That was a lame performance by the Liberals this week on the tough future facing most of B.C.'s Interior and Northern communities.
Even for people paying attention, the 2006 census numbers came a shock. The province's population grew by 5.3 per cent between 2001 and 2006, just behind the national average. (The first time in Canada's history that B.C. has lagged the rest of Canada.)
But the growth came in the Lower Mainland, the Okanagan and southern Vancouver Island.
Across the rest of the province, from small villages to major centres, populations were shrinking.
That's not surprising. Around the world, people are moving to the big cities, where the jobs and opportunities are. That's as true in B.C. as it is in Nigeria or China.
But the Liberals have made a big deal about sharing the benefits of growth across the province.
Remember the Heartlands strategy in 2003? The promise was a renewed future for all those communities coping with courthouse and government office closures, or cutting their schools back to four days a week because that's all they could afford.
There was no strategy behind the slogans. Within a year, it all pretty much collapsed like a pyramid scheme.
That was too bad. Based on the census results, those communities could have used real help.
Consider Prince Rupert, which lost 13 per cent of its population between 2001 and 2006. Trail, down 4.5 per cent. Terrace, 6.5 per cent. Prince George, down two per cent.
From here in Victoria, or Vancouver, those are just numbers.
But if you've got a grocery store or contracting business in Quesnel, and the population declines by seven per cent, that's a problem. There are fewer people to shop, or hire you.
So businesses struggle. School enrolments fall and they close, or go to four-day weeks. It gets harder to attract people. Main Street has as many vacant stores as successful ones.
Government can't actually fix all this. But it can help counter the bad effects and be straight with people about their futures. Then it's up to them to decide what to do.
The NDP leaped on the numbers in the first available question period.
The government put up Economic Development Minister Colin Hansen to handle them, even though the questions were directed to Communities Minister Ida Chong. (The day before, Agriculture Minister Pat Bell had answered for Labour Minister Olga Illich.)
As health minister, Hansen had faced the toughest questions with facts and common sense.
But this time he was terrible, offering irrelevant prepackaged spin. He didn't acknowledge the reality of peoples' lives in these communities, or the facts.
People are moving back to B.C., Hansen said.
But not to most of the Interior or North.
Unemployment is at a record low even in these communities, he said.
True enough and a good thing. People who couldn't find work have moved away, an often painful but practical response.
But the number of people working in Prince George today is lower than in the mid-90s.
For the community, that's a problem, even if its sons and daughters are doing well in the Lower Mainland.
Government can't stop these changes, at least without running big risks.
But it can slow them, perhaps choosing to keep a ministry branch office open to help a community or to make forest companies process trees where they cut them down, buying mills a few more years. It can fund schools to be open five days a week.
Stop-gaps, for sure. Mills that can compete don't have a long-term future. That's simply reality.
Still, stop-gaps aren't so bad sometimes.
What was most alarming was the government's apparent unwillingness to even acknowledge that so many communities are facing difficult times, as the census results show. That suggest their problems aren't even being considered.
People in Interior and Northern communities living through these changes have to be wondering how they have become invisible to their governments.
Footnote: Forest Minister Rich Coleman also disappointed. Many of these communities face a drastic cut in the available timber for decades as a result of the pine beetle disaster. But Coleman, asked for an indication of the likely impact and timing, refused to answer. Families and businesses in the affected areas deserved a real answer to a serious question.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
Liberals struggle in responding to farm worker deaths
It's hard to know how a government should respond to events like the terrible crash that killed three women farm workers travelling in a crowded van.
Not like the Liberals, at least based on their efforts so far.
The women died last Wednesday on their way to a farm in the Fraser Valley.
The NDP started asking questions in the legislature Wednesday. They continued Thursday and devoted entire question periods to farm workers' issues Monday and Tuesday.
So far, the questions have been better the answers. Solicitor General John Les first tried to argue that nobody should be talking about the crash and whether more needed to be done to keep workers safe.
Police, the WCB and the Coroners Service will investigate and everyone should just wait, he said. And Les accused the New Democrats of being "immoral," raising the issue to score political points.
But the call to wait for investigations that take months or years has been used to often as an excuse for inaction. The public expects a response.
And the "immoral" charge looked hypocritical. The Liberals would have posed similar questions in opposition. The NDP were trying to score political points, but along the way real issues get raised. That, in its clunky way, is how the system works.
The next day, the New Democrats returned the issue. Leader Carole James noted a similar crash in 2003 claimed a farm workers' life. The coroner investigated and said seatbelts could have saved the woman's life. The WCB recommended that roadside inspections by a joint federal-provincial safety be restored.
Why did neither recommendation result in meaningful action, James asked. Les stuck to the argument that the questions were out of line.
Not much help for people wondering if farm workers being shuttled around by labour contractors were safe.
The NDP was back on the issue Monday as James again asked for assurances that the government would improve farm worker protection.
Les started badly with his first words. "It's a new week and it's the same old opposition, I'm afraid," he said. It sounded like he still didn't think the issue was worth discussing.
But Les went on to acknowledge that the government was "stepping up enforcement activity to ensure that there is compliance with the existing laws and regulations."
That sounds a good thing, although Les was vague about the details or why he thought it was such a bad idea to consider last week.
The New Democrats kept raising questions, some not directly related. They noted the Liberals had eliminated overtime and minimum wage protection for farm workers. And they quoted a government directive to employment standards inspectors to cut their inspections when farms were busy - which was also when the most workers were there.
Corky Evans, leaping into the fray, asked why the Liberals eliminated a federal-provincial farm labour inspection program.
Evans, in full flight, said he wasn't interested in what the "spin children," as he called the Liberals' communications staffers, had briefed the minister to say. He wanted actual answers.
Unkind. But based on the ministers' responses, justified. Labour Minister Olga Ilich said record low unemployment meant farm workers would be better treated by employers.
Maybe. But there aren't a lot of alternatives for people doing farm work. And Ilich could be seen as suggesting that farm workers just have to accept some risks except when times are good.
Agriculture Minister Pat Bell then went back to attacking the NDP and said the legislature shouldn't even be talking about the issue.
The questions continued Tuesday, focused more on the impact of the Liberals' elimination of minimum wage protection for farm workers.
The reality is, this could have just been another crash.
But the NDP has raised good questions about protection for farm workers. The government hasn't had good answers.
In that situation, it's in both the opposition's political interest and the public interest to keep on asking.
Footnote: The largely unspoken subtext to this - alluded to by Evans Tuesday - is the fact that the farm workers are largely from the IndoCanadian and other immigrant communities. They are watching both parties' responses to the issues closely.
Not like the Liberals, at least based on their efforts so far.
The women died last Wednesday on their way to a farm in the Fraser Valley.
The NDP started asking questions in the legislature Wednesday. They continued Thursday and devoted entire question periods to farm workers' issues Monday and Tuesday.
So far, the questions have been better the answers. Solicitor General John Les first tried to argue that nobody should be talking about the crash and whether more needed to be done to keep workers safe.
Police, the WCB and the Coroners Service will investigate and everyone should just wait, he said. And Les accused the New Democrats of being "immoral," raising the issue to score political points.
But the call to wait for investigations that take months or years has been used to often as an excuse for inaction. The public expects a response.
And the "immoral" charge looked hypocritical. The Liberals would have posed similar questions in opposition. The NDP were trying to score political points, but along the way real issues get raised. That, in its clunky way, is how the system works.
The next day, the New Democrats returned the issue. Leader Carole James noted a similar crash in 2003 claimed a farm workers' life. The coroner investigated and said seatbelts could have saved the woman's life. The WCB recommended that roadside inspections by a joint federal-provincial safety be restored.
Why did neither recommendation result in meaningful action, James asked. Les stuck to the argument that the questions were out of line.
Not much help for people wondering if farm workers being shuttled around by labour contractors were safe.
The NDP was back on the issue Monday as James again asked for assurances that the government would improve farm worker protection.
Les started badly with his first words. "It's a new week and it's the same old opposition, I'm afraid," he said. It sounded like he still didn't think the issue was worth discussing.
But Les went on to acknowledge that the government was "stepping up enforcement activity to ensure that there is compliance with the existing laws and regulations."
That sounds a good thing, although Les was vague about the details or why he thought it was such a bad idea to consider last week.
The New Democrats kept raising questions, some not directly related. They noted the Liberals had eliminated overtime and minimum wage protection for farm workers. And they quoted a government directive to employment standards inspectors to cut their inspections when farms were busy - which was also when the most workers were there.
Corky Evans, leaping into the fray, asked why the Liberals eliminated a federal-provincial farm labour inspection program.
Evans, in full flight, said he wasn't interested in what the "spin children," as he called the Liberals' communications staffers, had briefed the minister to say. He wanted actual answers.
Unkind. But based on the ministers' responses, justified. Labour Minister Olga Ilich said record low unemployment meant farm workers would be better treated by employers.
Maybe. But there aren't a lot of alternatives for people doing farm work. And Ilich could be seen as suggesting that farm workers just have to accept some risks except when times are good.
Agriculture Minister Pat Bell then went back to attacking the NDP and said the legislature shouldn't even be talking about the issue.
The questions continued Tuesday, focused more on the impact of the Liberals' elimination of minimum wage protection for farm workers.
The reality is, this could have just been another crash.
But the NDP has raised good questions about protection for farm workers. The government hasn't had good answers.
In that situation, it's in both the opposition's political interest and the public interest to keep on asking.
Footnote: The largely unspoken subtext to this - alluded to by Evans Tuesday - is the fact that the farm workers are largely from the IndoCanadian and other immigrant communities. They are watching both parties' responses to the issues closely.
Sunday, March 11, 2007
More suffering not the answer for addicts
It's barely a kilometre from the legislature to Cormorant Street, but it might as well be a thousand miles.
The street is nothing special, just two blocks long, not far from Victoria's little Chinatown. The health ministry's head office is the biggest immediate landmark.
But it's famous. Cormorant Street is home to Victoria's needle exchange. It serves an astonishing number of people - some 2,000. Last year clients picked up more than one million needles.
Naturally, some of those clients are not people you want hanging around your neighbourhood. Rough, sickly, scary, loud, and aggressive, stealing and sleeping and going to the bathroom in doorways. There's not that many of them. But they make life miserable for people who live and work in the area.
Especially because the drug problem in Victoria is worse than it has ever been. Which is odd, since governments for at least a decade have talked about how seriously they take the problem of addiction and all the related ills. But all the time, things have gotten worse, a pretty serious failure.
One that should be worrying for Kelowna, Prince George, Trail, even smaller communities. Only a couple of years ago, no one would have predicted drugs would be creating such a street problem in Victoria - that sort of thing was reserved for the Downtown Eastside.
Now, there'- no reason not to assume that the problem will keep spreading.
AIDS Vancouver Island, which runs the needle exchange, knows something has to be done about the Cormorant Street problem. It announced plans to move the needle exchange at a press conference attended by police, downtown business representatives and city councillors.
But shuffling the problem off to another neighbourhood is no solution, everyone agrees. The people in Rock Bay, an older largely industrial and commercial area on the edge of downtown, are already nervous the needle exchange is heading their way. Understandably. They've already been remarkably tolerant as the prostitution stroll has moved into their area.
AIDS Vancouver Island has what seems like a sensible idea for dealing with the problems. It wants to find a building with an inner courtyard where clients can congregate without creating a problem on the street. It's also hoping for more space to deliver expanded counselling and support services.
The idea is that any point of contact with people with addictions is a chance to reduce the damage done, by helping them use drugs more safely, deal with their health problems and - if the time is right - to seek treatment.
But there's a catch. The move will cost money. So will operating the expanded centre. Plus there's the challenge to even find space.
And AIDS Vancouver Island is already facing a big cut in the money coming from the Vancouver Island Health Authority. VIHA has decided it needs to do a better job in AIDS prevention and support on the rest of Vancouver Island. It doesn't have any extra money, so its initial plan was to cut support for efforts in the Victoria area by almost 40 per cent. That's been put off for a year, but the axe is still poised to fall. It's difficult to fault the health authority, except for failing to make clear its financial problems. There is a growing demand for services and not enough money across the province.
And addiction services are often the first to be cut, mostly for political reasons. People waiting for knee surgeries have more clout than addicts.That's not just a VIHA issue. While health authorities across B.C. have been responsible for mental health and addictions, the services are routinely squeezed. They aren't a priority.
In that, the health authorities are following the province's lead. B.C. had a junior minister responsible for mental health and addiction services until 2005. The post was eliminated after the election.
The problem of addiction is an epidemic, which threatens people, families and communities across the province. But it's one we seem reluctant to do anything about.
Footnote: There's a persistent view that we just have to make life tougher for addicts and they'll stop. Addicts risk death, jab their bodies with dirty needles, sell themselves, sleep in the street, steal and get beat up routinely. That kind of misery is not enough to end the addiction.
No additional suffering will work.
The street is nothing special, just two blocks long, not far from Victoria's little Chinatown. The health ministry's head office is the biggest immediate landmark.
But it's famous. Cormorant Street is home to Victoria's needle exchange. It serves an astonishing number of people - some 2,000. Last year clients picked up more than one million needles.
Naturally, some of those clients are not people you want hanging around your neighbourhood. Rough, sickly, scary, loud, and aggressive, stealing and sleeping and going to the bathroom in doorways. There's not that many of them. But they make life miserable for people who live and work in the area.
Especially because the drug problem in Victoria is worse than it has ever been. Which is odd, since governments for at least a decade have talked about how seriously they take the problem of addiction and all the related ills. But all the time, things have gotten worse, a pretty serious failure.
One that should be worrying for Kelowna, Prince George, Trail, even smaller communities. Only a couple of years ago, no one would have predicted drugs would be creating such a street problem in Victoria - that sort of thing was reserved for the Downtown Eastside.
Now, there'- no reason not to assume that the problem will keep spreading.
AIDS Vancouver Island, which runs the needle exchange, knows something has to be done about the Cormorant Street problem. It announced plans to move the needle exchange at a press conference attended by police, downtown business representatives and city councillors.
But shuffling the problem off to another neighbourhood is no solution, everyone agrees. The people in Rock Bay, an older largely industrial and commercial area on the edge of downtown, are already nervous the needle exchange is heading their way. Understandably. They've already been remarkably tolerant as the prostitution stroll has moved into their area.
AIDS Vancouver Island has what seems like a sensible idea for dealing with the problems. It wants to find a building with an inner courtyard where clients can congregate without creating a problem on the street. It's also hoping for more space to deliver expanded counselling and support services.
The idea is that any point of contact with people with addictions is a chance to reduce the damage done, by helping them use drugs more safely, deal with their health problems and - if the time is right - to seek treatment.
But there's a catch. The move will cost money. So will operating the expanded centre. Plus there's the challenge to even find space.
And AIDS Vancouver Island is already facing a big cut in the money coming from the Vancouver Island Health Authority. VIHA has decided it needs to do a better job in AIDS prevention and support on the rest of Vancouver Island. It doesn't have any extra money, so its initial plan was to cut support for efforts in the Victoria area by almost 40 per cent. That's been put off for a year, but the axe is still poised to fall. It's difficult to fault the health authority, except for failing to make clear its financial problems. There is a growing demand for services and not enough money across the province.
And addiction services are often the first to be cut, mostly for political reasons. People waiting for knee surgeries have more clout than addicts.That's not just a VIHA issue. While health authorities across B.C. have been responsible for mental health and addictions, the services are routinely squeezed. They aren't a priority.
In that, the health authorities are following the province's lead. B.C. had a junior minister responsible for mental health and addiction services until 2005. The post was eliminated after the election.
The problem of addiction is an epidemic, which threatens people, families and communities across the province. But it's one we seem reluctant to do anything about.
Footnote: There's a persistent view that we just have to make life tougher for addicts and they'll stop. Addicts risk death, jab their bodies with dirty needles, sell themselves, sleep in the street, steal and get beat up routinely. That kind of misery is not enough to end the addiction.
No additional suffering will work.
Friday, March 09, 2007
Big plans, good start for new children's rep
Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond is looking like a terrific hire as B.C.'s first representative for children and youth.
The office isn't open yet, but she made an impressive debut in an appearance before the new legislature committee on children and youth last week.
Turpel-Lafond, a highly regarded judge in Saskatchewan before she took the job, faces a big challenge. She's taken on most of the responsibilities foolishly abandoned by the Campbell government when it eliminated the Children's Commission and the Child and Family Advocate in their first term.
None of this work should be partisan. Providing support for scared little kids or struggling families isn't a left-right question; it's one of decency and pragmatism. The NDP did a lousy job of running the ministry and the Liberals have been as bad or worse. But down here almost everything is seen through a political lens.
Turpel-Lafond's pitch to the committee - while positive and upbeat - left any would-be partisans in a tough spot. Instead of a general briefing, she hit the ground running with a specific proposal for action within the next five months.
Turpel-Lafond asked MLAs on the committee to work with her on a plan for children and families that would look five to 10 years ahead.
The plan, built with the efforts of both parties, the ministries, First Nations agencies - Turpel-Lafond is aboriginal - and everyone else involved would set five to seven big goals that would be benchmarks for our overall progress.
The effort to reach those goals would cut across all ministries. And the representative, and the committee, would report on interim progress, looking at what was working and what wasn't and making sure government was learning from examples around the world.
That's not happening. The children and families ministry has performance goals, but they're short term, not very useful and changing.
Here's one example to show how the approach could work. In B.C., on any given day, about 9,000 children are in the government's care. For some, it's a brief experience before things get better back home; for about 40 per cent of them, it's life.
We are pathetic parents for them. Adolescent boys in care, for example, are 14 times as likely to try and kill themselves as children who aren't in care. Sure, some have lots of problems - a history of poverty and neglect, physical and mental health issues. But many are just kids who never got a chance.
Today barely one-in-four children in care finishes high school. That means a life on the margins - poverty, poor health, welfare or minimum wage and an increased chance their children will end up in care too. (Girls in care are four times as likely to become pregnant as teenagers as their peers.)
For a decade, we've accepted our failure.
Turpel-Lafond's proposal might see high-school graduation as a benchmark for children in care, or more broadly even children whose families have been helped by the government. So a target might be 75-per-cent graduation rate within 10 years; 40 per cent within five years. The task would be to look at why they aren't graduating now; remove those barriers; and report publicly and frequently on progress.
It won't be hard to improve. For example, a ministry study found kids in continuing care had an average stay of six years and moved almost once a year during that period. That instability undermines their chance of success in school. More children in care have been sent to live on their own at 16, another factor that works against graduation.
Tackling those kinds of problems is neither costly nor complicated.
And of course, failing to act carries its own price, forever. Even those who don't accept the moral obligation to help children should see the financial argument for investing in children to save decades of future costs.
Turpel-Lafond has the independence to go ahead with the plan on her own.
But the move to enlist the committee is a good way to begin building support for the idea that this issue really transcends day-to-day politics.
For more than a decade politicians from all parties have talked putting aside their differences and putting children first.
Turpel-Lafond has found a quick, positive way to put those claims to the test.
The office isn't open yet, but she made an impressive debut in an appearance before the new legislature committee on children and youth last week.
Turpel-Lafond, a highly regarded judge in Saskatchewan before she took the job, faces a big challenge. She's taken on most of the responsibilities foolishly abandoned by the Campbell government when it eliminated the Children's Commission and the Child and Family Advocate in their first term.
None of this work should be partisan. Providing support for scared little kids or struggling families isn't a left-right question; it's one of decency and pragmatism. The NDP did a lousy job of running the ministry and the Liberals have been as bad or worse. But down here almost everything is seen through a political lens.
Turpel-Lafond's pitch to the committee - while positive and upbeat - left any would-be partisans in a tough spot. Instead of a general briefing, she hit the ground running with a specific proposal for action within the next five months.
Turpel-Lafond asked MLAs on the committee to work with her on a plan for children and families that would look five to 10 years ahead.
The plan, built with the efforts of both parties, the ministries, First Nations agencies - Turpel-Lafond is aboriginal - and everyone else involved would set five to seven big goals that would be benchmarks for our overall progress.
The effort to reach those goals would cut across all ministries. And the representative, and the committee, would report on interim progress, looking at what was working and what wasn't and making sure government was learning from examples around the world.
That's not happening. The children and families ministry has performance goals, but they're short term, not very useful and changing.
Here's one example to show how the approach could work. In B.C., on any given day, about 9,000 children are in the government's care. For some, it's a brief experience before things get better back home; for about 40 per cent of them, it's life.
We are pathetic parents for them. Adolescent boys in care, for example, are 14 times as likely to try and kill themselves as children who aren't in care. Sure, some have lots of problems - a history of poverty and neglect, physical and mental health issues. But many are just kids who never got a chance.
Today barely one-in-four children in care finishes high school. That means a life on the margins - poverty, poor health, welfare or minimum wage and an increased chance their children will end up in care too. (Girls in care are four times as likely to become pregnant as teenagers as their peers.)
For a decade, we've accepted our failure.
Turpel-Lafond's proposal might see high-school graduation as a benchmark for children in care, or more broadly even children whose families have been helped by the government. So a target might be 75-per-cent graduation rate within 10 years; 40 per cent within five years. The task would be to look at why they aren't graduating now; remove those barriers; and report publicly and frequently on progress.
It won't be hard to improve. For example, a ministry study found kids in continuing care had an average stay of six years and moved almost once a year during that period. That instability undermines their chance of success in school. More children in care have been sent to live on their own at 16, another factor that works against graduation.
Tackling those kinds of problems is neither costly nor complicated.
And of course, failing to act carries its own price, forever. Even those who don't accept the moral obligation to help children should see the financial argument for investing in children to save decades of future costs.
Turpel-Lafond has the independence to go ahead with the plan on her own.
But the move to enlist the committee is a good way to begin building support for the idea that this issue really transcends day-to-day politics.
For more than a decade politicians from all parties have talked putting aside their differences and putting children first.
Turpel-Lafond has found a quick, positive way to put those claims to the test.
Friday, March 02, 2007
Les is wrong, B.C. is already into online gambling
So who are you going to believe, Solicitor General John Les, who says there's no way the government is getting into Internet gambling?
Or B.C Lotteries, which says it is already into online betting and plans to expand its offerings?
The smart money is against the minister. Especially because the evidence is there, in black and white in the budget documents and in full colour on the BC Lotteries' website.
Les, responsible for both increasing the take and reducing problem gambling, is the latest Liberal to end up in contortions since they were elected on a 2001 campaign promise "stop the expansion of gambling that has increased gambling addiction and put new strains on families."
They did the opposite, but it took the Liberals years to quit denying the obvious. They didn't just break the promise, they'd smashed it into little bits.
Now the denial is around online gambling.
When Les was asked about the issue the legislature this month, he was dead assertive.
"I want to be very clear," he said. "There will be no Internet gaming conducted by the B.C. Lottery Corp. - period."
But only the day before, as part of the budget package, the lottery corporation's plan for this year was released, approved by Les.
"BCLC now offers a full range of gaming products including casinos, bingos and online gaming through PlayNow," the corporation reported. Note, "online gaming."
Les pitched the lottery's online effort as a convenience, just another way to sell existing lottery tickets.
But if you check out B.C. Lotteries' PlayNow website, you'll see he's wrong. It's online gambling, including some dubious efforts to separate unsuspecting people from their money.
B.C. Lotteries lets you bet on sports online, 24 hours a day.
You can gamble up to $200 a single round of online Keno, with a new game starting every five minutes.
Both those sound like online gambling.
And then there are the corporation's "interactive" games, a sort of a poor man's online VLT.
Take Bump & Volley. Players put down bets and then click on a ball with their mouse, trying to keep it in the air while moving it around symbols. Get the right ones and you win a prize.
Or the Road to Vancouver. Place your bets and click on squares to try and uncover symbols. Get the rights ones, advance through the levels and win cash.
Except it's a con. The mouse clicks, as the official game explanation and B.C. Lottery website explain, have no effect on the outcome.
When people put up their money a B.C. Lotteries computer determines whether the game will pay any money and how much. The clicking and spinning have no effect.
All that interaction is pretend. It just keeps the player involved.
And keeps him playing and playing. Researchers have found the illusion of control keeps people playing games longer, even while they're losing. They can tell themselves that next time they'll pick the right squares, or move the ball the right way. That's why slot machine designers are including touch screens to let players stop the spinning wheels.
It also is just less foolish to pretend to play a game then it is to sit there and pump money into bets that will inevitably, over anything other than the short term, produce losses.
Keno, sports betting and "interactive games" which try to bring the VLT experience into the home. That sure sounds like online gaming.
There are controls. You can't put more than $120 a week into your online account.
But it's hard to see how Les can be so emphatic in denying that online gaming is already happening.
And it's hard to see how this can be a good thing.
The lottery corporation plans calls for recruiting more gamblers, and taking more from each one, so it has to push into more seductive games, offered in more locations - including the home.
But the government's eagerness to keep pushing gambling is harder to understand.
Back in the old days, then opposition leader Gordon Campbell explained why he wouldn't expand gambling.
"I want to build an economy based on winners, not losers, and gambling is always based on losers,'' he said. "The only way government makes money on gambling is because you lose it."
Now his government is giving people the chance to become losers right in their own homes.
Or B.C Lotteries, which says it is already into online betting and plans to expand its offerings?
The smart money is against the minister. Especially because the evidence is there, in black and white in the budget documents and in full colour on the BC Lotteries' website.
Les, responsible for both increasing the take and reducing problem gambling, is the latest Liberal to end up in contortions since they were elected on a 2001 campaign promise "stop the expansion of gambling that has increased gambling addiction and put new strains on families."
They did the opposite, but it took the Liberals years to quit denying the obvious. They didn't just break the promise, they'd smashed it into little bits.
Now the denial is around online gambling.
When Les was asked about the issue the legislature this month, he was dead assertive.
"I want to be very clear," he said. "There will be no Internet gaming conducted by the B.C. Lottery Corp. - period."
But only the day before, as part of the budget package, the lottery corporation's plan for this year was released, approved by Les.
"BCLC now offers a full range of gaming products including casinos, bingos and online gaming through PlayNow," the corporation reported. Note, "online gaming."
Les pitched the lottery's online effort as a convenience, just another way to sell existing lottery tickets.
But if you check out B.C. Lotteries' PlayNow website, you'll see he's wrong. It's online gambling, including some dubious efforts to separate unsuspecting people from their money.
B.C. Lotteries lets you bet on sports online, 24 hours a day.
You can gamble up to $200 a single round of online Keno, with a new game starting every five minutes.
Both those sound like online gambling.
And then there are the corporation's "interactive" games, a sort of a poor man's online VLT.
Take Bump & Volley. Players put down bets and then click on a ball with their mouse, trying to keep it in the air while moving it around symbols. Get the right ones and you win a prize.
Or the Road to Vancouver. Place your bets and click on squares to try and uncover symbols. Get the rights ones, advance through the levels and win cash.
Except it's a con. The mouse clicks, as the official game explanation and B.C. Lottery website explain, have no effect on the outcome.
When people put up their money a B.C. Lotteries computer determines whether the game will pay any money and how much. The clicking and spinning have no effect.
All that interaction is pretend. It just keeps the player involved.
And keeps him playing and playing. Researchers have found the illusion of control keeps people playing games longer, even while they're losing. They can tell themselves that next time they'll pick the right squares, or move the ball the right way. That's why slot machine designers are including touch screens to let players stop the spinning wheels.
It also is just less foolish to pretend to play a game then it is to sit there and pump money into bets that will inevitably, over anything other than the short term, produce losses.
Keno, sports betting and "interactive games" which try to bring the VLT experience into the home. That sure sounds like online gaming.
There are controls. You can't put more than $120 a week into your online account.
But it's hard to see how Les can be so emphatic in denying that online gaming is already happening.
And it's hard to see how this can be a good thing.
The lottery corporation plans calls for recruiting more gamblers, and taking more from each one, so it has to push into more seductive games, offered in more locations - including the home.
But the government's eagerness to keep pushing gambling is harder to understand.
Back in the old days, then opposition leader Gordon Campbell explained why he wouldn't expand gambling.
"I want to build an economy based on winners, not losers, and gambling is always based on losers,'' he said. "The only way government makes money on gambling is because you lose it."
Now his government is giving people the chance to become losers right in their own homes.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Energy plan aims in right direction
VICTORIA - There’s a few bits that should make you nervous in the provincial energy plan released Tuesday, but much more that indicates B.C. is on the right track.
The plan lacks detail to back up most of the big targets, a little disappointing given how long the government has to work on the file.
It's great to say that conservation efforts will cut projected energy consumption growth in half, but it would be useful to know the cost and how consumers — commercial and residential — will be motivated to take the necessary steps.
And there are worries about subsidies to business and the somewhat vague intention to use BC Hydro as an agent of "social, economic and environmental" change.
The Liberals' moves since 2001 to put Crown corporations on a firmer business footing were welcome. For BC Hydro, that meant a focus on delivering cheap, secure power, with the B.C. Utilities' Commission protecting consumers.
But things have apparently changed. The government has decided there are some important policy objectives that can be advanced most effectively through B.C. Hydro.
The Crown corporation has a history as an agent of change. W.A.C. Bennett's dam-building spree some 50 years ago provided cheap electricity that has been a boon to the province's economy to this day. Consumers and industry both benefit from relatively inexpensive power, thanks to Bennett's enthusiasm for big hydro projects.
And, happily, those projects with their zero emissions have become highly favoured as concerns about climate change mount.
Bennett would likely have been pleased to see that B.C. is once again looking at a hydro megaproject, the Site C dam on the Peace River near Fort St. John.
It's tougher to build dams now, not so easy to dismiss the claims of those whose lives will be changed by the flooding or the warnings of environmental damage. Those issues — along with the $3.5-billion cost — have made the Liberals mighty nervous about the dam.
But the Peace River has already been dammed; this would just be another one. While the land consumed by the Site C project is significant, compensation could be part of the plan.
And the 900-megawatt capacity would deliver as much power as four greenhouse gas emitting gas-power plants, more cheaply.
Today, if a deal can reached with local First Nations, that makes the project highly attractive.
Energy Minister Richard Neufeld is still being cautious, but the dam is very much back on the agenda.
Mostly, the new energy policy is about goals. The government doesn't want to need electricity imports by 2016 (a puzzling goal); all power projects will have zero "net" emissions by the same year, meaning gas-fired plants better start planting trees; by 2020 half the province's growth in power consumption should be offset by conservation measures. (You'll buy a more efficient fridge and turn down the heat to offset the effect of that new family from New Brunswick and all their appliances.)
Most of the goals make sense. The question open for debate now is how we get there.
For example, the government proposes a $25-million increase in electricity rates to provide money government can use to "help promising clean power technology projects succeed."
That should make you nervous. Government's track record in picking winners, as Liberal cabinet ministers use to point out, is not good. Companies with good ideas should be able to look to the market for funding.
And the plan calls for new energy efficiency standards for buildings by 2010. That's likely a good thing, but how much will the cost of an new house, or commercial building, be pushed up by the new regulations?
Those are the kinds of questions the government needs to be able to answer over the next few months. The framework energy policy points in the right direction.
Its credibility will rest on the government's ability to begin filling in the large blanks in the plan.
Footnote: The plan appears to heed the advice of the B.C. Progress Board, the useful advisory group created by the premier. It suggested in late 2005 that government, not B.C. Hydro, should be setting energy policy. "B.C. Hydro is seen by many concerned parties to heavily outweigh the ministry in staff and resources, which puts the government in the position of not being able to provide adequate oversight and direction," said the panel. That seems to be changing.
The plan lacks detail to back up most of the big targets, a little disappointing given how long the government has to work on the file.
It's great to say that conservation efforts will cut projected energy consumption growth in half, but it would be useful to know the cost and how consumers — commercial and residential — will be motivated to take the necessary steps.
And there are worries about subsidies to business and the somewhat vague intention to use BC Hydro as an agent of "social, economic and environmental" change.
The Liberals' moves since 2001 to put Crown corporations on a firmer business footing were welcome. For BC Hydro, that meant a focus on delivering cheap, secure power, with the B.C. Utilities' Commission protecting consumers.
But things have apparently changed. The government has decided there are some important policy objectives that can be advanced most effectively through B.C. Hydro.
The Crown corporation has a history as an agent of change. W.A.C. Bennett's dam-building spree some 50 years ago provided cheap electricity that has been a boon to the province's economy to this day. Consumers and industry both benefit from relatively inexpensive power, thanks to Bennett's enthusiasm for big hydro projects.
And, happily, those projects with their zero emissions have become highly favoured as concerns about climate change mount.
Bennett would likely have been pleased to see that B.C. is once again looking at a hydro megaproject, the Site C dam on the Peace River near Fort St. John.
It's tougher to build dams now, not so easy to dismiss the claims of those whose lives will be changed by the flooding or the warnings of environmental damage. Those issues — along with the $3.5-billion cost — have made the Liberals mighty nervous about the dam.
But the Peace River has already been dammed; this would just be another one. While the land consumed by the Site C project is significant, compensation could be part of the plan.
And the 900-megawatt capacity would deliver as much power as four greenhouse gas emitting gas-power plants, more cheaply.
Today, if a deal can reached with local First Nations, that makes the project highly attractive.
Energy Minister Richard Neufeld is still being cautious, but the dam is very much back on the agenda.
Mostly, the new energy policy is about goals. The government doesn't want to need electricity imports by 2016 (a puzzling goal); all power projects will have zero "net" emissions by the same year, meaning gas-fired plants better start planting trees; by 2020 half the province's growth in power consumption should be offset by conservation measures. (You'll buy a more efficient fridge and turn down the heat to offset the effect of that new family from New Brunswick and all their appliances.)
Most of the goals make sense. The question open for debate now is how we get there.
For example, the government proposes a $25-million increase in electricity rates to provide money government can use to "help promising clean power technology projects succeed."
That should make you nervous. Government's track record in picking winners, as Liberal cabinet ministers use to point out, is not good. Companies with good ideas should be able to look to the market for funding.
And the plan calls for new energy efficiency standards for buildings by 2010. That's likely a good thing, but how much will the cost of an new house, or commercial building, be pushed up by the new regulations?
Those are the kinds of questions the government needs to be able to answer over the next few months. The framework energy policy points in the right direction.
Its credibility will rest on the government's ability to begin filling in the large blanks in the plan.
Footnote: The plan appears to heed the advice of the B.C. Progress Board, the useful advisory group created by the premier. It suggested in late 2005 that government, not B.C. Hydro, should be setting energy policy. "B.C. Hydro is seen by many concerned parties to heavily outweigh the ministry in staff and resources, which puts the government in the position of not being able to provide adequate oversight and direction," said the panel. That seems to be changing.
Thursday, February 22, 2007
What happened the night police left Frank Paul to die
VICTORIA -It’s hard to let go of Frank Paul and the way he died, dumped in a Vancouver alley, on a cold night, by police.
Maybe it’s because he was the kind of guy who needed protecting.
Paul was a skinny little man with damaged hands, a Micmac from New Brunswick who ended up on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, homeless and drinking too much.
Who knows, maybe Paul, then 47, would be dead by now anyway.
Or maybe he’d be back home in Big Cove, doing better.
But three weeks before Christmas in 1998 two Vancouver police officers found him in an alley, semiconscious. They called a patrol wagon.
Video from the jail shows Paul being dragged from the wagon, down a hallway and up in an elevator to the floor with cells. He doesn't move. A nurse walks past twice as he lies on the floor.
Then the video then shows Paul being dragged back out by his feet. The patrol wagon tried to take him to a detox centre, where he was rejected. So police left him in an alley.
A few hours later, the same officers who picked up Paul up the first time found him dead of hypothermia, sprawled half-dressed in the cold and rain.
It’s case that cried out for answers. Why wasn’t Paul kept at the jail or taken to hospital? What were the police department policies about dealing with semiconscious people?
But nothing happened. No one would likely have known about the case until problems started mounting in the police complaints commissioner’s office in 2002. It was revealed then that staff had been pressing the commissioner to call a public inquiry for two years. He refused.
It took until 2004, but the new police complaint commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, recommended the government call a public inquiry. At least two witnesses had never been interviewed, he learned.
Rich Coleman, then solicitor general, refused. A coroner’s inquiry and an internal police review were enough to answer all the questions.
It seemed an inadequate answer even then.
Then this week Greg Fiolotte came forward. He was a corrections officer and says he helped drag Paul to the police van that night.
No one from the Vancouver Police Department has ever interviewed him to find out what happened, he said. At best the department didn’t want to know what really happened, he said, and at at worst it already knew but didn’t want the facts to become public.
How could one of a handful of witnesses — and one of only a few not part of the police department — never be interviewed?
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs wants answers. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says the investigation looks like a sham. He wants a public inquiry.
So does Dana Urban. He was a legal advisor to the police commissioner, one of the people who unsuccessfully argued for an inquiry seven years ago.
Urban is in Kosovo now. He’s an international prosecutor with the United Nations, dealing with human rights abuses and war crimes,
Despite all he’s seen, he told the Globe and Mail, he’s had a hard time letting go of Paul’s death too.
The most basic Canadian right — the right to life — was violated that night, Urban said. The people sworn to protect Paul and entrusted to investigate his death failed him. “I will never forget the shame I felt, and continue to feel for my country and its people," Urban said.
Solicitor General John Les ruled out an inquiry Wednesday. But the next day, he reversed his decision. An inquiry will finally be held
It’s been a long time since Paul died in that alley.
We owe him, and ourselves, some answers, about what happened and whether anything needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Footnote: Why did Les change his mind? The premier got invovled, likely because the renewed interest in Paul’s death comes at a critical time in the government’s new relationship with First Nations. Despite progress on some fronts frustration is growing with the pace of change. First Nation leaders have had a larger concern about police treatment of natives for some time. Failing to act would have caused more problems.
Maybe it’s because he was the kind of guy who needed protecting.
Paul was a skinny little man with damaged hands, a Micmac from New Brunswick who ended up on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, homeless and drinking too much.
Who knows, maybe Paul, then 47, would be dead by now anyway.
Or maybe he’d be back home in Big Cove, doing better.
But three weeks before Christmas in 1998 two Vancouver police officers found him in an alley, semiconscious. They called a patrol wagon.
Video from the jail shows Paul being dragged from the wagon, down a hallway and up in an elevator to the floor with cells. He doesn't move. A nurse walks past twice as he lies on the floor.
Then the video then shows Paul being dragged back out by his feet. The patrol wagon tried to take him to a detox centre, where he was rejected. So police left him in an alley.
A few hours later, the same officers who picked up Paul up the first time found him dead of hypothermia, sprawled half-dressed in the cold and rain.
It’s case that cried out for answers. Why wasn’t Paul kept at the jail or taken to hospital? What were the police department policies about dealing with semiconscious people?
But nothing happened. No one would likely have known about the case until problems started mounting in the police complaints commissioner’s office in 2002. It was revealed then that staff had been pressing the commissioner to call a public inquiry for two years. He refused.
It took until 2004, but the new police complaint commissioner, Dirk Ryneveld, recommended the government call a public inquiry. At least two witnesses had never been interviewed, he learned.
Rich Coleman, then solicitor general, refused. A coroner’s inquiry and an internal police review were enough to answer all the questions.
It seemed an inadequate answer even then.
Then this week Greg Fiolotte came forward. He was a corrections officer and says he helped drag Paul to the police van that night.
No one from the Vancouver Police Department has ever interviewed him to find out what happened, he said. At best the department didn’t want to know what really happened, he said, and at at worst it already knew but didn’t want the facts to become public.
How could one of a handful of witnesses — and one of only a few not part of the police department — never be interviewed?
The Union of B.C. Indian Chiefs wants answers. Grand Chief Stewart Phillip says the investigation looks like a sham. He wants a public inquiry.
So does Dana Urban. He was a legal advisor to the police commissioner, one of the people who unsuccessfully argued for an inquiry seven years ago.
Urban is in Kosovo now. He’s an international prosecutor with the United Nations, dealing with human rights abuses and war crimes,
Despite all he’s seen, he told the Globe and Mail, he’s had a hard time letting go of Paul’s death too.
The most basic Canadian right — the right to life — was violated that night, Urban said. The people sworn to protect Paul and entrusted to investigate his death failed him. “I will never forget the shame I felt, and continue to feel for my country and its people," Urban said.
Solicitor General John Les ruled out an inquiry Wednesday. But the next day, he reversed his decision. An inquiry will finally be held
It’s been a long time since Paul died in that alley.
We owe him, and ourselves, some answers, about what happened and whether anything needs to be done to make sure it doesn’t happen again.
Footnote: Why did Les change his mind? The premier got invovled, likely because the renewed interest in Paul’s death comes at a critical time in the government’s new relationship with First Nations. Despite progress on some fronts frustration is growing with the pace of change. First Nation leaders have had a larger concern about police treatment of natives for some time. Failing to act would have caused more problems.
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Budget ignores public and comes up short
Where the heck did this budget come from? The government spent a whack of money trying to find out what you wanted in the financial plan, sending a flyer to every home and a committee of MLAs around B.C. to hold hearings
Tax cuts weren’t high on anyone’s list — not even the business community’s.
Individuals and organizations told the government they were worried about health care, education and issues like addictions and homelessness. From Cranbrook to Campbell River, the public said government should make delivering services the priority.
And they were even willing to pay for them.
But Finance Minister Carole Taylor confirmed yesterday that the government has a different ideological bent. “We as a government have always run on the policy of lowering income taxes when we can,” she said.
So, out of nowhere, an across-the-board 10-per-cent tax cut on the first $100,000 in income, phased in this year and next.
For someone making $30,000, the cut will be worth $67 this year and $134 in 2008. For someone at $120,000, the gain will be $430 and $864.
The government claimed the tax cuts are part of a housing policy, the theme for this year’s budget being “building a housing legacy.” (Last year, Taylor said the budget was “about the little ones.” This year, government cut $40 million from the children and families budget. Staying power is an issue for these people.)
In fact, the tax cut is by far the largest part of the housing commitment. The government claims it’s allocating $2 billion over four years to help British Columbians “address their housing needs and the challenge of home affordability.”
But about $1.5 billion of that tally is based on the value of the tax cuts.
And while it’s nice to pay less tax, can anyone argue with a straight face that a tax cut worth $25 a month to a typical family is really the centrepiece of an effective housing strategy?
Or that the $515 million a year in foregone revenue could not have made a great difference in improving health care or addressing drug-related crime — or providing targeted housing programs?
The other housing measures might be useful; it’s too early to say based on the limited information.
The other striking thing about this budget is how much is left up in the air, in way that might make sense for a government in its first year or two but is worrying after six years in power.
There’s no real health-care plan after this year. Instead the government has built its budget by simply allocating enough money for wage increases in the following two fiscal years. Any additional funding, for population increases or cost pressures or needed services, will have to be found within a limited contingency fund.
If the conversation on health results in a commitment to invest in care, or preventive efforts, that money will have to be found in the same contingency funds.
The big restructuring of the children and families ministry, which was originally supposed to be complete long ago now, has been put off until 2009 or 2010. If there’s an interim strategy, it remains hidden.
Even on climate change, the issue that dominated the throne speech, the government has no real plan behind the urgent words. Taylor’s budget speech talked about a $103-million environmental commitment over four years. Almost half of that goes to buy 20 hydrogen buses; the rest covers small programs.
The only funding directly linked to all those greenhouse gas targets Premier Gordon Campbell talked about is $4 million this year to fund a climate change office. It will try and figure out short-term greenhouse gas reduction goals and the actions needed to reach them. If those actions cost money, that will have to come out of the contingency funds.
It’s not a terrible budget. The province is projecting strong economic growth for the next five years and big surpluses through the next three. There’s no wild spending or cutting.
But it shows a baffling disconnect between the realities of life in B.C., as experienced by ordinary citizens, and the government’s choices.
Footnote: It’s tough to see much in this budget for what used to be called, in another time, the Heartland. The pine beetle crisis, now apparently coming even more quickly, got no mention in the main budget presentations. Much of the infrastructure money appeared concentrated in the Lower Mainland. And the cost overruns on the Vancouver convention centre, now more than $300 million over its initial $495-million budget, are cutting into capital budgets.
Tax cuts weren’t high on anyone’s list — not even the business community’s.
Individuals and organizations told the government they were worried about health care, education and issues like addictions and homelessness. From Cranbrook to Campbell River, the public said government should make delivering services the priority.
And they were even willing to pay for them.
But Finance Minister Carole Taylor confirmed yesterday that the government has a different ideological bent. “We as a government have always run on the policy of lowering income taxes when we can,” she said.
So, out of nowhere, an across-the-board 10-per-cent tax cut on the first $100,000 in income, phased in this year and next.
For someone making $30,000, the cut will be worth $67 this year and $134 in 2008. For someone at $120,000, the gain will be $430 and $864.
The government claimed the tax cuts are part of a housing policy, the theme for this year’s budget being “building a housing legacy.” (Last year, Taylor said the budget was “about the little ones.” This year, government cut $40 million from the children and families budget. Staying power is an issue for these people.)
In fact, the tax cut is by far the largest part of the housing commitment. The government claims it’s allocating $2 billion over four years to help British Columbians “address their housing needs and the challenge of home affordability.”
But about $1.5 billion of that tally is based on the value of the tax cuts.
And while it’s nice to pay less tax, can anyone argue with a straight face that a tax cut worth $25 a month to a typical family is really the centrepiece of an effective housing strategy?
Or that the $515 million a year in foregone revenue could not have made a great difference in improving health care or addressing drug-related crime — or providing targeted housing programs?
The other housing measures might be useful; it’s too early to say based on the limited information.
The other striking thing about this budget is how much is left up in the air, in way that might make sense for a government in its first year or two but is worrying after six years in power.
There’s no real health-care plan after this year. Instead the government has built its budget by simply allocating enough money for wage increases in the following two fiscal years. Any additional funding, for population increases or cost pressures or needed services, will have to be found within a limited contingency fund.
If the conversation on health results in a commitment to invest in care, or preventive efforts, that money will have to be found in the same contingency funds.
The big restructuring of the children and families ministry, which was originally supposed to be complete long ago now, has been put off until 2009 or 2010. If there’s an interim strategy, it remains hidden.
Even on climate change, the issue that dominated the throne speech, the government has no real plan behind the urgent words. Taylor’s budget speech talked about a $103-million environmental commitment over four years. Almost half of that goes to buy 20 hydrogen buses; the rest covers small programs.
The only funding directly linked to all those greenhouse gas targets Premier Gordon Campbell talked about is $4 million this year to fund a climate change office. It will try and figure out short-term greenhouse gas reduction goals and the actions needed to reach them. If those actions cost money, that will have to come out of the contingency funds.
It’s not a terrible budget. The province is projecting strong economic growth for the next five years and big surpluses through the next three. There’s no wild spending or cutting.
But it shows a baffling disconnect between the realities of life in B.C., as experienced by ordinary citizens, and the government’s choices.
Footnote: It’s tough to see much in this budget for what used to be called, in another time, the Heartland. The pine beetle crisis, now apparently coming even more quickly, got no mention in the main budget presentations. Much of the infrastructure money appeared concentrated in the Lower Mainland. And the cost overruns on the Vancouver convention centre, now more than $300 million over its initial $495-million budget, are cutting into capital budgets.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
B.C. takes green crown, thanks to you
VICTORIA - What do you know, this democracy thing works.
The Liberal government's discovery of climate change, and the resulting extraordinary measures promised in the throne speech, didn't happen just because the premier got a look at China's sprawling cities.
It was you. I can't recall another issue where the public has got so far out ahead of all the political parties and governments, which are now scrambling to catch up.
And Premier Gordon Campbell, a man of enthusiasms, has outscrambled them all. (Of course, the problem with men of enthusiasms is their necessarily short attention span; the next great passion is around the corner.)
Climate change didn't rate one word in the last six throne speeches; the government had no real climate-change plan, just a 2204 document outlining some general directions.
But this week, everything changed. B.C.'s ambitious new climate-change agenda make it a potential leader in North America. The throne speech acknowledged climate change is real, caused by human actions and threatens "life on Earth as we know it." Pretty big change for a government that thought the Kyoto accord was too costly to implement.
The climate-change measures would cut across most areas of our lives. The end target is a one-third reduction from current levels by 2020. A new Climate Action Team, headed by the premier, will set interim targets for 2012 and 2016.
The broad target is backed up by specific commitments. Some are small, like yet another in long history of promises to ban beehive burners.
But others are sweeping. Cars sold in the province will have to meet tough emission standards, with the change phased in starting in 2009. New zero-emission standards for coal plants effectively kill two projects planned for the Interior.
And the oil and gas industry, a major source, will have to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2016. That will be a challenge, even given the technological improvements of the past five or six years.
The changes reach down to the local level too. The province promises a new green building code and better transit.
But for all these big ideas, it will be the details that define success or failure, fad or commitment. A new green building code could order an extra two inches of insulation. Or it could mandate measures to cut average energy use - and emissions - by 75 per cent.
The throne speech got good marks all around, with even environmental groups usually critical of government praising the boldness of the vision.
Now we'll see if the government has the commitment to stick with the effort and deal with the inevitable objections anytime change is proposed.
Beyond the climate change measures, the throne speech was pretty thin gruel, although coming changes in education and literacy were hinted at.
The sections on health were worrying. The government continues to exaggerate - wildly - the problem posed by rising health care costs.
But the speech offered little in the way of specific measures to ease pressures on the system or deliver care more effectively.
And even though the conversation on health has barely begun, the speech suggested the government's mind might already be made up. The speech promised "fundamental health reforms that increase individual choice and maximize the supply of health services within the budgets available."
I don't know what that means. That in itself is worrying.
Sadly, it looks like we'll have to wait another year before public concern about homelessness, addictions, mental illness and street problems forces the politicians to play catch up again.
The speech called homelessness "a plague that weakens our cities, siphons our strength, and erodes our social fabric."
But it didn't reveal any serious plan to address the issues, just tinkering around the edges with small but useful measures like municipal zoning changes.
Which means things will grow worse - and probably be at the centre of next year's throne speech.
Footnote: Education got a fair amount of attention in the throne speech, although a lot of the proposals were vague. The government is going to amend the law to let school boards charge user fees for music, shop and sports academies, a backward step. And it looks like a bigger push on literacy, school readiness and greater experimentation in schools is coming.
The Liberal government's discovery of climate change, and the resulting extraordinary measures promised in the throne speech, didn't happen just because the premier got a look at China's sprawling cities.
It was you. I can't recall another issue where the public has got so far out ahead of all the political parties and governments, which are now scrambling to catch up.
And Premier Gordon Campbell, a man of enthusiasms, has outscrambled them all. (Of course, the problem with men of enthusiasms is their necessarily short attention span; the next great passion is around the corner.)
Climate change didn't rate one word in the last six throne speeches; the government had no real climate-change plan, just a 2204 document outlining some general directions.
But this week, everything changed. B.C.'s ambitious new climate-change agenda make it a potential leader in North America. The throne speech acknowledged climate change is real, caused by human actions and threatens "life on Earth as we know it." Pretty big change for a government that thought the Kyoto accord was too costly to implement.
The climate-change measures would cut across most areas of our lives. The end target is a one-third reduction from current levels by 2020. A new Climate Action Team, headed by the premier, will set interim targets for 2012 and 2016.
The broad target is backed up by specific commitments. Some are small, like yet another in long history of promises to ban beehive burners.
But others are sweeping. Cars sold in the province will have to meet tough emission standards, with the change phased in starting in 2009. New zero-emission standards for coal plants effectively kill two projects planned for the Interior.
And the oil and gas industry, a major source, will have to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 2000 levels by 2016. That will be a challenge, even given the technological improvements of the past five or six years.
The changes reach down to the local level too. The province promises a new green building code and better transit.
But for all these big ideas, it will be the details that define success or failure, fad or commitment. A new green building code could order an extra two inches of insulation. Or it could mandate measures to cut average energy use - and emissions - by 75 per cent.
The throne speech got good marks all around, with even environmental groups usually critical of government praising the boldness of the vision.
Now we'll see if the government has the commitment to stick with the effort and deal with the inevitable objections anytime change is proposed.
Beyond the climate change measures, the throne speech was pretty thin gruel, although coming changes in education and literacy were hinted at.
The sections on health were worrying. The government continues to exaggerate - wildly - the problem posed by rising health care costs.
But the speech offered little in the way of specific measures to ease pressures on the system or deliver care more effectively.
And even though the conversation on health has barely begun, the speech suggested the government's mind might already be made up. The speech promised "fundamental health reforms that increase individual choice and maximize the supply of health services within the budgets available."
I don't know what that means. That in itself is worrying.
Sadly, it looks like we'll have to wait another year before public concern about homelessness, addictions, mental illness and street problems forces the politicians to play catch up again.
The speech called homelessness "a plague that weakens our cities, siphons our strength, and erodes our social fabric."
But it didn't reveal any serious plan to address the issues, just tinkering around the edges with small but useful measures like municipal zoning changes.
Which means things will grow worse - and probably be at the centre of next year's throne speech.
Footnote: Education got a fair amount of attention in the throne speech, although a lot of the proposals were vague. The government is going to amend the law to let school boards charge user fees for music, shop and sports academies, a backward step. And it looks like a bigger push on literacy, school readiness and greater experimentation in schools is coming.
Tuesday, February 13, 2007
Liberals face questions over health letter secrecy
VICTORIA - You can tell a lot about what's wrong in government by the clumsy attempts to censor Fraser Health Authority chairman Keith Purchase's resignation letter.
It's not that there was anything unusual about the attempts to keep the facts hidden. In fact, the point is that secrecy has become the norm, the default position in government.
Which is particularly ironic, in a nasty way, because the Liberals promised to run the most open and transparent government in Canada. If they are, Lord help people who live in the other provinces.
It's also telling that the government's attempt to keep Purchase's letter secret come as it launches a conversation on health. It's like sitting down to talk about how school is going with your son, without him mentioning that he's got a report card with four 'Fs' in his back pocket.
Purchase resigned Jan. 25, out of frustration with inadequate funding for the health authority and Health Minister George Abbott's rough firing of Vancouver Coastal chairman Trevor Johnstone.
To be fair, Abbott acknowledged those were the reasons at the time. But he didn't release the letter of resignation, saying it would have to be reviewed under under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
That took a remarkable 11 days, just to vet a brief letter. No wonder the government routinely breaks the law by failing to respond to information requests within legal deadlines.
When the government did release Purchase's letter of resignation, the government had whited out several sections. No one was supposed to know what Purchase wrote to the minister in those sentences.
But Vaughn Palmer, the superb Vancouver Sun columnist, got the original, uncensored version of the letter. The cuts, Palmer noted, were a "pathetic" attempt to conceal damaging information.
It's a good description, when you consider the sections the government tried to hide.
Purchase noted in his letter to Abbott that the health authority board had already written two letters of concern about inadequate funding for the coming year. He was specific about whjay lay ahead. "Based on that funding information, bed closures and service cuts would be inevitable," he wrote.
The government censored that information in the version of the letter it released.
Purchase warned in the letter that the problems were already hitting the region. "Put simply, we have a crisis situation in the Fraser Health region," he wrote.
The government censored that sentence.
And Purchase explained in the letter why he couldn't sign letters accepting the budget and saying it was adequate to allow care to the standards the government expected.
"I cannot sign this budget or the government's letter of expectation, when I know that Fraser Health will be unable to meet any of your goals with the resources allocated to us," he told Abbott.
The government censored that sentence too.
It's a cover-up. What's the government's justification? It cites sections of freedom of in formation legislation that allow it to invoke secrecy for "policy advice or recommendations developed by a public body or for a minister" and information that could be "harmful to the financial or economic interests of a public body."
First, a resignation letter is not policy advice developed by a public body.
But there's a bigger problem with the government's position.
The law doesn't say the government must keep the information secret. It simply says the government may choose to do so.
An open and transparent government would look at the law and the letter and release it. There's no privacy or public policy reason for secrecy. No reason at all, except to protect the minister and the government from embarrassment.
The case is no one-off example of unwarranted secrecy. The government routinely turned freedom of information law inside out. If the law says information may be kept secret, government acts as if it must be kept secret.
Open and transparent? Not even close.
Footnote: Expect the health authority resignations and firings to be high on the NDP's list of question-period topics now that the legislature has resumed sitting after the long break forced by the Liberals. They're likely also to focus on funding problems in the Vancouver Island, Northern and Interior health regions, where board members have so far made no waves.
It's not that there was anything unusual about the attempts to keep the facts hidden. In fact, the point is that secrecy has become the norm, the default position in government.
Which is particularly ironic, in a nasty way, because the Liberals promised to run the most open and transparent government in Canada. If they are, Lord help people who live in the other provinces.
It's also telling that the government's attempt to keep Purchase's letter secret come as it launches a conversation on health. It's like sitting down to talk about how school is going with your son, without him mentioning that he's got a report card with four 'Fs' in his back pocket.
Purchase resigned Jan. 25, out of frustration with inadequate funding for the health authority and Health Minister George Abbott's rough firing of Vancouver Coastal chairman Trevor Johnstone.
To be fair, Abbott acknowledged those were the reasons at the time. But he didn't release the letter of resignation, saying it would have to be reviewed under under the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act.
That took a remarkable 11 days, just to vet a brief letter. No wonder the government routinely breaks the law by failing to respond to information requests within legal deadlines.
When the government did release Purchase's letter of resignation, the government had whited out several sections. No one was supposed to know what Purchase wrote to the minister in those sentences.
But Vaughn Palmer, the superb Vancouver Sun columnist, got the original, uncensored version of the letter. The cuts, Palmer noted, were a "pathetic" attempt to conceal damaging information.
It's a good description, when you consider the sections the government tried to hide.
Purchase noted in his letter to Abbott that the health authority board had already written two letters of concern about inadequate funding for the coming year. He was specific about whjay lay ahead. "Based on that funding information, bed closures and service cuts would be inevitable," he wrote.
The government censored that information in the version of the letter it released.
Purchase warned in the letter that the problems were already hitting the region. "Put simply, we have a crisis situation in the Fraser Health region," he wrote.
The government censored that sentence.
And Purchase explained in the letter why he couldn't sign letters accepting the budget and saying it was adequate to allow care to the standards the government expected.
"I cannot sign this budget or the government's letter of expectation, when I know that Fraser Health will be unable to meet any of your goals with the resources allocated to us," he told Abbott.
The government censored that sentence too.
It's a cover-up. What's the government's justification? It cites sections of freedom of in formation legislation that allow it to invoke secrecy for "policy advice or recommendations developed by a public body or for a minister" and information that could be "harmful to the financial or economic interests of a public body."
First, a resignation letter is not policy advice developed by a public body.
But there's a bigger problem with the government's position.
The law doesn't say the government must keep the information secret. It simply says the government may choose to do so.
An open and transparent government would look at the law and the letter and release it. There's no privacy or public policy reason for secrecy. No reason at all, except to protect the minister and the government from embarrassment.
The case is no one-off example of unwarranted secrecy. The government routinely turned freedom of information law inside out. If the law says information may be kept secret, government acts as if it must be kept secret.
Open and transparent? Not even close.
Footnote: Expect the health authority resignations and firings to be high on the NDP's list of question-period topics now that the legislature has resumed sitting after the long break forced by the Liberals. They're likely also to focus on funding problems in the Vancouver Island, Northern and Interior health regions, where board members have so far made no waves.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
Bennett another victim of the B.C. political disease
Bill Bennett’s fall from grace — or at least cabinet — is partly just a story of bad judgment and bad behaviour.
Bennett is the MLA for East Kootenay and, until this week, was the junior minister for mines. He resigned from cabinet after a constituent went public with a dumb, abusive and offensive e-mail that he’d received from Bennett.
But this isn’t just about Bennett’s lousy manners. The whole exchange highlights a persistent sickness in B.C..
We don’t really talk about policies or how to respond to problems in this province.
We just choose up sides and flail away at each other, like bike gangs or British soccer hooligans. If you’re on a team, you’re expected to support every policy and from your leader and denounce every idea from the other side.
You can’t decide, for example, that the Liberals have a pretty good ideas on encouraging the oil and gas industry, while.the NDP has a better approach to support for children and families.
And you certainly can’t assume that people in both parties are just trying to follow the path they think will lead to a better life for people in the province. The other side have to be seen as the enemies, evil conspirators out to destroy the economy (the Liberals’ view of the NDP) or reward the rich while pushing most of us into poverty and despair (the New Democrats’ view of the Liberals).
Not everyone is so foolish, of course. And in fact, the political leaders have mostly been better behaved since the last election.
But our political life is still dominated by those who trapped in the friends and enemies mindset. Look at the e-mail exchange that led to Bennett’s downfall.
The issue, hunting regulations, isn’t really left-right.
Recreational hunters in Bennett’s riding thought rule changes planned by the Environment Ministry would give commercial guides a larger share of the animals to be killed at their expense.
Bennett is a hunter and was mostly on their side. He said he was in his hotel room, when he thought he should have been downstairs at a mining conference, preparing for a meeting on the issue with Environment Minister Barry Penner.
And in the file was a two-month-old e-mail from a constituent.
Maarten Hart, president of the Fernie Rod and Gun Club, argued commercial guides were getting too large a share. But in the best B.C. fashion, Hart tossed in a pointless insult. “I know that your government bows to the almighty dollar and faces east three times each day (not to Mecca, but to Wall Street),” Hart wrote, an approach hardly likely to win an ally.
Bennett topped him. “It is my understanding that you are an American, so I don't give a shit what your opinion is,” he wrote. Hart was “fool,” maybe an U.S. spy aiming to block coal mines and “a self-inflated, pompous, American know-it-all.”
Obviously, wretched behaviour.
But not so wildly out of character, for Bennett or B.C. People who disagree with our politicians find themselves often considered opponents or enemies, instead of just citizens with a different - and perhaps useful - perspective.
So for Glen Clark, back in his early days as premier, the environmentalists who criticized forest policy weren’t just people with a different policy idea — they were “enemies of B.C.”
Gordon Campbell carried on the tradition in his early days as premier, dismissing people who rallied outside a party convention to express concern about government policies as both stupid and representatives of special interests.
And Bennett had a hard time accepting the fact that people upset about health-care in his riding, for example, had sincere concerns, and might even be right.
Bennett, who had a lot of strengths as an MLA, including a determination to do what was best for his constituents, is the big loser in this case.
But all British Columbians are damaged by our inability to move beyond blind and destructive partisanship.
Footnote: Bennett was named to cabinet after the 2005 election, when he was the sole Liberal survivor in the province’s southeast. His departure comes as health care continues to be an issue and the region faces important debates about expanded coal mining, wildlife conservation issues and the giant Jumbo Glacier Resort ski development.
Bennett is the MLA for East Kootenay and, until this week, was the junior minister for mines. He resigned from cabinet after a constituent went public with a dumb, abusive and offensive e-mail that he’d received from Bennett.
But this isn’t just about Bennett’s lousy manners. The whole exchange highlights a persistent sickness in B.C..
We don’t really talk about policies or how to respond to problems in this province.
We just choose up sides and flail away at each other, like bike gangs or British soccer hooligans. If you’re on a team, you’re expected to support every policy and from your leader and denounce every idea from the other side.
You can’t decide, for example, that the Liberals have a pretty good ideas on encouraging the oil and gas industry, while.the NDP has a better approach to support for children and families.
And you certainly can’t assume that people in both parties are just trying to follow the path they think will lead to a better life for people in the province. The other side have to be seen as the enemies, evil conspirators out to destroy the economy (the Liberals’ view of the NDP) or reward the rich while pushing most of us into poverty and despair (the New Democrats’ view of the Liberals).
Not everyone is so foolish, of course. And in fact, the political leaders have mostly been better behaved since the last election.
But our political life is still dominated by those who trapped in the friends and enemies mindset. Look at the e-mail exchange that led to Bennett’s downfall.
The issue, hunting regulations, isn’t really left-right.
Recreational hunters in Bennett’s riding thought rule changes planned by the Environment Ministry would give commercial guides a larger share of the animals to be killed at their expense.
Bennett is a hunter and was mostly on their side. He said he was in his hotel room, when he thought he should have been downstairs at a mining conference, preparing for a meeting on the issue with Environment Minister Barry Penner.
And in the file was a two-month-old e-mail from a constituent.
Maarten Hart, president of the Fernie Rod and Gun Club, argued commercial guides were getting too large a share. But in the best B.C. fashion, Hart tossed in a pointless insult. “I know that your government bows to the almighty dollar and faces east three times each day (not to Mecca, but to Wall Street),” Hart wrote, an approach hardly likely to win an ally.
Bennett topped him. “It is my understanding that you are an American, so I don't give a shit what your opinion is,” he wrote. Hart was “fool,” maybe an U.S. spy aiming to block coal mines and “a self-inflated, pompous, American know-it-all.”
Obviously, wretched behaviour.
But not so wildly out of character, for Bennett or B.C. People who disagree with our politicians find themselves often considered opponents or enemies, instead of just citizens with a different - and perhaps useful - perspective.
So for Glen Clark, back in his early days as premier, the environmentalists who criticized forest policy weren’t just people with a different policy idea — they were “enemies of B.C.”
Gordon Campbell carried on the tradition in his early days as premier, dismissing people who rallied outside a party convention to express concern about government policies as both stupid and representatives of special interests.
And Bennett had a hard time accepting the fact that people upset about health-care in his riding, for example, had sincere concerns, and might even be right.
Bennett, who had a lot of strengths as an MLA, including a determination to do what was best for his constituents, is the big loser in this case.
But all British Columbians are damaged by our inability to move beyond blind and destructive partisanship.
Footnote: Bennett was named to cabinet after the 2005 election, when he was the sole Liberal survivor in the province’s southeast. His departure comes as health care continues to be an issue and the region faces important debates about expanded coal mining, wildlife conservation issues and the giant Jumbo Glacier Resort ski development.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Liberals face tricky climate-change test
Now things get interesting on climate change. Not just politically, though that’s going to be fascinating.
No, it’s also about us. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was decisive. Global warming is under way, we’re the cause and the results could be very nasty within 100 years.
Now we find out much we care about our great-grandkids, or even strangers who will be walking these streets as the next century starts.
It’s hard to predict what we’ll do. We’re not much focused on thinking long term. Governments look to the next election; businesses to the next quarter; a lot of us just want to get through the week.
We can decide it’s not worth the cost or inconvenience of changing what we do now, or perhaps rationalize that technology will advance fast enough to solve the problems we create. And there’s always the argument that unless China’s emissions are curbed, what’s the point? (Though China’s per-capita greenhouse gas emissions are about one-quarter of Canada’s.)
But we can’t ignore the facts. The panel report comes from a huge pool of international scientists. They believe it is a 90-per-cent certainty that humans are causing global warming. Temperatures will rise 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, they predict, and sea levels from 18 to 60 centimetres. Life on Earth will be more difficult for billions.
This is not one of those “someone should do something issues.” Everyone can make a difference — or not.
A family with two cars - one large and one medium-sized - driven a total 2,500 kms a month produces about 8,700 kilograms of CO2 a year.
Trade the big car in for a small one and walk and bike more so travel is cut by one-third, and the family only produces 5,000 kgs. Use a clothesline, not a dryer; turn off the computer when you’re not browsing; buy less new stuff. They all make a difference.
Between 25 and 30 per cent of Canadian greenhouse-gas emissions are the result of individuals’ direct actions. Individual efforts make a difference.
But no matter how much - or little - people are prepared to do personally, all the polls suggest they expect governments to take real action.
So, in a relative flash, Stephen Harper goes from a guy who doubts climate change and thinks the Kyoto accord is a socialist plot to a sort-of convert. Stéphane Dion forgets his record of inaction and practically glows, he’s become so green.
Provincially, the New Democrats were the first off the mark after the scientific panel’s report.
Leader Carole James sees a wedge issue, as they call them, a chance to show a clear divide between the positions of the two parties. (The New Democrats had no position, so they had lots of flexibility.)
The result is some relatively tough proposals. The NDP wants a freeze on greenhouse gas emissions in B.C., with reduction targets set after a legislative committee looks at the issue.
The party wants more tax breaks for fuel-efficient vehicles, more money for public transit and a mix of incentives and regulations to reduce emissions from the oil and gas industry.
The New Democrats also want a portion of energy revenues to go into a heritage fund, to be used in part to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.
And the NDP wants a ban on coal-fired power plants in B.C.
The Liberals can likely agree on many of those measures. We’ll find out in the Throne Speech Tuesday.
But two will give them pause.
The Campbell government has so far set no target for greenhouse emissions and is likely to consider a cap on emission growth too tough to achieve.
And the government has supported plans for two new coal-power plants, a major source of greenhouse gases.
The New Democrats have dumped the climate-change issue into the Liberals’ laps.
Within the next week the government is going to have to come up with a credible plan of its own.
Footnote: B.C. does have a two-year-old climate-change plan, which you can check out at www.env.gov.bc.ca/air/climate/. But there are almost no measurable targets and an awful lot of talk about consulting and encouraging and enhancing, rather than doing. It’s the kind of plan that in the business world would be bounced back as too vague to be useful.
No, it’s also about us. The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report was decisive. Global warming is under way, we’re the cause and the results could be very nasty within 100 years.
Now we find out much we care about our great-grandkids, or even strangers who will be walking these streets as the next century starts.
It’s hard to predict what we’ll do. We’re not much focused on thinking long term. Governments look to the next election; businesses to the next quarter; a lot of us just want to get through the week.
We can decide it’s not worth the cost or inconvenience of changing what we do now, or perhaps rationalize that technology will advance fast enough to solve the problems we create. And there’s always the argument that unless China’s emissions are curbed, what’s the point? (Though China’s per-capita greenhouse gas emissions are about one-quarter of Canada’s.)
But we can’t ignore the facts. The panel report comes from a huge pool of international scientists. They believe it is a 90-per-cent certainty that humans are causing global warming. Temperatures will rise 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius by the end of this century, they predict, and sea levels from 18 to 60 centimetres. Life on Earth will be more difficult for billions.
This is not one of those “someone should do something issues.” Everyone can make a difference — or not.
A family with two cars - one large and one medium-sized - driven a total 2,500 kms a month produces about 8,700 kilograms of CO2 a year.
Trade the big car in for a small one and walk and bike more so travel is cut by one-third, and the family only produces 5,000 kgs. Use a clothesline, not a dryer; turn off the computer when you’re not browsing; buy less new stuff. They all make a difference.
Between 25 and 30 per cent of Canadian greenhouse-gas emissions are the result of individuals’ direct actions. Individual efforts make a difference.
But no matter how much - or little - people are prepared to do personally, all the polls suggest they expect governments to take real action.
So, in a relative flash, Stephen Harper goes from a guy who doubts climate change and thinks the Kyoto accord is a socialist plot to a sort-of convert. Stéphane Dion forgets his record of inaction and practically glows, he’s become so green.
Provincially, the New Democrats were the first off the mark after the scientific panel’s report.
Leader Carole James sees a wedge issue, as they call them, a chance to show a clear divide between the positions of the two parties. (The New Democrats had no position, so they had lots of flexibility.)
The result is some relatively tough proposals. The NDP wants a freeze on greenhouse gas emissions in B.C., with reduction targets set after a legislative committee looks at the issue.
The party wants more tax breaks for fuel-efficient vehicles, more money for public transit and a mix of incentives and regulations to reduce emissions from the oil and gas industry.
The New Democrats also want a portion of energy revenues to go into a heritage fund, to be used in part to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gases.
And the NDP wants a ban on coal-fired power plants in B.C.
The Liberals can likely agree on many of those measures. We’ll find out in the Throne Speech Tuesday.
But two will give them pause.
The Campbell government has so far set no target for greenhouse emissions and is likely to consider a cap on emission growth too tough to achieve.
And the government has supported plans for two new coal-power plants, a major source of greenhouse gases.
The New Democrats have dumped the climate-change issue into the Liberals’ laps.
Within the next week the government is going to have to come up with a credible plan of its own.
Footnote: B.C. does have a two-year-old climate-change plan, which you can check out at www.env.gov.bc.ca/air/climate/. But there are almost no measurable targets and an awful lot of talk about consulting and encouraging and enhancing, rather than doing. It’s the kind of plan that in the business world would be bounced back as too vague to be useful.
Sunday, February 04, 2007
If politicians get income review, why not people on welfare
The latest effort to come up with raises for B.C. politicians is a big step forward over the last debacle, but still falls short of an ideal process.
And it raises some good questions about why MLAs and cabinet ministers think its important that their pay be regularly reviewed, but somehow don't believe a disabled person who relies on government assistance deserves the same consideration. Of course anything would be better than the last sneaky attempt - backed by both parties - that would have given MLAs a 15-per-cent pay raise and total compensation increases worth up to 50 per cent. In case you've forgotten - and the politicians are sure hoping you have - that was in 2005, after the election. They planned the raises behind closed doors and then, using a special rule, rushed them through the legislature in one hour. Such debates usually require three days, so the public has a chance to go, what a minute, what's going on here.
In this case, the public went crazy anyway. NDP leader Carole James reneged on the secret deal and the raise issue went away. This time Premier Gordon Campbell is taking a more responsible approach. A three-person panel has 90 days to review compensation and pension plans and make recommendations.
No real argument there. MLAs earn a base pay of $76,100, with extra money for heading committees or being cabinet or caucus appointments. Cabinet ministers get $115,100; the premier $121,100. There's a living allowance when they're in Victoria and a contribution to an RRSP in lieu of a pension plan. The RRSP contribution is nine per cent of base pay, or about $6,850.
It's not huge money. The work can be hard, MLAs are away from home, they're sacrificing peak years for advancing their own careers and they can be turfed every four years. For many, they're giving up serious money by seeking election.
But it's also not shabby. The base pay is still twice the average wage in B.C. It's about 4.5 times the income of someone working for minimum wage. And it's more than four times the income the government considers necessary for a disabled person, unable to work, and trying to raise a young child.
The panel is a qualified group, chaired by a senior lawyer who specializes in helping employers with labour issues. The other two members are a former B.C. Supreme Court justice back in private practice and a University of British Columbia business professor.
Great expertise. But also a skewed perspective. All three earn more than the premier today; the two lawyers likely take in twice as much. All three would be paid more than 95 per cent of British Columbians.
Given human nature, their views on a reasonable wage will be affected by the fact that they consider their own compensation quite fair.
The panel plans to give the public a chance to make submissions.
But it would have been wiser to include members with a different perspective - someone earning an average wage, living in Trail or Prince George. After all, we elect those kinds of people as MLAs and expect them to make other important decisions.
The whole exercise raises some other pretty good questions.
The government's news release said that MLAs and cabinet ministers hadn't received any "significant increases" since a 1997 review. But their pay is indexed, in a modest way, and recent increases have averaged about 1.1 per cent a year.
Not much. But more than people on minimum wage or most welfare recipients have seen during the same period.
If it's important to examine the compensation for politicians, to keep it current and make sure it's reasonable, what about others, like people on welfare?
Certainly the government looks at those issues. But it's managing a tangle of interests, some of them conflicting.
Why not give the panel another 60 days and ask for recommendations on those rates as well? If it 's important to get compensation right for 79 MLAs, surely it's just as important to take an independent look at the money being provided to some 70,000 disabled British Columbians dependent on income assistance.
And it raises some good questions about why MLAs and cabinet ministers think its important that their pay be regularly reviewed, but somehow don't believe a disabled person who relies on government assistance deserves the same consideration. Of course anything would be better than the last sneaky attempt - backed by both parties - that would have given MLAs a 15-per-cent pay raise and total compensation increases worth up to 50 per cent. In case you've forgotten - and the politicians are sure hoping you have - that was in 2005, after the election. They planned the raises behind closed doors and then, using a special rule, rushed them through the legislature in one hour. Such debates usually require three days, so the public has a chance to go, what a minute, what's going on here.
In this case, the public went crazy anyway. NDP leader Carole James reneged on the secret deal and the raise issue went away. This time Premier Gordon Campbell is taking a more responsible approach. A three-person panel has 90 days to review compensation and pension plans and make recommendations.
No real argument there. MLAs earn a base pay of $76,100, with extra money for heading committees or being cabinet or caucus appointments. Cabinet ministers get $115,100; the premier $121,100. There's a living allowance when they're in Victoria and a contribution to an RRSP in lieu of a pension plan. The RRSP contribution is nine per cent of base pay, or about $6,850.
It's not huge money. The work can be hard, MLAs are away from home, they're sacrificing peak years for advancing their own careers and they can be turfed every four years. For many, they're giving up serious money by seeking election.
But it's also not shabby. The base pay is still twice the average wage in B.C. It's about 4.5 times the income of someone working for minimum wage. And it's more than four times the income the government considers necessary for a disabled person, unable to work, and trying to raise a young child.
The panel is a qualified group, chaired by a senior lawyer who specializes in helping employers with labour issues. The other two members are a former B.C. Supreme Court justice back in private practice and a University of British Columbia business professor.
Great expertise. But also a skewed perspective. All three earn more than the premier today; the two lawyers likely take in twice as much. All three would be paid more than 95 per cent of British Columbians.
Given human nature, their views on a reasonable wage will be affected by the fact that they consider their own compensation quite fair.
The panel plans to give the public a chance to make submissions.
But it would have been wiser to include members with a different perspective - someone earning an average wage, living in Trail or Prince George. After all, we elect those kinds of people as MLAs and expect them to make other important decisions.
The whole exercise raises some other pretty good questions.
The government's news release said that MLAs and cabinet ministers hadn't received any "significant increases" since a 1997 review. But their pay is indexed, in a modest way, and recent increases have averaged about 1.1 per cent a year.
Not much. But more than people on minimum wage or most welfare recipients have seen during the same period.
If it's important to examine the compensation for politicians, to keep it current and make sure it's reasonable, what about others, like people on welfare?
Certainly the government looks at those issues. But it's managing a tangle of interests, some of them conflicting.
Why not give the panel another 60 days and ask for recommendations on those rates as well? If it 's important to get compensation right for 79 MLAs, surely it's just as important to take an independent look at the money being provided to some 70,000 disabled British Columbians dependent on income assistance.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
Liberals hit by health-care turmoil
VICTORIA - Those people who argue the government has been underfunding health care have just got some pretty strong support from the best of sources.
Within 48 hours the heads of the regional health authorities serving almost half B.C.'s population were gone from their jobs; one fired, the other resigning.
And in both cases, the central issue was the lack of money to provide the care people needed - the operations, emergency-room care, seniors' homes.
The revolution from within capped what had been a bad week on the health-care file for the Campbell government.
The first to go was Vancouver Coastal Health Authority chairman Trevor Johnstone, fired by Health Minister George Abbott. Johnstone, said Abbott, was being axed because the health authority wasn't managing its spending pressures properly.
The authority and the government had been arguing over $40-million.
The authority said it was short that much and couldn't meet health-care needs in the region for the rest of this year.
It warned the government of the problem well in advance. When there was no solution, the health authority cancelled surgeries and closed acute-care beds to avoid a deficit.
The government, after some confused waffling, ordered the decision reversed and told the authority to find $40 million in other savings - all to be realized in the next two months.
That's pretty much impossible. The authority would have to find an immediate way to cut spending by nine per cent for the rest of the fiscal year.
That can't be done without service cuts, no matter what the health minister decrees from his Victoria office.
Maybe the health region management had done a poor job and Johnstone deserved to go.
But the government looked nervous. On the same day Johnstone was axed Finance Minister Carole Taylor made an extraordinary announcement. She didn't only pre-empt the coming budget by announcing next year's funding for the health authorities. She made the announcement months ahead of any other year. The authorities would get an average 6.3 per cent increase, she said.
The announcement was an attempt to counter the criticism likely to follow the budget-related firing of Johnstone.
It didn't work out too well. Only 48 hours after Abbot fired Johnstone, another health authority chairman said he was quitting. Partly, because of the way the government had treated his colleague.
But more significantly, Fraser Health chair Keith Purchase said Taylor's funding plan would leave the authority unable to provide the region with the needed care.
Purchase is not some well-meaning amateur. He has an extensive background in the forest industry and was CEO of TimberWest. The Liberals named him chair of the Vancouver Coastal authority in 2001 when it overhauled the health system.
The Campbell government then appointed him chair of Fraser Health in late 2005, when the region faced mounting problems.
Health Minister George Abbott said Purchase should have been content with the increase promised by Taylor. Fraser Health is slated to get a 7.1-per-cent budget increase next year, more than any other authority.
But a big one-year increase can't make up for several years of inadequate funding.
Even with the promised jump, the health authorities will have received funding increases averaging 3.5 per cent a year since they began delivering services in 2002.
That's not enough to keep up with population growth and increases in the cost of living.
It's certainly not enough to allow them to deal with the cost pressures Premier Gordon Campbell keeps citing - an aging population, rising drug costs, increased expectations.
The government hoped that the new structure would allow health authorities to cut costs - to deliver more with less, as the big bosses like to say.
But the departures of Johnstone and Purchase suggest that despite their best efforts, the authorities simply don't have the money needed.
The government is now going to have make the tough argument that British Columbians can't or won't pay more to fund their local health authority.
Footnote: Taylor added another problem to the list facing health regions. She warned that they will only receive one-year funding increase in the budget because of possible changes resulting from the Conversation on Health. It makes efficient planning and management of the system much more difficult for the regional authorities.
Within 48 hours the heads of the regional health authorities serving almost half B.C.'s population were gone from their jobs; one fired, the other resigning.
And in both cases, the central issue was the lack of money to provide the care people needed - the operations, emergency-room care, seniors' homes.
The revolution from within capped what had been a bad week on the health-care file for the Campbell government.
The first to go was Vancouver Coastal Health Authority chairman Trevor Johnstone, fired by Health Minister George Abbott. Johnstone, said Abbott, was being axed because the health authority wasn't managing its spending pressures properly.
The authority and the government had been arguing over $40-million.
The authority said it was short that much and couldn't meet health-care needs in the region for the rest of this year.
It warned the government of the problem well in advance. When there was no solution, the health authority cancelled surgeries and closed acute-care beds to avoid a deficit.
The government, after some confused waffling, ordered the decision reversed and told the authority to find $40 million in other savings - all to be realized in the next two months.
That's pretty much impossible. The authority would have to find an immediate way to cut spending by nine per cent for the rest of the fiscal year.
That can't be done without service cuts, no matter what the health minister decrees from his Victoria office.
Maybe the health region management had done a poor job and Johnstone deserved to go.
But the government looked nervous. On the same day Johnstone was axed Finance Minister Carole Taylor made an extraordinary announcement. She didn't only pre-empt the coming budget by announcing next year's funding for the health authorities. She made the announcement months ahead of any other year. The authorities would get an average 6.3 per cent increase, she said.
The announcement was an attempt to counter the criticism likely to follow the budget-related firing of Johnstone.
It didn't work out too well. Only 48 hours after Abbot fired Johnstone, another health authority chairman said he was quitting. Partly, because of the way the government had treated his colleague.
But more significantly, Fraser Health chair Keith Purchase said Taylor's funding plan would leave the authority unable to provide the region with the needed care.
Purchase is not some well-meaning amateur. He has an extensive background in the forest industry and was CEO of TimberWest. The Liberals named him chair of the Vancouver Coastal authority in 2001 when it overhauled the health system.
The Campbell government then appointed him chair of Fraser Health in late 2005, when the region faced mounting problems.
Health Minister George Abbott said Purchase should have been content with the increase promised by Taylor. Fraser Health is slated to get a 7.1-per-cent budget increase next year, more than any other authority.
But a big one-year increase can't make up for several years of inadequate funding.
Even with the promised jump, the health authorities will have received funding increases averaging 3.5 per cent a year since they began delivering services in 2002.
That's not enough to keep up with population growth and increases in the cost of living.
It's certainly not enough to allow them to deal with the cost pressures Premier Gordon Campbell keeps citing - an aging population, rising drug costs, increased expectations.
The government hoped that the new structure would allow health authorities to cut costs - to deliver more with less, as the big bosses like to say.
But the departures of Johnstone and Purchase suggest that despite their best efforts, the authorities simply don't have the money needed.
The government is now going to have make the tough argument that British Columbians can't or won't pay more to fund their local health authority.
Footnote: Taylor added another problem to the list facing health regions. She warned that they will only receive one-year funding increase in the budget because of possible changes resulting from the Conversation on Health. It makes efficient planning and management of the system much more difficult for the regional authorities.
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Coal-power plans dim Liberals' green claims
VICTORIA - The people backing two proposed coal-fired power plants in B.C. should be mighty nervous.
The Liberal government has been defending the new power projects against complaints about the environmental cost. But that was before climate change crossed over as an issue. Sometime in the last few months we hit a tipping point on global warming. Most of us decided that it's a serious problem, that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions might help and governments need to lead.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognizes the change. The Conservatives didn't mention climate change once in their 2006. Now he's suddenly vying with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion for green honours.
Even U.S. President George W. Bush spoke about the need to manage climate change in his state of the union address, a first.
And Premier Gordon Campbell says he came back from his China trip convinced B.C. had to lead on climate change, promising that the new energy plan would tackle the issue.
That means the Liberals' plans to allow two new coal-fired power plants are a big problem.
It's tough to claim to be serious about climate change and reducing greenhouse gases while backing new coal power.
Environmentally - and especially in terms of greenhouse gases - coal is the least desirable fuel for generating power. It's not just that emission-free projects like wind power or hydro are better. So are gas-fired plants like the ones already supplying B.C. Hydro, which emit about one-third the greenhouse gases of comparable coal plants
But the Crown corporation has agreed to buy power from two new coal-fired power plants, reflecting the government's eagerness to see more mining. Plans call for a 56-megawatt coal and wood-residue burning plant near Princeton and a 184-
megawatt plant near Tumbler Ridge.
Energy Minister Richard Neufeld, also responsible for promoting mining, has defended the plants. They'll use modern technology that reduces emissions, he says, and diversifying the power sources might help B.C. avoid future price shocks. (Neufeld notes environmental approvals are still needed, but that's something close to a formality.)
On the other side, critics say coal power is simply the wrong course for any government serious about climate change.
Environmental groups say the first two plants would produce about 180 megatonnes per year of greenhouse gases, the equivalent of putting 300,000 extra cars on the road. As a result, B.C.'s greenhouse-gas emissions would increase three per cent when the plants came on line.
Which would be sometime around 2010, when Ontario will have finished phasing out its coal-powered generating plants because of concerns about pollution and global warming.
It's not just the usual suspects who have concerns about coal.
This month the CEOs of 10 of the largest U.S. corporations - including Duke Energy, BP American and General Electric - joined environmental groups to urge Bush to take action on climate change.
And their recommendations included a call to discourage any new coal-power plants, unless they used carbon-capture technology to trap greenhouse gases before they enter the atmosphere. That's not being even considered for the B.C. plants, which won't even use the latest pollution-control technology.
Project supporters argue that if we don't burn the coal here, it will just be shipped to China for the same purpose.
That's neither true, nor relevant. There is no guarantee the additional coal would be mined without these plants; it might be left in the ground for a time when coal gasification - a cleaner use - is cost-effective.
And in any case, China's plants will go ahead with or without or coal. The incremental increase in greenhouse gases comes from our decision to shift to coal.
The province does not need to rely on coal. B.C. Hydro's last call for proposals resulted in 27 other power supply contracts being awarded, mostly for green energy sources. There are other companies ready to step in with alternatives.
It's a problem for the Liberals.
They can go ahead with the power plants. But it's going prove to a lot of voters that they aren't serious about climate change.
Footnote: Another coal problem is rising up again. Cline Mining's plan for a mine in the Kootenays near the U.S. border is running into renewed opposition from Montana. U.S. politicians are threatening to make the project an issue in relations between both countries' federal governments.
The Liberal government has been defending the new power projects against complaints about the environmental cost. But that was before climate change crossed over as an issue. Sometime in the last few months we hit a tipping point on global warming. Most of us decided that it's a serious problem, that reducing greenhouse-gas emissions might help and governments need to lead.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper recognizes the change. The Conservatives didn't mention climate change once in their 2006. Now he's suddenly vying with Liberal leader Stéphane Dion for green honours.
Even U.S. President George W. Bush spoke about the need to manage climate change in his state of the union address, a first.
And Premier Gordon Campbell says he came back from his China trip convinced B.C. had to lead on climate change, promising that the new energy plan would tackle the issue.
That means the Liberals' plans to allow two new coal-fired power plants are a big problem.
It's tough to claim to be serious about climate change and reducing greenhouse gases while backing new coal power.
Environmentally - and especially in terms of greenhouse gases - coal is the least desirable fuel for generating power. It's not just that emission-free projects like wind power or hydro are better. So are gas-fired plants like the ones already supplying B.C. Hydro, which emit about one-third the greenhouse gases of comparable coal plants
But the Crown corporation has agreed to buy power from two new coal-fired power plants, reflecting the government's eagerness to see more mining. Plans call for a 56-megawatt coal and wood-residue burning plant near Princeton and a 184-
megawatt plant near Tumbler Ridge.
Energy Minister Richard Neufeld, also responsible for promoting mining, has defended the plants. They'll use modern technology that reduces emissions, he says, and diversifying the power sources might help B.C. avoid future price shocks. (Neufeld notes environmental approvals are still needed, but that's something close to a formality.)
On the other side, critics say coal power is simply the wrong course for any government serious about climate change.
Environmental groups say the first two plants would produce about 180 megatonnes per year of greenhouse gases, the equivalent of putting 300,000 extra cars on the road. As a result, B.C.'s greenhouse-gas emissions would increase three per cent when the plants came on line.
Which would be sometime around 2010, when Ontario will have finished phasing out its coal-powered generating plants because of concerns about pollution and global warming.
It's not just the usual suspects who have concerns about coal.
This month the CEOs of 10 of the largest U.S. corporations - including Duke Energy, BP American and General Electric - joined environmental groups to urge Bush to take action on climate change.
And their recommendations included a call to discourage any new coal-power plants, unless they used carbon-capture technology to trap greenhouse gases before they enter the atmosphere. That's not being even considered for the B.C. plants, which won't even use the latest pollution-control technology.
Project supporters argue that if we don't burn the coal here, it will just be shipped to China for the same purpose.
That's neither true, nor relevant. There is no guarantee the additional coal would be mined without these plants; it might be left in the ground for a time when coal gasification - a cleaner use - is cost-effective.
And in any case, China's plants will go ahead with or without or coal. The incremental increase in greenhouse gases comes from our decision to shift to coal.
The province does not need to rely on coal. B.C. Hydro's last call for proposals resulted in 27 other power supply contracts being awarded, mostly for green energy sources. There are other companies ready to step in with alternatives.
It's a problem for the Liberals.
They can go ahead with the power plants. But it's going prove to a lot of voters that they aren't serious about climate change.
Footnote: Another coal problem is rising up again. Cline Mining's plan for a mine in the Kootenays near the U.S. border is running into renewed opposition from Montana. U.S. politicians are threatening to make the project an issue in relations between both countries' federal governments.
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Payday loans, private colleges and the case for red tape
VICTORIA - Red tape is generally portrayed as this snarled, sticky tangle that chokes and traps you.
And often, it is.
But sometimes it's more like a helpful line strung along a path to warn of real dangers, to the individual or the community. Stay on the path and you never get tangled. After all, laws are red tape and they discourage people from breaking into our homes.
The B.C. Liberals came into office with an anti-regulation bias, which is a good thing. Government's starting point should be that anything that infringes on people's freedom to make choices is bad and needs to be justified based on a greater good.
So we make people were seatbelts - even though that infringes on their right to make choices - because we all pay the costs of putting them back together after a car crash.
But on a couple of current issues we're seeing evidence that ideology, inertia or inefficiency has blinded the government to the need for regulation.
Take private colleges and language schools. The Liberals eliminated a board that regulated the colleges in 2003 and turned the task over to the industry. In 2004, it deregulated the language schools.
Private colleges would regulate themselves out of self-interest, the government reasoned. And it accepted the language schools' argument that regulation made it hard for them to compete with schools in neighbouring states and provinces.
Deregulation was, in this case, a mistake. Students - especially overseas students - were left with no effective way to assess the quality and reliability of private B.C. colleges and language schools. Complaints quickly followed.
Last year a private college owned by one of the people the government named to the industry board was ordered to close after students said they had spent thousands of dollars for worthless degrees.
And the industry's self-regulating agency, the Private Career-Training Institutes Agency, said it had penalized private colleges 86 times over the previous 18 months without any warning to the public. That's hardly in the interests of students.
Similar concerns were raised about the language schools.
It's not just a problem for students who might be ripped off.
The B.C. Progress Board warned that the lack of standards threatens B.C.'s effort to become an international destination. When a college or language school fails students, the entire province is seen as a risky place to go for an education, the board warned.
And that is what has happened. China, in part because of problems in B.C., has warned students not to enroll in Canadian private colleges until they are properly regulated.
Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell, who had maintained regulation was unnecessary, now promises action.
The government is also looking sluggardly when it comes to regulating payday loan companies.
Almost a year ago, Solicitor General John Les promised the government would act "quickly" once the federal government gave provinces the power to deal with the high-interest lenders.
But now Parliament has passed the needed legislation, Les says he might not be ready to respond until 2008.
Les has acknowledged that consumers needed protection from loans that involved effective interest rates of up to 1,000 per cent.
He even indicated general support for an approach taken in Manitoba, where the law requires companies to warn customers in clear language about the high cost of loans and allows them 48 hours to change their minds. The Public Utilities Board regulates fees and interest rates are to be capped once the federal law takes effect.
It's not that payday lenders are a bad thing. They are the only available source of short-term credit for many people. Their clients are often bad credit risks and rates need to reflect that.
But the $2-billion industry is huge, deals with unsophisticated borrowers and is almost entirely unregulated.
Yet the government, despite time to prepare and so little legislation that it cancelled the fall session, can't bring in consumer-protection rules.
Footnote: Les is at the centre of another regulatory dispute. The UBCM, consumers and home inspectors have all been calling for regulation of the industry. Anyone can claim to be a home inspector in B.C., they complain, and prospective homeowners can male a $500,000 commitment based on bad advice. Les has refused to act.
And often, it is.
But sometimes it's more like a helpful line strung along a path to warn of real dangers, to the individual or the community. Stay on the path and you never get tangled. After all, laws are red tape and they discourage people from breaking into our homes.
The B.C. Liberals came into office with an anti-regulation bias, which is a good thing. Government's starting point should be that anything that infringes on people's freedom to make choices is bad and needs to be justified based on a greater good.
So we make people were seatbelts - even though that infringes on their right to make choices - because we all pay the costs of putting them back together after a car crash.
But on a couple of current issues we're seeing evidence that ideology, inertia or inefficiency has blinded the government to the need for regulation.
Take private colleges and language schools. The Liberals eliminated a board that regulated the colleges in 2003 and turned the task over to the industry. In 2004, it deregulated the language schools.
Private colleges would regulate themselves out of self-interest, the government reasoned. And it accepted the language schools' argument that regulation made it hard for them to compete with schools in neighbouring states and provinces.
Deregulation was, in this case, a mistake. Students - especially overseas students - were left with no effective way to assess the quality and reliability of private B.C. colleges and language schools. Complaints quickly followed.
Last year a private college owned by one of the people the government named to the industry board was ordered to close after students said they had spent thousands of dollars for worthless degrees.
And the industry's self-regulating agency, the Private Career-Training Institutes Agency, said it had penalized private colleges 86 times over the previous 18 months without any warning to the public. That's hardly in the interests of students.
Similar concerns were raised about the language schools.
It's not just a problem for students who might be ripped off.
The B.C. Progress Board warned that the lack of standards threatens B.C.'s effort to become an international destination. When a college or language school fails students, the entire province is seen as a risky place to go for an education, the board warned.
And that is what has happened. China, in part because of problems in B.C., has warned students not to enroll in Canadian private colleges until they are properly regulated.
Advanced Education Minister Murray Coell, who had maintained regulation was unnecessary, now promises action.
The government is also looking sluggardly when it comes to regulating payday loan companies.
Almost a year ago, Solicitor General John Les promised the government would act "quickly" once the federal government gave provinces the power to deal with the high-interest lenders.
But now Parliament has passed the needed legislation, Les says he might not be ready to respond until 2008.
Les has acknowledged that consumers needed protection from loans that involved effective interest rates of up to 1,000 per cent.
He even indicated general support for an approach taken in Manitoba, where the law requires companies to warn customers in clear language about the high cost of loans and allows them 48 hours to change their minds. The Public Utilities Board regulates fees and interest rates are to be capped once the federal law takes effect.
It's not that payday lenders are a bad thing. They are the only available source of short-term credit for many people. Their clients are often bad credit risks and rates need to reflect that.
But the $2-billion industry is huge, deals with unsophisticated borrowers and is almost entirely unregulated.
Yet the government, despite time to prepare and so little legislation that it cancelled the fall session, can't bring in consumer-protection rules.
Footnote: Les is at the centre of another regulatory dispute. The UBCM, consumers and home inspectors have all been calling for regulation of the industry. Anyone can claim to be a home inspector in B.C., they complain, and prospective homeowners can male a $500,000 commitment based on bad advice. Les has refused to act.
Friday, January 19, 2007
Big change on politics of two-tier care
VICTORIA - It feels like the political winds are shifting on health care. Governments' interest in private, two-tier care is fading and they're backing away - at least slightly - from the argument that we can't afford to care for sick people.
The Lower Mainland Medical and Laser Clinic was the latest to test the B.C. government's commitment to universal health care.
The doctors decided the Medical Service Plan payment rates aren't high enough. Their solution was to introduce reservation fees to push up revenues, a change announced in a letter to some 1,000 patients.
Patients could choose to pay an annual fee - $125 for families, $75 for singles - that would allow them the right to make doctors' appointments. Or they could pay a $30 fee each time they called to make an appointment with their doctors.
People who didn't want to pay wouldn't be turned away, the clinic said. They would just have to show up and wait in the office to see if their doctor could find time for them after the fee-paying customers had been treated.
The fees are a blatant violation of the Canada Health Act, B.C. legislation and the basic principles of medicare. Doctors simply aren't allowed to take payments from the public system and extra-bill patients at the same time.
With good reason. Those kinds of fees undermine the basic principle of equal access. They allow people with money to get faster, better access to care than their less affluent neighbours. People without the money to pay the fees suffer.
What's the big deal about an extra $30? Studies have shown that even small user fees deter people from seeking treatment. Sometimes that means one less unnecessary trip to the doctor's office or emergency ward.
But other times it means a cancer gains time to spread or a small infection, which could have been easily controlled, becomes a raging problem that requires a hospital stay.
And the user fees, of course, push up health-care costs.
That sounds obvious, but it seems lost on some of the advocates of more private, user-pay care who claim that it would somehow magically reduce health-care spending.
If you go to the doctor, the MSP fee for the basic visit is about $27. (Which explains why it might feel like you're being rushed in and out; that doesn't cover a lot of the doctor's time.)
But the reservation fee would double the cost for the exactly same service. Multiply that effect across the system and the amount of money being consumed by health care soars.
The U.S. experience has shown, user-pay health care costs much more. That's why California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting business support for a universal public health-care plan. Health care costs in the U.S. are consuming 14 per cent of GDP; in Canada, about 10 per cent. If our costs rose to the U.S. level, we would spend an extra $80 billion a year on health.
And that's why Alberta this month officially abandoned plans to develop a "third way" in health care that included user fees and two-tier care. The approach would do nothing to make the system stronger or mores sustainable, the government concluded.
Despite all that, B.C. - under both Liberal and NDP governments - has done little to stop the slow, steady spread of two-tier care, preferring to ignore the violations. Clinics routinely offer speedier surgery, tests and treatment to those who can pay extra while government looked the other way.
Until this time, when the government and College of Physicians and Surgeons moved quickly to press the clinic to abandon plans.
It t might be a blip. But equally, following closely on the shutdown of another clinic planning to offer premium emergency care to those who could pay a surcharge, it might mark a change.
Two-tier care is illegal, wrong and sends health-care costs soaring.
Most of the public knows that. Perhaps the government has been listening to you.
Footnote: The clinic's bold effort to introduce the fees shows how confident those in the industry have become that the government won't enforce the law. But the old response, a mix of willful blindness and then tough talk and no action, no longer seems to apply.
The Lower Mainland Medical and Laser Clinic was the latest to test the B.C. government's commitment to universal health care.
The doctors decided the Medical Service Plan payment rates aren't high enough. Their solution was to introduce reservation fees to push up revenues, a change announced in a letter to some 1,000 patients.
Patients could choose to pay an annual fee - $125 for families, $75 for singles - that would allow them the right to make doctors' appointments. Or they could pay a $30 fee each time they called to make an appointment with their doctors.
People who didn't want to pay wouldn't be turned away, the clinic said. They would just have to show up and wait in the office to see if their doctor could find time for them after the fee-paying customers had been treated.
The fees are a blatant violation of the Canada Health Act, B.C. legislation and the basic principles of medicare. Doctors simply aren't allowed to take payments from the public system and extra-bill patients at the same time.
With good reason. Those kinds of fees undermine the basic principle of equal access. They allow people with money to get faster, better access to care than their less affluent neighbours. People without the money to pay the fees suffer.
What's the big deal about an extra $30? Studies have shown that even small user fees deter people from seeking treatment. Sometimes that means one less unnecessary trip to the doctor's office or emergency ward.
But other times it means a cancer gains time to spread or a small infection, which could have been easily controlled, becomes a raging problem that requires a hospital stay.
And the user fees, of course, push up health-care costs.
That sounds obvious, but it seems lost on some of the advocates of more private, user-pay care who claim that it would somehow magically reduce health-care spending.
If you go to the doctor, the MSP fee for the basic visit is about $27. (Which explains why it might feel like you're being rushed in and out; that doesn't cover a lot of the doctor's time.)
But the reservation fee would double the cost for the exactly same service. Multiply that effect across the system and the amount of money being consumed by health care soars.
The U.S. experience has shown, user-pay health care costs much more. That's why California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is getting business support for a universal public health-care plan. Health care costs in the U.S. are consuming 14 per cent of GDP; in Canada, about 10 per cent. If our costs rose to the U.S. level, we would spend an extra $80 billion a year on health.
And that's why Alberta this month officially abandoned plans to develop a "third way" in health care that included user fees and two-tier care. The approach would do nothing to make the system stronger or mores sustainable, the government concluded.
Despite all that, B.C. - under both Liberal and NDP governments - has done little to stop the slow, steady spread of two-tier care, preferring to ignore the violations. Clinics routinely offer speedier surgery, tests and treatment to those who can pay extra while government looked the other way.
Until this time, when the government and College of Physicians and Surgeons moved quickly to press the clinic to abandon plans.
It t might be a blip. But equally, following closely on the shutdown of another clinic planning to offer premium emergency care to those who could pay a surcharge, it might mark a change.
Two-tier care is illegal, wrong and sends health-care costs soaring.
Most of the public knows that. Perhaps the government has been listening to you.
Footnote: The clinic's bold effort to introduce the fees shows how confident those in the industry have become that the government won't enforce the law. But the old response, a mix of willful blindness and then tough talk and no action, no longer seems to apply.
Wednesday, January 17, 2007
Our squeamishness means more women die
VICTORIA - Up in Prince George, the city has just lost a legal fight to deny a business licence to a woman running an escort agency.
Down in Vancouver, the courtroom is being readied for the trial of Robert Pickton, charged with murdering 26 women, prostitutes working the city's dangerous streets.
Can you spot the connection?
The sex trade makes most of us deeply uncomfortable. We don't like the idea that men and women will perform sex acts with strangers for money. We don't like to think too much about the thousands of customers who keep the trade alive.
Our squeamishness is understandable. But it's also fatal.
Prostitution is legal in Canada. In part, that's in recognition that people have the right to decide what to do with their bodies. And in part we have acknowledged that the trade has flourished for more than 2,000 years and we're not likely to change that now.
But we don't like it. And our response is to push the sex trade into the shadows and out of sight.
So municipalities make life difficult for escort agencies and massage parlours - as Prince George did in illegally denying a licence renewal to the Black Orchid escort agency. (There are, as always, lots of points to argue about the case; the bottom line is that the B.C. Supreme Court found the city had no legal basis for its actions.)
Police, usually responding to public pressure, push the local stroll into the darkest, least-populated corners of the city or town.
Here in Victoria, it's an older industrial district on the far reaches of the downtown, deserted at night. No neighbours to be bothered by cruising cars and sex-trade workers on corners. But also no witnesses when things go wrong, few people to call for help. The 80 to 100 people working the streets are alone.
It is a gift to predators.
Sometimes the authorities go farther. Last month Lower Mainland police pooled their resources and dozens of officers swooped down on 18 massage parlours in one night.
The goal, police said, was to protect the women working in them and fight the risk of human trafficking.
But the 78 women police "helped" were led away in handcuffs. Police found all were at least 21 and in the country legally. While their workplaces were shutdown and they were cuffed, not one was charged.
In fact the while exercise did not result in one charge. Most of the businesses have re-opened.
It's not even any sort of accomplishment if a few have closed. Those women might well now be working the streets, in much greater danger than before the police launched their pointless raids. (At least pointless in terms of any actual measurable outcome.)
That's not to criticize police, or Prince George's city staff, for that matter. They are simply responding to our discomfort by attempting to push prostitution somewhere out of sight.
Police generally acknowledge that reality. When Prince George RCMP launched a program aimed at arresting johns in 2004, they were clear about the reason for trying to reduce the number of clients.
"If there is no longer persons buying the sex trade services then those sex trade workers may feel the need to move away from this community and to pursue their activities elsewhere," the police said.
The women wouldn't stop working. They would just go somewhere - anywhere - else.
Usually, somewhere more dangerous.
The message to sex-trade workers is also clear: We don't want to see you, hear from you or deal with your problems.
And that too makes them easier prey. Former Prince George provincial court judge David Ramsey attacked young girls, most working as prostitutes, over nine years before he was arrested.
Our determination to push them into the shadows helped make that happen.
Most of us don't like the idea of prostitution.
But it is here. Our unwillingness to accept reality and help people find safer ways to work doesn't change that.
It just means that more women will die.
Footnote: Most out-of-touch quote on the topic goes to Solicitor General John Les who described the Lower Mainland raids as "a huge shot across the bow" for anyone considering going into the sex trade. How? No one was charged; most were back at work within days. The effect of the raids was, more or less, nothing.
Down in Vancouver, the courtroom is being readied for the trial of Robert Pickton, charged with murdering 26 women, prostitutes working the city's dangerous streets.
Can you spot the connection?
The sex trade makes most of us deeply uncomfortable. We don't like the idea that men and women will perform sex acts with strangers for money. We don't like to think too much about the thousands of customers who keep the trade alive.
Our squeamishness is understandable. But it's also fatal.
Prostitution is legal in Canada. In part, that's in recognition that people have the right to decide what to do with their bodies. And in part we have acknowledged that the trade has flourished for more than 2,000 years and we're not likely to change that now.
But we don't like it. And our response is to push the sex trade into the shadows and out of sight.
So municipalities make life difficult for escort agencies and massage parlours - as Prince George did in illegally denying a licence renewal to the Black Orchid escort agency. (There are, as always, lots of points to argue about the case; the bottom line is that the B.C. Supreme Court found the city had no legal basis for its actions.)
Police, usually responding to public pressure, push the local stroll into the darkest, least-populated corners of the city or town.
Here in Victoria, it's an older industrial district on the far reaches of the downtown, deserted at night. No neighbours to be bothered by cruising cars and sex-trade workers on corners. But also no witnesses when things go wrong, few people to call for help. The 80 to 100 people working the streets are alone.
It is a gift to predators.
Sometimes the authorities go farther. Last month Lower Mainland police pooled their resources and dozens of officers swooped down on 18 massage parlours in one night.
The goal, police said, was to protect the women working in them and fight the risk of human trafficking.
But the 78 women police "helped" were led away in handcuffs. Police found all were at least 21 and in the country legally. While their workplaces were shutdown and they were cuffed, not one was charged.
In fact the while exercise did not result in one charge. Most of the businesses have re-opened.
It's not even any sort of accomplishment if a few have closed. Those women might well now be working the streets, in much greater danger than before the police launched their pointless raids. (At least pointless in terms of any actual measurable outcome.)
That's not to criticize police, or Prince George's city staff, for that matter. They are simply responding to our discomfort by attempting to push prostitution somewhere out of sight.
Police generally acknowledge that reality. When Prince George RCMP launched a program aimed at arresting johns in 2004, they were clear about the reason for trying to reduce the number of clients.
"If there is no longer persons buying the sex trade services then those sex trade workers may feel the need to move away from this community and to pursue their activities elsewhere," the police said.
The women wouldn't stop working. They would just go somewhere - anywhere - else.
Usually, somewhere more dangerous.
The message to sex-trade workers is also clear: We don't want to see you, hear from you or deal with your problems.
And that too makes them easier prey. Former Prince George provincial court judge David Ramsey attacked young girls, most working as prostitutes, over nine years before he was arrested.
Our determination to push them into the shadows helped make that happen.
Most of us don't like the idea of prostitution.
But it is here. Our unwillingness to accept reality and help people find safer ways to work doesn't change that.
It just means that more women will die.
Footnote: Most out-of-touch quote on the topic goes to Solicitor General John Les who described the Lower Mainland raids as "a huge shot across the bow" for anyone considering going into the sex trade. How? No one was charged; most were back at work within days. The effect of the raids was, more or less, nothing.
Saturday, January 13, 2007
Time for government to obey law and help disabled
VICTORIA - Surely the government will now give up its wrongheaded legal fight to deny help to people whose lives will be utterly wrecked without it.
Two courts have said the government is breaking its own law by denying needed help to damaged people based on an arbitrary IQ standard.
The people - usually youths turning 19 - can have emotional and mental problems, fetal alcohol disorders, a whole load of issues, even ones that makes them a risk to the community. The government says those don't matter.
If the damaged person scores 70-plus on an IQ test then the government, through Community Living BC, cuts off help.
Neil Fahlman turned out to be the perfect test case to challenge the government's arbitrary action.
Fahlman is a huge, strong young man with lots of problems - fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder and an autism variant. As a result he often makes terrible decisions and acts impulsively. He - like a lot of people with fetal alcohol disorders - doesn't see the link between action and consequences, a disastrous disability.
Fahlman has had help all his life. His adoptive mother, a lawyer with the government here, worked hard to line up support and the children and families ministry came through.
But by the time he was 15, Fahlman was too volatile and strong for Gow and her
husband to manage. Foster homes couldn't handle his behaviour.
Then, a solution. Fahlman started living by himself in a small cabin on Vancouver Island. Community Living B.C. provided one-on-one support every day for seven hours to help him and make sure things went well.
It was expensive, about $77,000 a year. But the alternatives were all more costly or dangerous. It was the best way to handle a tough problem.
But Fahlman was going to turn 19. And because his IQ was 79, government policy said he would be cut off support on his birthday.
Community Living BC ordered a review to see if the teen qualified for support as an adult.
"Without the supports now in place Neil would be extremely vulnerable to his own aggressiveness and impulsivity," the psychologist appointed by the agency found. "He could do significant harm to himself and the community."
But Community Living BC, following the ministry's policy lead, said Fahlman's 79 IQ -placing him in the bottom 10 per cent of the population - is over the 70 cutoff. Support denied.
Gow appealed and ended up in B.C. Supreme Court, which found the government's arbitrary denial of help to Fahlman and thousands of others is wrong.
The Community Living BC legislation is clear, the court noted. It is to "promote equitable access to community living support" and "assist adults with developmental disabilities to achieve maximum independence and live full lives in their communities."
The law doesn't say it can deny support to people based on arbitrary standards.
If government wants to set those kinds of rules, it needs to amend the legislation or pass a cabinet order.
Instead, government took the fight to deny aid to the B.C. Court of Appeal - and lost again.
The three justices agreed the legislation doesn't allow the use of IQ to deny services to people who need them. They noted Liberal ministers Gordon Hogg and Linda Reid had both made comments in the legislature that suggested the cutoff was never contemplated when the law was passed.
Fahlman is one among many denied help because of the IQ standard. In too many cases the result has been damaged, lost and wasted lives. The people unable to cope without help have ended up in jail, hospital or on the streets.
All that could have been avoided, in many cases with a just a small amount of support - help with housing, with managing money, with life.
Children and Families Minister Tom Christensen said he's considering the government's next steps.
But the right decision is simple. Obey the law. Increase Community Living BC's budget so it can provide the needed help.
Keeping these people from disaster makes obvious moral and economic sense.
There's no excuse for more stalling.
Footnote: Another aspect of support for people turning 19 is likely to be contentious this year. Children in government care have been effectively pushed out on their own at 19, ready or not - often not. New Child and Youth
Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond - like her predecessor Jane Morley - will likely have harsh words for the failure to give the kids a fair chance in starting adult life.
Two courts have said the government is breaking its own law by denying needed help to damaged people based on an arbitrary IQ standard.
The people - usually youths turning 19 - can have emotional and mental problems, fetal alcohol disorders, a whole load of issues, even ones that makes them a risk to the community. The government says those don't matter.
If the damaged person scores 70-plus on an IQ test then the government, through Community Living BC, cuts off help.
Neil Fahlman turned out to be the perfect test case to challenge the government's arbitrary action.
Fahlman is a huge, strong young man with lots of problems - fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, attention deficit disorder and an autism variant. As a result he often makes terrible decisions and acts impulsively. He - like a lot of people with fetal alcohol disorders - doesn't see the link between action and consequences, a disastrous disability.
Fahlman has had help all his life. His adoptive mother, a lawyer with the government here, worked hard to line up support and the children and families ministry came through.
But by the time he was 15, Fahlman was too volatile and strong for Gow and her
husband to manage. Foster homes couldn't handle his behaviour.
Then, a solution. Fahlman started living by himself in a small cabin on Vancouver Island. Community Living B.C. provided one-on-one support every day for seven hours to help him and make sure things went well.
It was expensive, about $77,000 a year. But the alternatives were all more costly or dangerous. It was the best way to handle a tough problem.
But Fahlman was going to turn 19. And because his IQ was 79, government policy said he would be cut off support on his birthday.
Community Living BC ordered a review to see if the teen qualified for support as an adult.
"Without the supports now in place Neil would be extremely vulnerable to his own aggressiveness and impulsivity," the psychologist appointed by the agency found. "He could do significant harm to himself and the community."
But Community Living BC, following the ministry's policy lead, said Fahlman's 79 IQ -placing him in the bottom 10 per cent of the population - is over the 70 cutoff. Support denied.
Gow appealed and ended up in B.C. Supreme Court, which found the government's arbitrary denial of help to Fahlman and thousands of others is wrong.
The Community Living BC legislation is clear, the court noted. It is to "promote equitable access to community living support" and "assist adults with developmental disabilities to achieve maximum independence and live full lives in their communities."
The law doesn't say it can deny support to people based on arbitrary standards.
If government wants to set those kinds of rules, it needs to amend the legislation or pass a cabinet order.
Instead, government took the fight to deny aid to the B.C. Court of Appeal - and lost again.
The three justices agreed the legislation doesn't allow the use of IQ to deny services to people who need them. They noted Liberal ministers Gordon Hogg and Linda Reid had both made comments in the legislature that suggested the cutoff was never contemplated when the law was passed.
Fahlman is one among many denied help because of the IQ standard. In too many cases the result has been damaged, lost and wasted lives. The people unable to cope without help have ended up in jail, hospital or on the streets.
All that could have been avoided, in many cases with a just a small amount of support - help with housing, with managing money, with life.
Children and Families Minister Tom Christensen said he's considering the government's next steps.
But the right decision is simple. Obey the law. Increase Community Living BC's budget so it can provide the needed help.
Keeping these people from disaster makes obvious moral and economic sense.
There's no excuse for more stalling.
Footnote: Another aspect of support for people turning 19 is likely to be contentious this year. Children in government care have been effectively pushed out on their own at 19, ready or not - often not. New Child and Youth
Representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond - like her predecessor Jane Morley - will likely have harsh words for the failure to give the kids a fair chance in starting adult life.
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
A dangerous sales job on Afghan war
VICTORIA - It's dangerous when governments do a sales job on the idea of going to war.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has just dropped into Afghanistan on a visit that seemed largely aimed at making Canadians feel better about that troubled mission.
He toured a small Canadian-funded school where youths are learning to be tinsmiths and announced a $10-million aid program to make sure Afghani police officers actually got paid. Those the kinds of "untold success" that Canadians aren't hearing about, MacKay said.
Cabinet ministers have to sell government policy. That's part of their job, perhaps even in times of war.
But it's troubling. Politicians looking to build support end up downplaying problems and over-emphasizing successes. That's a moderate problem if they're selling the merits of a dubious tax proposal.
It's a much more serious when the public is being sold on sending Canadian troops to die and kill on our behalf.
One risk is that we get slogans - like the foolish argument that "Canadians don't cut and run" - instead of real, considered policy.
Another is that politicians mislead us about the difficulty, length and cost of the struggle ahead. Simply because this war, or any other, may be justifiable does not mean it should be pursued at any cost.
There are success stories. The Taliban has been unable to extend its influence significantly. Afghanistan is safer for some citizens. Women have less reason to fear attack if they go to school or exercise what we consider basic rights. The country is less of a haven for global terrorists.
But the small, incremental improvements mean little in terms of the challenge.
While our politicians sell the mission's success; virtually every independent observer warns of big problems.
As MacKay was preparing to fly into Kandahar, an article in the respected journal Foreign Affairs offered a warning. U.S. expert Barnett Rubin, who visited Afghanistan four times last year, said the country is "at risk of collapsing into chaos."
NATO's military and aid efforts, despite small successes, have not achieved any measurable progress toward real stability and security, Rubin says.
The article - available at www.foreignaffairs.org - warns that as a result the country remains on the brink of disaster. The wholesale re-emergence of the Taliban and the collapse of the current government are both real possibilities.
Only a much greater military effort and much more aid will save Afghanistan, Rubin argues.
It is the story Canadians have not been getting from their government.
Afghanistan is desperately, unimaginably poor - poorer than any country outside the blighted nations of sub-Saharan Africa.
That in turn means the government has no money to provide services. Its revenues, aside from foreign aid, are about $400 million Canadian. That's about 1.5 per cent of the B.C. government's revenues, to meet the needs of a population of almost 30 million. About $15 per person to provide roads, schools, police, defence and everything else.
Foreign aid helps. Canada has committed $100 million this year, about 10 per cent of our total aid budget. Another $3.50 per person for services.
But the reality is that the Afghan government can't deliver the services needed to ensure that it is seen as a legitimate authority.
Consider policing. MacKay's $10-million grant recognizes that officers have often not received even the meagre official pay of less than $2 a day. Because of that, they have been easily bribed to ignore drug trafficking, thefts and murders.
For many Afghanis the Taliban's harsh system of Islamic law appears a preferred alternative to the current corruption and crime. At least they were protected. As a result, parallel Taliban governments are re-emerging.
There are reasons for Canada to have a role in Afghanistan. The people there need help and a re-emergent Taliban would decrease global security.
But this is a military mission that could take a decade and billions in aid. Based on current evidence, the results would still be uncertain.
The evidence is that the way ahead is much longer, tougher, more expensive and more deadly than the government has so far told Canadians.
Footnote: Canada is committed to a military Afghan military mission until 2009. But debate should be starting now on what needs to be done to ensure there is real progress before that date. The benchmarks need to be measurable and the resources needed - in military support and aid, from Canada and other NATO nations - need to be clearly set out. Then we can decide whether to press on.
Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay has just dropped into Afghanistan on a visit that seemed largely aimed at making Canadians feel better about that troubled mission.
He toured a small Canadian-funded school where youths are learning to be tinsmiths and announced a $10-million aid program to make sure Afghani police officers actually got paid. Those the kinds of "untold success" that Canadians aren't hearing about, MacKay said.
Cabinet ministers have to sell government policy. That's part of their job, perhaps even in times of war.
But it's troubling. Politicians looking to build support end up downplaying problems and over-emphasizing successes. That's a moderate problem if they're selling the merits of a dubious tax proposal.
It's a much more serious when the public is being sold on sending Canadian troops to die and kill on our behalf.
One risk is that we get slogans - like the foolish argument that "Canadians don't cut and run" - instead of real, considered policy.
Another is that politicians mislead us about the difficulty, length and cost of the struggle ahead. Simply because this war, or any other, may be justifiable does not mean it should be pursued at any cost.
There are success stories. The Taliban has been unable to extend its influence significantly. Afghanistan is safer for some citizens. Women have less reason to fear attack if they go to school or exercise what we consider basic rights. The country is less of a haven for global terrorists.
But the small, incremental improvements mean little in terms of the challenge.
While our politicians sell the mission's success; virtually every independent observer warns of big problems.
As MacKay was preparing to fly into Kandahar, an article in the respected journal Foreign Affairs offered a warning. U.S. expert Barnett Rubin, who visited Afghanistan four times last year, said the country is "at risk of collapsing into chaos."
NATO's military and aid efforts, despite small successes, have not achieved any measurable progress toward real stability and security, Rubin says.
The article - available at www.foreignaffairs.org - warns that as a result the country remains on the brink of disaster. The wholesale re-emergence of the Taliban and the collapse of the current government are both real possibilities.
Only a much greater military effort and much more aid will save Afghanistan, Rubin argues.
It is the story Canadians have not been getting from their government.
Afghanistan is desperately, unimaginably poor - poorer than any country outside the blighted nations of sub-Saharan Africa.
That in turn means the government has no money to provide services. Its revenues, aside from foreign aid, are about $400 million Canadian. That's about 1.5 per cent of the B.C. government's revenues, to meet the needs of a population of almost 30 million. About $15 per person to provide roads, schools, police, defence and everything else.
Foreign aid helps. Canada has committed $100 million this year, about 10 per cent of our total aid budget. Another $3.50 per person for services.
But the reality is that the Afghan government can't deliver the services needed to ensure that it is seen as a legitimate authority.
Consider policing. MacKay's $10-million grant recognizes that officers have often not received even the meagre official pay of less than $2 a day. Because of that, they have been easily bribed to ignore drug trafficking, thefts and murders.
For many Afghanis the Taliban's harsh system of Islamic law appears a preferred alternative to the current corruption and crime. At least they were protected. As a result, parallel Taliban governments are re-emerging.
There are reasons for Canada to have a role in Afghanistan. The people there need help and a re-emergent Taliban would decrease global security.
But this is a military mission that could take a decade and billions in aid. Based on current evidence, the results would still be uncertain.
The evidence is that the way ahead is much longer, tougher, more expensive and more deadly than the government has so far told Canadians.
Footnote: Canada is committed to a military Afghan military mission until 2009. But debate should be starting now on what needs to be done to ensure there is real progress before that date. The benchmarks need to be measurable and the resources needed - in military support and aid, from Canada and other NATO nations - need to be clearly set out. Then we can decide whether to press on.
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