The BC Liberal Sticking Point: 1 Premier & 2 Cabinet Ministers involved in wood building scandal

Clark overstepped fiscal bounds with failed plan for tallest wood building: former finance minister

JUSTINE HUNTER AND ANDY HOFFMAN

VICTORIA AND VANCOUVER — The Globe and Mail, Mar. 10 2013.

Former finance minister Kevin Falcon says the political storm over a collapsed deal to build a palace for B.C. wood products in Prince George was triggered when Premier Christy Clark overstepped the bounds of what the provincial treasury was willing to pay.

On a September 19, 2011, visit to Prince George, home of two of her most powerful cabinet ministers, Ms. Clark stepped up the rhetoric around the long-promised Wood Innovation and Design Centre (WIDC), saying it would be the world’s tallest wood building.

Pat Bell, the Jobs Minister, also repeated the promise, making it difficult for Mr. Falcon, then responsible for the province’s purse strings, to pull back.

“That was an unfortunate description,” said Mr. Falcon in an interview. “As chair of Treasury Board and finance minister, I made it very clear it was not something that should be talked about because it was clearly not something we could deliver on with the dollars available.”

The mayor of Prince George at the time, Dan Rogers, said Ms. Clark’s public announcement that the wooden tower would be the world’s tallest meant the province had committed to a massive project.

“Obviously, when Premier Clark announced a 10-storey building, we were really excited,” Mr. Rogers said in an interview.

“When we did the math, it represented a $100-million investment.”

Mr. Falcon, who was replaced as Finance Minister after announcing he would not be running again in the coming election, said he is a long-time friend of Dan McLaren, one of the disgruntled proponents of the project, first mentioned in the government’s Throne Speech in 2009.

Mr. McLaren and another local businessman named Brian Fehr have alleged that the Jobs Minister made promises and assurances to them that Mr. Fehr’s proposal, using land controlled by Mr. McLaren, would be shortlisted for the government contract to build the Wood Centre. That proposal did not make the short list, however, and an $8.9-million loan to Mr. McLaren by a public trust fund is now in default.

Mr. Falcon said he was careful to stay out of the development of the project because of his association with Mr. McLaren and said he never tried to set up a meeting for the Prince George businessman with the Premier. He said he was not aware that Mr. McLaren had assembled a significant amount of land in the city’s downtown until much later in the process.

“I always advised Dan the same thing, the only commitment I was ever aware of around this property was the $25-million commitment from government, and that was all we would be spending. … The dollar commitment from government never varied. The issue that Dan McLaren constantly complained to me about was that it had been described by the current Premier and Minister Bell that it was going to be the world’s largest wood construction building.”

As the head of Treasury Board, his refusal to budge on the dollar figure effectively killed the project that Mr. McLaren was counting on because a smaller building would not use all the land Mr. McLaren had assembled with the loan from the public trust.

“What I kiboshed was that this was going to be the world’s tallest wood building. I said that was not going to be possible with the dollars available,” he said.

The former finance minister acknowledged that he was under pressure to reconsider.
“That wasn’t particularly well-received by anyone, including Dan. But that was the only commitment we were aware of at Treasury Board and certainly we didn’t have the fiscal room to make the world’s tallest wood building.”

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Christy Clark brushes off criticism from Kevin Falcon about wood building
CBC News, Mar 11, 2013.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark continues to face criticism from within her own party, this time from former finance minister Kevin Falcon, over her promises to build a new centre for wood innovation in Prince George.

In 2011, Clark said the government would build "the world's tallest multi-use wood building" to house the new research centre.

That led many to conclude the building would have to be at least 10 storeys tall to match the size of existing wood buildings. Some estimates put the cost of a 10-storey wood structure at $100 million.

Falcon says it was clearly not something the province could deliver, because the province had only committed $25 million to the project.

On Sunday he told The Globe and Mail the premier overstepped the limits of what the province was willing to pay for the new building.

Falcon came second to Clark in the B.C. Liberal's 2011 leadership race and is not running again in the upcoming May election, leading to speculation he may be trying to distance himself from Clark with his comments, perhaps in preparation for a run for federal politics.

He was not at the legislature on Monday when the premier was forced to sidestep questions from reporters about his comments, saying she did not know what motivated Falcon's words.

"I don't know what motivates anybody's comments, but the thing is, at the end of the day, this project is happening," said Clark.

"Particularly over a period of time...projects will change, the scope of things will change, budgets will change."

But NDP leader Adrian Dix said he was not impressed by Clark's explanation.

"Clearly the government, on this issue in terms of its fiscal management, has been found wanting — not by me, but by Mr. Falcon," said Dix.

The Wood Innovation and Design Centre will be built at the old Prince George Hotel site on George Street and is expected to house both academic and research programs focused on advancing B.C.'s expertise in wood-related products.

It is not the first time the project has been in the news. Last month a Prince George developer alleged that Jobs Minister Pat Bell personally promised him he would be short listed for the project, but the minister insisted everything was handled properly.

BC Liberals Dissing their own Party: It's about time

I'm not seeing the problem, Bill Bennett. People who aren't running are tired of the sorry b.s. that Christy Clark's government has been spewing and the crap she and her minions have been up to. Bennett has been part of this government for a while now, he likely knows a lot more about the stuff that's been going on behind the scenes than most of us. Don't get pissed off your political career is in jeopardy. Maybe its your party's (mis)management, bad public policies and the hurt your BC Liberal party has unleashed on a whole lot of voters over the last decade that is going to get all of your butts thrown out of office. 

You're also not going to hear any weeping since all of the current MLA's will get "transitional" funding if they get voted out of office. And unlike the majority of voters, politicians are getting gold-star pension plans while in office. 

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Critical BC Liberals not running again, says Bennett

By Andrew MacLeod, 11 Mar 2013, TheTyee.ca 

 

BC Liberal MLAs who have said they won't run in the May 14 election are creating problems for the governing party, Bill Bennett said today.

"There's an issue with a whole bunch of people who aren't running again, who aren't invested the way you are when you are running," said Bennett, who is minister of community, sport and cultural development and the BC Liberals election platform co-chair.

"You think you can just say whatever you feel like saying and there's no consequences and for them I guess there aren't," he said.

He acknowledged he's frustrated. "I want to win. I want to win personally and I want to see our party win. Seeing people not running again, they've taken their eye of the ball. It's not about them anymore."

Bennett made the comments on a day when the Globe and Mail quoted former finance minister Kevin Falcon saying Premier Christy Clark made promises in Prince George for a 10-storey wood frame building to serve as the Wood Innovation and Design Centre, even though he'd told her there wasn't enough money for a building of that scale. 

Falcon, who came second in the BC Liberal leadership contest Clark won, has also recently publicly criticized the government over the controversial ethnic outreach memo.

While Bennett did not name names, around 17 of the current BC Liberal MLAs have announced they don't intend to run in May's election.

Andrew MacLeod is The Tyee's Legislative Bureau Chief in Victoria. Find him on Twitter or reach him here.

Will Premier Christy Clark's grovelling be enough? Not a chance

 

Geoff Olsen, Vancouver Courier, March 6, 2013.

Will Premier Christy Clark's grovelling be enough?

Les Leyne, Vancouver, Courier, March 05, 2013.

 

The days of good alternatives are gone for Premier Christy Clark's government. All that's left now is to figure out the least worst alternative.

Six weeks before the election campaign begins, she spent Monday accepting a symbolic cabinet resignation, apologizing profusely for the ethnic outreach scandal and begging for time while her deputy minister digs into the job of investigating, among other people, her.

She also took 90 minutes to smooth things over with her disenchanted caucus. That was the only clear win of the day for her. She managed to convince those present to walk past reporters without saying anything inflammatory about her leadership. (Not counting Vancouver-Fraserview MLA Kash Heed, who took a family time-out and didn't bother attending.)

It got so bad that at one point she was apologizing for the first apology, telling reporters that she offered her sincere regrets for not returning to the legislature last week to deliver the government's first apology in person.

That was the clumsy attempt Deputy Premier Rich Coleman read on her behalf, apologizing for the plan B.C. Liberals hatched last year to co-opt government multicultural staff for political advantage and design apologies for historical ethnic wrongs for quick political wins. The obvious question is whether the whirlpool generated by the leak of the plan will take her down along with John Yap, who resigned as advanced education and multiculturalism minister.

Last week, some fed-up cabinet ministers appeared ready to call her out. That prospect faded after an emergency weekend cabinet meeting and Monday's extended caucus session. But her cryptic remark Monday about what lies ahead raised the possibility she could conceivably take herself out of play if the situation worsens. "When we have all the facts and the report is tabled, we will likely be required to take further action, and I will take that action," she told the media.

It could just mean she's intent on cleaning up the mess. But all the leaked documents to date show that her office is deeply involved.

A document from a December 2011 meeting to co-ordinate the ethnic outreach effort lists several people from the premier's office. They include former deputy chief of staff Kim Haakstad, who resigned last week, and "outreach director" Pamela Martin. (Martin, a former TV personality, was identified as the overall lead for one particular part of the strategy: "Tying faith into plan - reach through faith." It described multi-faith roundtables and "identifying our supporters in key faith groups.")

The Opposition said the list contradicts Clark's assertion last week that her people weren't involved in crafting the plan and that Haakstad merely distributed it. The Opposition has turned its document leaks over to John Dyble, deputy minister to the premier, who is running the investigation.

Yap stepped aside only because multiculturalism was his portfolio. He only assumed responsibility in March 2012, months after the offending documents were circulated. He said he was caught completely off-guard last week when they were aired and pointed to his (inept) attempt to defend the government as proof.

So a minister resigned honourably to take responsibility for something he knew nothing about. But where does that leave a premier who says she wants to take just as much responsibility and has at least four direct office staff implicated in the scandal?

Clark told the house "there may be new details that emerge . . . when that review is delivered, I will act on the recommendations . . . because British Columbians deserve to know not only that I am sorry but that I am prepared to accept responsibility."

It was a day of abject grovelling for the most part, which isn't the best way to build political momentum. The only half-hearted defence from Clark was that the plan was just a concept. "It seems apparent at the moment that most of that document - particularly the things that most of us, including me, find most offensive - was not acted on."

It's Dyble who will write the end of this story. He and three other deputy-level officials are investigating the affair. Dyble has already interviewed Haakstad and has free range to talk to anyone in government who knows about the scheme. So, rather than gearing up for a high-energy campaign, Clark is obviously braced for more bad news. What she plans to do about it is anyone's guess. 

lleyne@timescolonist.com

© Copyright (c) Vancouver Courier.

BC Liberals Put Families who need Child Care Last

Well, she's all about "Families First" right? The new $55 a month "tax benefit" is offensive coming from someone who is a parent. A study last year reported one third of children starting kindergarten in Vancouver were not ready to start in terms of reaching expected learning and social milestones. This equals to a significant number of children starting out their school careers at a disadvantage. What is the government doing about that? Absolutely nothing. It is an issue that should concern all of us. BC needs all of our kids to be successful, educated and contributing members of society. Our future as a province depends on it.

B.C. premier's office mobbed over child-care costs

CBC News, Mar 9, 2013. 

About 200 protesters gathered outside Premier Christy Clark's constituency office in Vancouver's Point Grey neighbourhood Saturday afternoon to demand affordable public child care.

The rally, organized by the Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC, is urging the province adopt the "$10-a-day plan" for affordable child care, which would see parents pay $10 a day for daycare with the province picking up the rest of the tab.
Many of those at the rally hope to see B.C. create a program like Quebec's, which provides subsidized childcare for $7 a day.

In the recent budget, the government promised a $55-a-month child-care tax benefit for families with children under age six, starting in 2015.

Irene Lanzinger, speaking for the BC Federation of Labour, says the tax benefit does nothing to help families who already face expensive child-care fees and housing prices.

"Well, it's not enough, and it's not geared toward childcare," Lanziger said. "We need something that specifically increases childcare and makes child care more affordable so working families can do better."

With files from the CBC's Farrah Merali

 

A Scandal a Day Keeps the Voters Away: BC Liberal poll numbers signal defeat

Geeze, I think BC could have an inquiry on Shirley Bond alone. She's been so successful at keeping below the radar while being up to her eyeballs in many things.

A quick scan of both rags for Prince George brings up zilch on this story. Maybe this is why print media is dying - too much coverage of bake sales, and the like, while local media stop doing its job and reporting on real issues that are important to readers and voters.

A new headache for the Clark government
Sean Leslie, Victoria/CKNW(AM980), 3/6/2013.

It's the last thing the Clark government needs: Another scandal.

Cabinet ministers Pat Bell and Shirley Bond are under fire for their alleged roles in trying to influence a 25-million dollar government project in Prince George.

At issue is whether Bell and Bond exerted pressure to secure funding for a wood development centre in their hometown of Prince George; then left two local businessman who put land together for the project out hundreds of thousands of dollars when they didn't make the short list.

New Democrat M.L.A. Maurine Karagianis is calling for a full investigation.
"These are very serious allegations, not to be taken lightly not to be brushed off by the jobs minister."

Jobs Minister Pat Bell says he did nothing wrong by asking the Northern Development Trust to lend money to the unlucky developers.

"We do exactly that Mr. Speaker, I'm sure the member opposite would do that if she had the opportunity as well."

Premier Christy Clark is standing by her ministers.

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B.C. election outlook: Is Christy Clark's goose cooked?

By Michael Smyth, The Province March 7, 2013.

For Clark, a recent series of political pratfalls may have sealed her doom, and an election win in May looks as impossible as ever.

For Dix, his rival's self-destructive habits have put him on a fast-track to the premier's office. Judging by the polls, and the Liberals' screw-ups, it looks impossible for Dix to lose.

Now the pollsters and political scientists are weighing in: Dix has a big lead and his opponent is mired in scandal. He should win — and fairly easily, too.

And, unfortunately for Clark, she's a lot farther behind than 10 points and she's probably fallen farther back as a result of the ethnic-outreach scandal.

"I think the last week has pretty much baked it," said the University of B.C.'s Richard Johnston. "A week is a long time in politics and all that, but Dix would have to succumb to massive hubris to blow it."

But Clark has a new disadvantage going into this campaign: the fresh ethnic-outreach scandal that forced the resignation of her deputy and a cabinet minister.

"Too many setbacks," observed Allan Warnke, of Vancouver Island University. "For the B.C. Liberals, nothing had to go wrong."

Warnke said the scandal will blunt the effect of Liberal attack ads against Dix over the 1999 memo-to-file affair, in which Dix back-dated a memo in the casino scandal that brought down former NDP premier Glen Clark.

"The negative ads are dead," he said. "Unless there is an 'April Surprise' the Libs can spring, or a huge error or indiscretion involving prominent New Democrats, Dix and the NDP are home-free."

Pollster Mario Canseco, though, points to the party's "phenomenal" voter-retention rate. "Roughly nine in 10 people who voted for the NDP under Carole James are still with the party under Adrian Dix," said Canseco, of Angus Reid Public Opinion.

"Conversely, the retention rate for the Liberals is about 66 per cent, so a third of their voters have left them."

Given all that, Hamish Telford thinks the Liberals shouldn't plan on shocking the world, but plan on picking up the pieces of a shattered party. "Forget about winning and focus solely on winning enough seats to save the party," said Telford, of the University of the Fraser Valley.

"If they come back with fewer than five or 10 seats, I suspect the Liberal Party will disappear."

© Copyright (c) The Province.

The BC Liberal House of Cards is crumbling

Time for a deeper look into why Premier Christy Clark’s office has no records to produce

By Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun, March 5, 2013.

VICTORIA — Earlier this year, information watchdog Elizabeth Denham set out to investigate whether the government really had “no records” regarding the departure of the premier’s chief of staff, Ken Boessenkool.

Boessenkool resigned in September after a two-week investigation by the head of the government personnel agency into his conduct with a female staffer in an incident in a Victoria bar.

Given the potential for legal action, it seemed unlikely that such a sensitive matter would have been conducted without anyone keeping a documentary record.

Nevertheless, when reporter Jonathan Fowlie of The Vancouver Sun filed a request under provincial access to information legislation, the Liberals claimed to have no records of any kind, paper or electronic.

Fowlie then probed further by filing a complaint to Information and Privacy Commissioner Denham. Her office was already in the midst of an inquiry into the growing number of cases where the government claimed “no records” in response to information requests, particularly from the news media.

Fowlie’s complaint dovetailed with that work, because many of those non-responses originated with the premier’s office. Denham expanded on her inquiry to include the Boessenkool case.

That led to a sit-down interview in early February between Denham’s investigators and Kim Haakstad, then deputy chief of staff to Premier Christy Clark and not yet the household name she would become after she was forced to resign over the government’s toxic ethnic outreach strategy.

Haakstad proceeded to justify the lack of written record on the Boessenkool departure by insisting that was standard operating procedure.

“The general practice within the office of the premier is to communicate verbally in person,” she told investigators, according to the information commissioner’s report on that and other matters released Monday.

“Email communications usually consist of requests to make telephone calls or meet in person. Generally, staff members in the office of the premier do not make substantive communication relating to business matters via email.”

Even where they do resort to electronic communication, “most of the emails are transitory in nature and are deleted once a permanent record, such as a calendar entry, is created.” Did the deputy chief of staff have any email exchange with Boessenkool on this matter? 

“Ms. Haakstad believes that there would have been email communications between her and the former chief of staff during the relevant period, but these emails would have been transitory in nature and were deleted before the access request was received.”

As to what constitutes “transitory” communications, those were said to include missives of “temporary usefulness” such as: “Drafts. Phone messages. A meeting request. Copy of an incoming letter to the premier. Only required for a limited time or for preparation for an ongoing record. Not required to meet statutory obligations or to sustain administrative functions.”

“In general, the office of the premier possesses very little non-transitory information, particularly email,” the investigators were assured: “The office of the premier is a small public body whose functions are administrative in nature. It does not deliver programs, develop legislation or write briefing notes. Therefore, it does not create most of the categories of records that ministries create.”

So, to recap: Nothing of a substantive nature gets written down in the premier’s office in the first place. Business is conducted orally and in person. Email is used only for minor matters and those are sent to the electronic dumpster straightaway.

Such was the story told by Haakstad to the investigators on Feb. 6. Now contrast that with the way of doing business in the premier’s office that was on display three weeks later, when the New Democrats tabled the multicultural strategy.

The 17-page strategy was distributed by Haakstad herself to a number of government insiders via email. It laid out how public servants and Liberal political staff should work together to reach out to various ethnic communities, then bend those efforts to boost the re-election chances of the Liberal party.

In short, it was a detailed and ambitious set of marching orders on a major matter of public policy — precisely the sort of thing that was supposedly never produced in written form in the premier’s office, according to what the investigators were told by Clark’s official representative.

But the strategy does exist, along with a covering note that explains how the inner circle tried to escape public scrutiny for their efforts on behalf of the premier and party. It was distributed outside the government email server via a network of personal accounts maintained by everyone on the premier’s distribution list.

The practice of using personal emails for surreptitious public policy-making has occasionally been revealed through earlier leaks. But the ethnic outreach emails provide the most extensive documentation of the practice in a case linked directly to the office of the premier. They also directly contradict the “nothing in writing” assurances provided by Clark’s office just weeks before the leak.

One can only hope Denham seizes this opportunity to reopen her investigation, this time focusing on the use and abuse of the back channel as a way of making public policy while avoiding public scrutiny.

vpalmer@vancouversun.com

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun
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Warning from B.C.'s privacy commissioner:
Mon, Mar 4: The privacy commissioner is concerned the Liberal government has stopped keeping records to avoid public scrutiny. Aaron McArthur reports.

Read it on Global News: Warning from B.C.'s privacy commissioner - News Hour Final - Videos | Global BC

Lets make the BC government a real "Open Government:" Let the Purging Begin

Love the Orwellian spin on the ‘Open Government Premier.’
 
I can't be the only one who thinks this "oral culture" of the BC Liberals sounds a bit dirty and truthfully, it is. It makes sense that in the dying days, as the BC Liberal empire crumbles, and falls into further disrepute, attempts to hide things will be legion. This bunch are sloppy, and not necessarily the sharpest knives in the drawer, so there are ways to get information. Look at the leak of the "multi-cultural outreach strategy." 

One of the things these types of amoral governments don't count on are the public servants who are sick and tired of seeing their workplace corrupted by the likes of these clowns and the incompetent yes people they place into high-paid jobs. Most public sector workers just want to do their jobs well, help the public, collect their salaries and pensions and not deal with political b.s.

• To make this election period even more fun, I want to encourage BC government servants/slaves to start purging. E-mail me @ bcliberals_suck@yahoo.ca 
• Or brown envelope info to your favourite journalist.
• Post on anonymous forums such as pastebin, or the many other anon sites & track back to journalists, or me via anon e-mail accounts (google send anonymous e-mail).
• Tweet under #Elxn40 & #BCOpenGovt

Keep in mind you want to protect the privacy of citizens whose data was collected by the BC govt.  

The goal of this exercise is to start purging the secrets of the last decade and do some spring cleaning before the next government comes to office. 

“Oral culture” at top levels of government grows under ‘Open Government Premier’

BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, March 4th, 2013

 

In a new investigation report prompted by a complaint from the BC Freedom of Information and Privacy Association, Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham confirms widespread and growing instances of senior government officials failing to keep records of important decisions.

FIPA’s complaint outlined a dramatic increase in the number of general FOI requests returned with “no responsive records” over the past ten years, and particularly over the last three. Denham’s report, released earlier today, not only confirms those numbers but also suggests that in some areas the problem is even worse than first thought.

Most damning among the report’s findings is that the Office of the Premier has seen a dramatic spike in non-responsive FOI requests over the past year. In the 2011/12 fiscal year, fully 45% of all FOI requests received by the Premier’s Office were returned with no responsive records. Denham even calls the Premier’s apparent allergy to disclosure “the single biggest cause” of increases in overall non-responsive rates between 2010 and 2012.

“It’s astounding,” said FIPA Executive Director Vincent Gogolek. “The Office of the Premier sets the tone for government, and now we have proof that almost half of all the requests they receive for information come back with absolutely nothing. It’s unacceptable.”

As FIPA’s calculations from last year suggested, media requesters were hit the hardest by this decline in performance. In the 2010/11 fiscal year, Denham’s investigators found 37% of media requests filed with the Office of the Premier came back unresponsive. By the end of the 2011/12 fiscal, that number had jumped to 49%.

Denham points to a growing “oral culture” as one cause of the problem. Her report shows that most communication in the Premier’s Office happens verbally or is classified as “transient,” meaning it is either never written down or quickly deleted. This is apparently what happened with the investigation of former chief of staff Ken Boessenkool.

Denham’s report recommends the creation of a legislative “duty to document” to ensure records are in fact created. However, despite the troubling evidence turned up by her investigators, the Commissioner declined to find that the government had failed to carry out its ‘duty to assist’ information requesters.

“We support the Commissioner’s call for law reform that would require government to produce written records,” said Gogolek, “but we don’t understand how she can say the government is meeting its legal duty to assist requesters in some of the incidents her investigators have uncovered. That part of the report is certainly a disappointment to us.”
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Christy Clark calls for more open government in B.C.

IAN BAILEY, The Globe and Mail, Jan. 04 2011.

"The reality is that voters feel a disconnect with their government," said the former deputy premier and education minister.

"These proposals are designed to reconnect people with government."

Other proposals put forward by Ms.Clark include working with all MLAs to see more private members' bills debated and passed as well as a caucus accountability committee with the party leader as member, and cabinet accountability sessions in the regions of B.C. at regional policy conferences or other special events.

Damage Control: BC Liberals spinning out of control

Frantic clutching to power and desperate to do some damage control. Good luck with all of that.

An absolutely brilliant spot with James Plett, pissed off ex-vice-president of the Surrey-Tynehead BC Liberal riding association, whose resignation from his post. Great soundbites:

"It's a long sprawling essay about my absolute disgust at the party in recent days and how catagorically wrong some of the things being done are."

You know you're in your death rows when the only people who have backing you are Kevin Krueger and Rich Coleman.

Every single one of you BC Liberals who has sat by silently while your party has decimated services and caused suffering for citizens of BC are about to get your karma. If you think you can blame that on Clark, think again, because after over a decade of pillaging, selling off and privatizing everything you could and taxing us all into the poor house, voters in BC aren't going to take it anymore.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark calls emergency cabinet meeting

CBC News, Mar 3, 2013.

Embattled B.C. Premier Christy Clark has called an emergency cabinet meeting this afternoon to speak to her team for the first time since a scandal erupted over a leaked plan to woo ethnic voters.

Some Liberal caucus members have joined in openly criticizing Clark over the proposed strategy, and on Friday the premier was forced to accept the resignation of her deputy chief of staff, Kim Haakstad.

The paper that Haakstad wrote in January 2012 urged the Liberals to co-ordinate resources – including some funded by taxpayers – to focus on winning over ethnic voters.
The document was leaked last week by the NDP.

Clark issued a letter of apology which was read during question period on Thursday but she herself wasn't in the house.

On Friday, Clark was in Prince George, so today's meeting in Vancouver will be her first chance to clear the air with her cabinet before the legislature resumes Monday.

© The Canadian Press, 2013

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Liberal MLA not saying whethercaucus members will ask Christy Clark to step down

CKNW News Staff, 3/2/2013

Liberal MLA Kash Heed isn't saying whether caucus members will be asking Premier Christy Clark to step down.

But Heed says people will be asking for an explanation about certain things.

"People I hope, will maintain what we've discussed and call people to the carpet and hold these people accountable."

Heed says there have been discussions with some of his colleagues about what needs to be done to keep the Liberal government in power.

He says many are concerned.

As for whether Christy Clark should step down? Heed didn't answer yes or no.

He does say he'd like to see an accountable leader in place.

This all comes after a leaked memo revealed Liberal staffers wanted to use government funds to get votes of ethnic groups.

Meanwhile, Clark has called a cabinet meeting for Sunday at 4pm in Vancouver.

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Liberal MLA not saying whether caucus members will ask Christy Clark to step down
VANCOUVER/CKNW (AM980)
CKNW News Staff | Email news tips to nwnews@cknw.com
3/2/2013

Liberal MLA Kash Heed isn't saying whether caucus members will be asking Premier Christy Clark to step down.
But Heed says people will be asking for an explanation about certain things.
"People I hope, will maintain what we've discussed and call people to the carpet and hold these people accountable."
Heed says there have been discussions with some of his colleagues about what needs to be done to keep the Liberal government in power.
He says many are concerned.
As for whether Christy Clark should step down?
Heed didn't answer yes or no.
He does say he'd like to see an accountable leader in place.
This all comes after a leaked memo revealed Liberal staffers wanted to use government funds to get votes of ethnic groups.
Meanwhile, Clark has called a cabinet meeting for Sunday at 4pm in Vancouver.
- See more at: http://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/story.aspx?ID=1902292#sthash.BIaKd4Ia.dpuf

It's All Over But The Crying: BC Liberals Imploding

At this point all the BC NDP has to do is sit back and watch as the BC Liberals implode from within. Who in their right mind would elect the current iteration of the party? You know a party is dying and on life support when they lose the faith and support of their own foot soldiers. 

Plett's comments about a "shadow council" are really interesting too, because it makes one wonder who is really running the BC Liberal party at this point. Because not only is Christy Clark only Premier due to winning a by-election, but it makes it obvious there are shadowy elements really yanking the puppet strings and that should scare the hell out of all us. 

Unrest in BC Liberal riding associations

SURREY/CKNW (AM980), Shane Woodford, 3/1/2013

A fourth Surrey BC Liberals riding association is in upheaval today after the presidents of three others threw in the towel.

James Plett was the Vice President of the Surrey Tynehead riding association until he took to Twitter to say he is tired of all the scandals and quit.

Here is the original tweet from Plett who is on Twitter as @JPlett

'Sick of "Today's @bcliberals" corruption + scandal after scandal. Worse than the BC NDP of yesteryear. I quit effective now #bcpoli'

Plett says the party is riding roughshod over the associations and just putting candidates into place with no nomination race or voting.

 "The acclamation process in the BC Liberal party there is no yes or no vote it is kind of just this is who your candidate is going to be and the fact that you know they are vetted by some kind of shadow council like the fact that you can have very qualified people put forward their papers but the powers that be say no we don't want you to run is kind of sickening."

Plett says there is a lot of other Liberals in other riding association across BC who are also sick and tired of the way the party treats them.

"I have been a dyed in the wool believer and I think myself and a lot of people are just being shuffled off and are just being told to take a hike and its actually very disappointing it is not a good turn and at this point myself and a lot of BC Liberals...former BC Liberal supporters are asking themselves if an NDP government would be that much worse."

The Liberals also lost riding presidents in Surrey-Whalley, Surrey-Fleetwood, and Surrey-Green Timbers

Another One Bites the Dust: Clark's Disappearing Staffers

Oh for the love of [insert your deity here]!! See if people were reading my blog they would never have signed up for what they've gotten themselves into. The foolish  who flock with these unethical birds get what they deserve. Everyone hanging around with their hands and beaks out should be really nervous about now, because as scandal after trainwreck proves - you can be the next one to fall on your sword at any given time.

The wrong damn people are resigning though. People can keep tendering notice, even getting fired. All voters have to do is see those $16 million dollars worth of tax payer-funded election ads Christy Clark's BC Liberals are running to know that it is the Premier that has created a public service that is now openly doing political and election shilling on taxpayer time and on our dime. Nobody else is responsible for creating that kind of public sector culture than the Premier herself.

B.C. premier's top staffer resigns amid 'ethnic vote' controversy

CBC News, Mar 1, 2013.

British Columbia Premier Christy Clark's deputy chief of staff has resigned, days after the leak of a controversial document outlining the Liberals' plan to win ethnic votes in the upcoming provincial election.

Kim Haakstad had offered advice and input during the drafting stages of the Liberals' "Multicultural Strategy" revealed in documents leaked by the NDP earlier this week.

The documents were originally sent from Haakstad's e-mail account in January last year and revealed a proposed outreach plan involving the premier's office, the Multiculturalism Ministry, the government caucus and the B.C. Liberal Party.

Clark, who accepted Haakstad's resignation Friday night, maintains she didn't know who crafted the controversial document and said she has asked for a review to ensure no government resources were inappropriately used.

On Thursday, Clark apologized in a written statement for the language used in the document that outlined "quick wins" for the Liberals, such as making apologies in the legislature for historical wrongs, specifically mentioning the 1914 Komagata Maru incident, which saw a ship carrying 356 passengers forced to return to India after a two-month standoff in Vancouver Harbour.

"The document did not recognize there are lines that cannot be crossed in conducting this outreach and it is unacceptable," Clark's statement read. "The language in this draft document and some of the recommendations are absolutely inappropriate."