmes;

c) To ensure access by persons with disabilities and their families living in situations of poverty to assistance from the State with disability-related expenses, including adequate training, counselling, financial assistance and respite care;

d) To ensure access by persons with disabilities to public housing programmes; (e)

e) To ensure equal access by persons with disabilities to retirement benefits and programmes.

Try this on for living:

Regular welfare - Shelter Maximum - 1 person - $375.00+ $235.00 (Basic support) = $610

Disability Income -
Shelter Maximum - 1 person - $375.00 + $531.42 = $906

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Go Big with Our Money, or GO Home: Is it Really Too Much to Ask for some Business 101 Courses for BC Liberals?

Doesn't it just get exhausting having such idiots in "power" of our great province?
I said it from day one, they were going to be piss poor managers of the public purse, of the public services that our citizens depend on. One thing I don't think most of us realize is how this cluster bomb occurred on such a scale. It's the privatization and devolution folks. And of course the ideology.

They took all of the services that were under the Ministry of Health, with one infrastructure, spread around the regions. Then the rocket scientists n Victoria decided to devolve Health to 6 regional authorities. No mere duplication of infrastructure - NO WAY, GO BIG OR GO HOME on our dime. Instead of one Deputy Minister with an exorbitant compensation plan, they deputized 6, read 'em, 6 high-priced Chief Executive Officers (CEO's) & 6 boards. 6 Human Resource workshops. 6 of everything.

Hmmm, will we ever find out the taxpayer price tag on what it actually cost to devolve and move our health and other services to community regions and all of the privization of our former services? And now this has been shown to have been a GIGANTIC FAILURE and wasted MILLIONS of our dollars, that could have actually been put into our actual services. I know, a NOVEL IDEA. Actually funding services.

So now, behind the glass, they are quietly consolidating everything they can, bringing Health authorities closer and closer, it's sharing time, kids, don't you just feel warm and cozy.?
Had the average Jane and Joe on the street been asked back in 2002 if they thought it made business sense to create 6 complete infrastructures versus keeping the one that existed before, do you think they would have come up with the right answer? Or the BC Liberal answer to health services? I, too, think the people of BC would have understood that this is not a sustainable way to run a business and that said business had a good chance of becoming insolvent sooner rather than later. Well, here we are 9 years into the reign of BC Liberal terror and they are bringing it back together AND cutting the services that our people need. Let's rid of them before they get rid of more of us through systemic and government neglect.

The privatization continues and our public services go careening down the toilet, leaving our most vulnerable and needy, our seniors, our kids, those in pain are SOL. And we're experiencing a fast growing socially dislocated middle and working class who are finding there is no social safety net to catch anyone now.

This government is CLOSED for the business of the public good. End of story.
Except for Olympic funding of course. There is still money left for that.
The hole in the bottom of BC's cookie jar will be readily apparent after the World has gone home and BC's citizens are left to pick up the pieces of our broken and broke society for the next few generations.

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Government to Cut 1630 civil service jobs
This year's layoffs of one per cent will affect about 300 people

By Rob Shaw and Lindsay Kines, Canwest News Service – The Vancouver Sun

September 2, 2009

Excerpt:

The 300 immediate layoffs are spread across nine ministries: attorney-general, advanced education and labour market development, citizens' services, finance, forests and range, housing and social development, labour, public safety and solicitor-general, and the office of the premier.

McDonald said more layoffs were avoided through cost savings. That included a voluntary four-day work week, senior executive reductions, and previously announced layoffs in the Public Affairs Bureau and human resources department.

Bruce Carter, chief executive of the Greater Victoria Chamber of Commerce:

"We have an entire segment that exists to service government and right now that entire segment is starving," Carter said. "It's possible we could lose companies as a result of this."

Companies elsewhere in B.C. that fill government contracts will feel similar effects. Carter said government cutbacks to administrative, travel and professional service budgets made in February have already had a "huge" impact on the local economy.

[Ed. The slashing of community social and health service contracts is happening too.]

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2006/07

The top public sector wage earners

Health Service Authority Salaries

2007/08 Disclosures