Why I want to be president of the BC Conservative Party

I will be seeking the presidency of the BC Conservative Party at the AGM Oct 19,2013.

In the last election I ran for the party in the Shuswap riding and came in second best of all our candidates. Still, I didn't quite get 13% of the vote. Overall we got less than 5% of the popular vote. No matter how you play with the statistics we came 4th as a party, after the Greens.

Given this, some people wonder why I would want not only to still support the party but invest my time in it as president. There are a few things I believe in strongly that govern my decision:

1. I believe that our party has the principles and guidelines that BC needs and no other party comes close. I could not vote for any other party and I believe that I must vote.
2. I believe that politics in BC are governed by fear because we have a 2 party system. 85% of voters either vote for the NDP or against the NDP. Until we have a viable third option we will never have responsive government. I believe the BC Conservatives are that option.
3. I believe that politics is about the future and not the past. If I succeed in my bid for the presidency I will be focused on the future of BC and our party's part in that.

If conservatives in BC come together we will be a powerful force for good in this province.

I do have concerns however. As a group we have shown a tendency to be somewhat strong willed. This is a positive trait that will take us a long way if we harness it to work as a team. If we allow it to make us divisive however, it will mire us in the political fringes. But I believe in the members of this party. We can bring our collective abilities to bear to build the future of BC.

That is why I am running for the presidency. My eyes are wide open to the challenges before us but given our great potential I can see through them as well. I am looking forward to a great year of progress.

Goals for BC Forestry

Situation:

In the last 20 years, BC forests have suffered greatly due to pine beetle, forest fires and other attacks. Currently 35 million ha of forest have been substantially impacted. The NDP government at the start of the beetle attack did not allow aggressive action to attempt to halt the progress. The subsequent Liberal government has not invested in our forest resource; rather they have treated it as an expense rather than an asset. As a result, millions of ha are untended and we do not have proper inventories to even know how to evaluate our forests. Furthermore, at this critical time, the Ministry of Forests has been reduced from 4000 employees to 3000 and their mandate doubled to include lands and natural resources.

Goals the BC Conservative Party will strive reach:

·       Support local community values for our forests.

·       Maximize the value of our resource back to the public in terms of highest possible stumpage.

·       Create and sustain the maximum number of jobs not only in the short term but in perpetuity.

 

·       Reduce raw log exports in order to keep jobs in BC.

To achieve this, we will work with the chief forester and industry professionals to:

·       Update our inventory so that we can do proper serial stage analysis in each timber supply area and reset the annual allowable cut to sustainable levels. It is anticipated, based on the size of the impacted areas, that the cut will likely need to be reduced in the short to mid-term in order to safeguard the industry in the long term.

·        Increase the small scale salvage program in the short term. This will allow the final cleanup of impacted stands and to some extent mitigate the anticipated temporary AAC reduction.

·       Return to Scale based stumpage rather than Cruise based stumpage. This will identify high value off-sort logs and incentify the industry to find higher value uses for them. This will also return higher stumpage to the crown in most cases. In the case of salvage however, it may reduce the stumpage which would allow the operators to be profitable. Currently the stumpage on salvage is often set higher than what the logs can be sold for.

·       Expand the area based Community and First Nations forests. Area based tenures incentify the licensee to increase innovative silviculture and forestry. Forests that are tied to the local communities are more likely to support the local community values as they manage the forest, create local jobs and return value to the crown. Smaller operations will also allow for the diversity that will create value added options for off-sort logs. These will allow the large forest companies to pursue log brokering and should reduce the off-shore sale of raw logs.

We are at a crisis in our forest management where some people are calling forestry a sunset industry. The BC Conservatives believe in our professional foresters and our forestry industry. It will take collaborative action but we can turn our forests around.

Response to Bill 8-Part 5 - Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Amendments

In the past years we have seen Ministry of Forests Staff reduced by 25% while their mandate has been enlarged to include Lands and Natural Resources. Unfortunately nothing was done to ensure that they could achieve this expanded mandate with less personal and so the management of our forests has suffered during a time of unprecedented beetle kill, when firm management was needed more than ever. We now have a situation where:

  

• Our aging inventories are now next to useless over millions of hectares.
• The annual allowable cut has not been, and cannot reliably be, re-evaluated due to these massive areas that have completely outdated inventories. 
• The priority to replant devastated areas has been removed.

The decision in Bill 8 Part 5 to allow volume based tenures to be converted to area based tenures could help with this as it gives incentives to the license holder to update inventories and perform enhanced silviculture to improve mid-term timber supply on the forest that they are managing.

 

However, the changes presuppose that the current AAC must be maintained.  This negates one of the best reasons for converting to area based tenures. The license holder should be required to update the inventories and to recalculate the AAC based on this better knowledge. Only in this way can we ensure mid and long range stability in the forest industry.

 

Also, the bill  implies that the license holder will assume the management on behalf of the gov't at their own cost. This appears to be an attempt to off load gov't responsibilities. There must be some form of tax credit back to the licensee to off-set the cost of management of these licenses. These areas should see an increase in value and therefore increased stumpage dollars coming back to the province due to innovative silviculture and management. This should make it possible to offer tax credits without increasing net costs. (These would need to be done for the extra managment only and be done in keeping with the Softwood Lumber Agreement).

 

I am not convinced that this change will do enough to enlarge our community and first nations forests both in size and number. Also, further to promoting area based tenures, I would make 2 other changes to insure increased value from our forests.

• We must return to scale based billing rather than cruise based billing. The move to cruise based billing has removed the incentive to sort out the higher grade logs for greater value use. The costs of scaling will be more than off-set from the increased value that will be captured.
• For the next few years we need to greatly enlarge the small scale salvage program to deal with the clean up of our current forest situation and extract maximum value from our damaged wood.

Liberals double-down

The NDP doubled our debt from $15 billion to $30 billion. The Liberals doubled-down by doubling the debt from $30 billion to $60 billion AND adding billions more debt to crown corporations like BC Hydro. 

The NDP had their fast cat ferries. The Liberals doubled-down with the BC Place roof and the Port Mann Bridge

 

The NDP had BingoGate. The Liberals doubled-down with BC Rail, the attempted Liquor Distribution Branch Sale, the CLBC Bogus Bonus payout, FosterGate, ...

 

It seems that whatever the NDP did that caused us to vote them to near annihilation, the Liberals have proven that they can outdo them. 

And yet, Liberal supporters would have you believe that if you don't vote for them you risk an NDP gov't. I have to ask,

 

Can we risk another Liberal gov't?

Tom Birch: Victoria In Your Hands

As part of our plan to bring in transparent government that truly partners with the people, the BC Conservative Party is piloting a smart phone app. This app will allow an honest 2-way conversation detailing what government is doing for the people and inviting input from the people as to what they expect from their government.

I had the privilege of releasing this on Friday (Jan 18, 2013) during a press conference that was also live streamed to the internet.  The following links will take you to the content of that conference where you can judge its value for yourself.

Victoria In Your Hands - Part 1 (presentation)

This is about 6 minutes long and gives the context into which we are releasing this app.

http://youtu.be/aDkZwI-dT-s

Victoria In Your Hands - Part 2 (demo)

This is about 13 minutes long and shows how the app will bring transparent government and will open up an ongoing 2-way dialogue between the voters and their representatives. This is how government should work in the 21st century.

http://youtu.be/nWayw88jRYA

Victoria In Your Hands - Part 3 (questions/answers)

This is about 8 minutes long and just covers questions that were asked after the presentation.

http://youtu.be/4G5BzGbxCtY

The BC Conservative Party is committed to using all the tools at our disposal to shine a light on our government and to hold them to account for the people of BC.  We challenge every other party and candidate to show their constituents how they will do the same.  Voter confidence is at a shameful low in our province due to 2 decades of scandals and breach of trust. Right now, our current government is increasing tax payer debt just to fight the Auditor General in court so that they will not have to submit to public scrutiny.  THIS MUST STOP!

I encourage all those who do not vote due to a belief that all parties are the same and looking out only for themselves: Review this app and see if you don’t agree that it is a chance to change the system. Get involved one more time and demand that your candidates show what they are willing to do. Then vote for a new kind of government. We can change the system!

This app will:

·       Connect voters to their representatives.

·       Allow ad hoc ‘referendums’ on any topic at any time.
While these are not binding, they will be a matter of public record that the MLA will have to stand on in the next election.

·       Document exactly how MLAs have voted throughout their term.
Again, this becomes a simple access point to information for the voters.

·       Document MLA use (or misuse) of public funds

·       And much more – download it and check it out.

The intent is not to replace public forums but to identify where they are needed and allow more focused discussion on the issues that concern the public. It will take power away from parties and give it to the voters and it will allow everyone’s voice to be heard between elections.

True leaders are not afraid of being transparent and listening to the people they are serving.  The BC Conservative Party is showing their leadership with this app and other party policies. Only time will tell what other parties are willing to do.

Addressing the Real Provincial Shortfall

When it comes to the provincial budget shortfalls, we need to admit how big the problem really is. The budget showed a little less than $1 Billion deficit for 2012-2013.  In the end it turned into between $1.5 and $2.25 Billion depending who you talk to.  BUT, the debt increase was budgeted at just over $6.6 Billion and it likely ended up at about $7.5 Billion.  So what is going on to turn a $1 Billion deficit into a $7.5 Billion debt increase?

The issue is that we hide debt all over the place. So the $23.6 Billion that are borrowing over the 4 year budget plan includes the deficit + the borrowing on un-funded capital projects + the borrowing to pay previous debt. Then, there is the increased debt that was off-loaded on crown corporations like BC Hydro. That doesn’t even show up at all. (The General coffers takes dividends from crown corporations even though they are losing money and thereby transfer debt over to them).

Another thing that does not get noticed is the increased commitments to buy services in the future that are already weighing down the budget for decades to come. I am not saying that all commitments are bad. If we lock in good rates for services that we know we will need, that is wise. However, we seem to often lock in high rates and buy services in advance that we don’t know if we are going to need.

So if we look at the total shortfall this year and include crown corporations, it is close to a $10 Billion shortfall on a $44 Billion budget.  Make that your household budget and it is like earning $44,000 after taxes but spending $54,000. Some is a personal loan and some is money you borrowed from a friend so it doesn’t show up on your net worth and some is credit card debt and some is capital expenses like a car loan. But rather than work the monthly payment into your budget, you pay everything with a second credit card that you later plan to bury in your mortgage when it comes due.  You can get away with it for a few years, but not for long before it will catch up with you.  

Provincially, we have a major spending problem and by focusing only on the operational deficit we are pretending that we have almost balanced the budget!

In truth, we have to either increase income or decrease spending by close to 20% in order to stop adding to the provincial debt.  Until we admit the full scope of the problem, we will not get serious about fixing it. The BC Conservative Party is dedicated to reducing the debt and not just playing games with how to hide it.  We will address the deficit, we will reduce the borrowing for unfunded capital projects and we will reduce the bleeding at BC Hydro and ICBC and BC Ferries, etc. In short, we will put the province on track to getting to a place where we can reduce the debt.

This will not be an overnight solution but we will address it by:

1)      Making the fall session of the legislature into a governance session where we manage the budget that is put out in the spring so that we don’t have overruns and we review the crown corporations so they don’t go crazy like ICBC has done in hiring dozens of managers making over $200,000/year (remember how they recently went from something like 17 to 53 and the government never noticed).

2)      Continually reviewing all ministries for overlaps and inefficiencies and getting rid of the waste. There are significant gains to be had by doing this.

3)      Increasing revenue by being open to investment in our province. For example, the carbon tax is decimating the cement industry and high paying jobs are being lost because we cannot compete with companies outside BC that do not have to bear this cost. That is a double hit. When a job is lost the government loses revenue (taxes) and gains expenses (social services).  We need a job plan that believes that responsible development is possible in BC and that we can build on our foundational industries without destroying the environment (those being primarily forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas).

We are not looking at cutting services but cutting waste. And we are not looking at increasing taxes but increasing high paying blue collar jobs.

Check out article 4 of our policies and guidelines http://www.bcconservative.ca/media/2012/10/2012-Policy-adopted-Sept-22-2012-final.pdf

The Elephant in the Room

‘The elephant in the room’ is an expression used to refer to an overarching issue that is ignored while minor issues are debated with gusto. No one will talk about the elephant because it is assumed that nothing can be done about it, so we invest our time on the minor issues that we believe we can control while we carefully walk around the elephant.

The elephant in BC Politics is voter apathy expressed in low voter turnout. The recent by-election is a great example. Even when the Green Party had a chance to win a seat, there was only 43% turnout. This was something that should have rallied their supporters en masse as well as their detractors. But very few voters seemed to care, particularly among the younger demographic who could have turned the tide.

And this is not limited to by-elections, which are typically low turnout events. In the last provincial election there was only 52% turnout.  And many of those who voted did so out of duty and not because they believed it would make a difference.

This cannot be blamed on the voters. All the parties have beaten them down by scandals, lies and arrogance. We are at a point where the general public flips a coin to see if they will bother to go and vote for the scoundrel they distrust the least.  Even the slight rise in fortunes of the Liberal party of late has likely less to do with people trusting them again than it does with the voters not believing in any of the parties. Because we accept as fact that whoever forms government will abuse their power, we resign ourselves to the choice of evils

I have pondered this over the last year, trying to find a way to encourage the young adults to get involved and to restore public trust. I visited the Occupy camp in Vancouver and wondered how to reengage those people into our democracy when they openly mistrust and despise the political system that it has created.  So, can we talk about the elephant or is it best to not mention it? Can we really do anything to change it?

The BC Conservative Party of course says that they will bring open and honest government and they have proposed a few changes to bring it about.

·       Increasing the resources for the office of the Auditor General to help with fiscal accountability.

·       Free votes for their MLAs so that they can put their constituents first before the party.

These are some of the things that have drawn me to run for the party, but they are clearly not enough to reengage those who feel burned by the past 2 decades of abuse.

I believe I have a solution however.  I intend to change how we do politics. Not sometime after May 14^th and only if I am elected. In January I will unveil my plan and at that time, I will deliver tangible change and significant reason for hope to discouraged BC voters.  It is time to talk about the elephant!