Campbell, I believe that's a live grenade up your ass

Mark Hume at the Globe and Mail takes Laila Yule's research out into the light. He gets some very strange answers on the shadow tolls on the Sea to Sky highway. In the end however:

Peter Milburn, deputy minister of Transportation, said “shadow toll” is not a term he would use. But he acknowledges the private consortium will get incentive payments of about $75-million over 25 years depending on safety performance targets and vehicle use.

So, it is a toll, but it’s invisible to the public, and the government doesn’t have to wear it because it can be described as something else. Talk about creative bookkeeping.

But you have to go back in the article for the best part ...

Tolls aren’t popular with the public in general, and tourism operators in Whistler didn’t fancy the idea of having a toll gate looming like a barrier between Vancouver and the ski hill.

Oh dear. That makes me very, very angry. I might swear.
This is the same bunch of fucking carpet baggers who have forced a three-fold increase in ferry fares throughout coastal British Columbia. And we're giving celebrity-hangout Whistler a free ride? I smell a buy off.

The toll you pay so others can play

Laila Yule has done all the heavy lifting on this one.

When a company named Transtoll is awarded a contract on the Sea to Sky highway, you can bet it isn't to carry out line painting.

In fact, the wholly owned subsidiary of Macquarie Atlas Roads, a part of Macquarie Group, has a single focus - tolls ... and how to collect them.

So...  the BC Ministry of Transport has continually denied that there are shadow tolls on the Sea to Sky highway. Perhaps then, the ministry (and the minister) can explain this June 2010 (post-Olympics) news release from the company itself.

Dan Toohey, Executive Vice President at Transtoll, said “The accuracy of the trafficcounting system is extremely important on the Sea to Sky Highway because the roadway is financed through a shadow tolling scheme. Transtoll is pleased to provide our experience and expertise to allow the Concession to optimize their system and capture accurate vehicle counts in a cost effective manner”.

That would make the ministry and the minister - liars.
What's happening is that the happy skiers bound for Olympic Whistler are getting a free ride on a highway most British Columbians will never use but will pay for anyway. I'll have a lot more on that in the future.

In the meantime, read more at Laila Yule's.

Who the hell does Gordon Campbell think he is?

It would be nice if we could call Gordon Campbell the former premier of BC. Except that's not what he is. The sonofabitch gets out in front of the media last week, after spending hundreds of thousands of dollars in a failed pitch to regain some popularity, announces that it's time for a new leader, calls for a leadership convention and then appoints himself the interim leader until a convention produces a new face.

Listening to all the fawning and goo-gooing last week from any high placed individual who could find a microphone, one would think Gordon Campbell was one of the most popular people in BC. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Most people, for most of Campbell's time in office, despised the man. He is arrogant, self-absorbed and unbelievably condescending. All of that on top of the fact that he's outwardly two-faced. And most people didn't vote for the BC Liberals because of him; they did so despite him.

Some wiener had the temerity to suggest that Gordon Campbell was a great man having brought the 2010 Winter Olympics to Vancouver. No mention of the unbelievable wreckage he leaves in his wake, the torn up labour agreements, the secret deals with his big business buddies, soaring ferry fares, increased child poverty, ad nauseum.

And I still contend that BC Rail was sold in an effort to generate quick cash to buy his way out of the one problem the International Olympic Committee saw as an impediment to Vancouver winning the Olympic bid - the Sea to Sky highway. Further, because it all had to happen quickly, many bidders claim the sale was rigged to favour CN.

The problem now is, he's still there. He still rules over his Vancouver centric cabinet... after having effectively resigned.

Of course, since he's still there perhaps he can start answering questions surrounding the Sea to Sky highway. Or maybe get the minister responsible to start talking. Because it appears we're still being lied to by the Campbell crowd and some people are coming closer and closer to exposing a dirty secret Campbell and his capos don't want you to get to close to. 

BC Liberals (who are actually not liberal at all) need to remind themselves that Campbell is poison and the longer they let him occupy an office at 501 Belleville Street the more difficult it will be to rid themselves of the toxins.

Get rid of him. Now.

Give us someone like Kevin Falcon in the interim. We still have a few questions to ask him too.

The Sea to Sky highway, the 2010 Olympics and the BC Rail link up

Ever wonder why there are no tolls put on the Olympic legacy known as the Sea to Sky highway?

There are tolls. Campbell promised them to his big business buddies. And we're paying them. But what you may not know is that at least one journalist reported back in the early days of the Sea to Sky project that the BC Ministry of Transportation was spending money, ($166 million), gained from the sale of BC Rail to fund phase 1 of the highway project.

Think about that for a minute.

Campbell promises that he won't sell BC Rail, then, suddenly, while falsely claiming that BC Rail was a money-losing proposition, puts it on the chopping block. Ideology of a fanatic bottom-liner or was there something more sinister at work here?

Here's some meat to chew on. The Vancouver/Whistler Olympic bid was not a sure thing. In the first round Pyeongchang, South Korea led the short list with 51 votes to Vancouver's 40. Salzberg, Austria received only 16 votes which effectively eliminated that city. What that meant was that virtually all of those who had voted for Salzberg would have to shift their votes to Vancouver if the Vancouver bid was to succeed in the second round of voting.

Problem. Money. Campbell, who had a bevy of pals wrapped up in the Olympic bid process, was made fully aware that the greatest stumbling block to a successful bid was a highway between Vancouver and Whistler that was too long, too dangerous and subject to road-blocking slides. The only way to overcome that massive obstacle would be to commit to IOC officials that the thoroughfare would be totally rebuilt in time to host an Olympic party. But where would the money come from?

Sell an asset... and sell it fast. BC Rail.

On 28 August, 2002, Vancouver makes the short list of four cities bidding on the 2010 Winter Olympics. The IOC cites the Sea to Sky Highway as a problem. The Vancouver Olympic bid committee has until 10 January, 2003 to submit a bid book, complete with the proposed plan to solve the one problem cited by the IOC. * 

On 13 May, 2003, Gordon Campbell broke an election promise and announced that BC Rail would be sold.

On 2 July, 2003, the IOC announced that Vancouver would host the 2010 Winter Olympics and Paralympics.

On 25 November, 2003, Campbell announced that the government had accepted the bid from CN to purchase BC Rail. (OK... a 990 year lease.) More than one of the other bidders complained that the deal had been rigged in favour of CN.

On 10 January, 2004, flush with money from the sale of BC Rail, the Campbell government releases a Capital Project Plan known as the Sea to Sky highway improvement project.

If you don't smell something there your nose isn't working.

Over to Laila Yule.

* Paragraph added as update.