Wednesday, May 1, 2013

NDP - Good for BC??? Are You Joking

Someone I consider a friend posted:


For those wondering about where NDP stands in their views on mining in this province.
From BC NDP response to VoteMining survey (www.votemining.ca)
Adrian Dix and the BC NDP strongly believe that BC’s future prosperity is linked to a strong and diversified economy. The wealth and jobs created from our natural resources support every British Columbian, urban and rural, and the public services we all count on.
Mining has been a key part of BC’s history and will remain so under the BC NDP. Adrian Dix will listen and will support a strong, environmentally sustainable mining industry that creates good jobs. Our plan includes streamlining the work permit process, continuing the mining flow through share tax credit, and maintaining support for geosciences.
The BC NDP will work to ensure BC’s mining sector remains competitive and will maximize BC’s trade and exports by developing a coordinated trade strategy that adopts international best practices and includes regional and sector-specific trade goals.
The BC NDP will improve mine development opportunities by enhancing the Environmental Assessment process so certification decisions are reached in a timely manner. We will renew and strengthen the environmental assessment process to ensure BC will have rigorous, science-based environmental standards, real and meaningful consultation with First Nations, and efficient timelines.
The BC NDP will invest in the modern and green economic infrastructure that we need to efficiently move people and goods within North America, to the Asia-Pacific, and around the world. An NDP government will continue with projects that are currently underway and will ensure local and regional economies will benefit from government infrastructure investment by expanding project agreements on publicly funded construction projects.
Economically and culturally vibrant First Nation communities are critical to BC’s future and to meeting the challenges ahead. The BC NDP will work with First Nations and our natural resource industry to build strong partnerships and a strong economy.
The foundation of the BC NDP platform is a sustainable, diversified economy that creates new opportunities, good jobs, and a strong middle-class. The BC NDP plan achieves this by focusing on the fundamentals like the stability of our tax system, and the skills and ingenuity of our workforce.
An NDP government will work with industry to develop and invest in mining-related training at BC’s post-secondary and training institutions. We will also work with the industry to better anticipate future labour needs so we are giving British Columbians opportunities to train for good jobs in the mining sector.
For more info contact Stikine BC NDP candidate Doug Donaldson
250 842-0123, 250 847-1861, doug.donaldson@bcndp.ca
Some mining-related commitments from the BC NDP 2013 Platform (www.bcndp.ca for full platform)
Promote and support sustainable mining and exploration (page 28)
* Encourage mineral exploration by ensuring an average 55-day turnaround for Notice of Work permits, extending the mining flow through share tax credit, and maintaining support for Geoscience BC.
* Improve mine development opportunities by enhancing the Environmental Assessment process so certification decisions are reached in a more timely manner.
* Strengthen operating mines by investing in mining-related skills training programs.
Provide economic stability and certainty (page 3)
* Maintain tax competitiveness and show clearly how we will pay for commitments, with no HST-like surprises.
* Renew BC’s trade and export strategy by developing a coordinated approach with regional and sector-specific goals.
Increase number of skilled workers (page 3)
* Improve BC’s skills training and apprenticeship system for students and employers by creating more spaces, improving completion rates and times, and investing in modern training equipment.
* Develop new, targeted programs to increase the participation of Northern residents, First Nations people and women in trades training.
Guarantee high environmental standards and best practices (page 41)
* Renew and strengthen the environmental assessment process to ensure BC will have rigorous, science-based environmental standards, real and meaningful consultation with First Nations, and efficient timelines.



Looks pretty much like a carbon copy of the last time they were around. I'm surprised you posted this. You were around the last time this was published. I'm hearing different things. Not quite what the Sun published: 
But definately along these lines.
Anyone who is not using the much stricter old format enviro could face serious challenges. Perhaps that's why we've added duties and continue under those rules? Three months before BC Benefits was introduced by the Harcourt government, a protracted conflict began with the elements of the province's environmental movement. Harcourt's Peace in the Woods pact which brought together traditionally warring environmental groups and forest workers' unions began to collapse when Harcourt's cabinet exempted an environmentally-sensitive area of Vancouver Island, Clayoquot Sound, from its province-wide mediation process for land-use conflicts, CORE (the Commission on Resources and the Environment).
Remember what happened to forestry the last time this was written: Renew BC’s trade and export strategy by developing a coordinated approach with regional and sector-specific goals.
All the small guys got crushed out of business. They also wiped out the value added industry by a number of levies and restricted cuts. While this will be good for WF sized companies it's the ugly head of an Oligopoly. In Quesnel one of the companies wants into a protected area because it used up what it was given in the good stuff. They won't get it. That forest needs management or it will probably burn. Remember the town on the island whos water shed got logged by chain? These are the kinds of ideas we can expect. And don't forget the miles and miles of coastal property being destroyed and not reforested because they want to sell ocean fron lots. That's an old NDP hang over.
* Renew and strengthen the environmental assessment process to ensure BC will have rigorous, science-based environmental standards, real and meaningful consultation with First Nations, and efficient timelines.
This one is modified somewhat. I don't buy the real part. If you were around in the old days you remember the protests. This is a flat out lie. They do not support negotiations at all. They never have. It's good that a lot of the work done is enshrined in law and would be very hard to roll back or we'd have a lot more friction. This touched off logging road blockades in which over 800 people were arrested and alienated of some key environmental leaders such as David Suzuki and Colleen McCrory who shifted their support to the Green Party in the 1996 provincial election.
Remember Child Poverty and Welfare? Well, here are the facts:
Whereas Harcourt's first two years in government were characterized by a notably social democratic policy agenda, the government took a dramatic turn to theright in 1993 with Harcourt's famous province-wide televised address in which he lashed out against "welfare cheats, deadbeats and varmints". This speech inaugurated a set of draconian welfare reforms enacted between 1993 and 1995 similar to those adopted by new Progressive Conservative provincial governments elected in Alberta and Ontario in the same time period. These cutbacks were, in part, a reaction to a dramatic reduction in federal transfer payments by the federal Liberal government of Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and concommitant repeal of the Canada Assistance Plan bill of rights which included a right to food and a right to shelter. Unlike the reforms of the Harris and Klein governments, the BC Benefits package of cutbacks and restrictions in social assistance eligibility was bundled with a childcare bonus paid to low- and medium-income families.
$20, really? That's going to lift kids out of poverty? What beat down will come with it? Perhaps you don't remember how crime soared during this period. This was not just a reaction to Alberta buying bus tickets to BC and Chretien. It was an embarrassing time in our history and set up the current poverty levels.
 You know people, all this stuff is online. You need a history lesson if you believe any of the crap these people spout.
Although low in the polls for much of his term in office, Harcourt and his newly-appointed Attorney-General Ujjal Dosanjh succeeded in regaining substantial public support by taking a hard line against a fringe aboriginal group's occupation of a farmer's field in the Cariboo region of the province. The Gustafsen Lakesiege, led by Dosanjh became the largest-scale police operation in BC history, in which armoured vehicles provided by the Canadian military were used by the RCMP for protection. The military strongly rejected attempts by the RCMP to have them take over control of the situation, and ultimately it remained a police operation. Anti-vehicle mines were deployed and thousands of rounds of ammunition were shot at protesters.
However, less than 72 hours before a planned election call, with the BC NDP riding high in the polls for its hard line against welfare recipients and aboriginal and environmental radicals, the party's provincial office was raided by Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officers as part of an ongoing investigation of illegal use of charity bingo money, coined "Bingogate" by the media, by former provincial cabinet minister and member of parliament Dave Stupich. Although Harcourt was not implicated in either the raid or the probe and was later fully exonerated, he resigned nevertheless and the party was led into the 1996 provincial general election by Glen Clark.
Exonerated my arse. Dix back dated memos and people took his blame and their got their legal bills paid for and by and large nothing happened to anyone. Clark got looked after with a plum job and all was well in the political world. And don't even get me started on the cover ups by Dosanjh. That's another history lesson.
Mark my words well. When they get in this Province is in big trouble. Let's all revisit this next year so I can laugh at you. 

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