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annual allowable cut has not been, and cannot reliably be, re-evaluated due to these massive areas that have completely outdated inventories.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!

Small Communites Need Doctors

The Shuswap, like many areas in the province, is facing a growing crisis in doctor availability. Enderby used to have 6 GPs to service the community and is now down to 1. Sorrento used to have 1 but no longer has access to any doctors. There are many reasons for this and therefore no single solution.  Our healthcare system is under considerable stress and we must reverse this trend. It will only become harder the longer we wait to address it.

Two issues are:

1)      Doctors that are trained in BC are moving to other provinces where they can do better than they can here.

2)      Doctors that stay in BC, don’t want to move to the smaller communities in spite of the incentives that are offered to do so.

The first thing I see is that we are competing for health care professionals between the provinces and we need an inter-provincial policy to level the playing field. This will be difficult to achieve and will require a premier that is willing to sit down with the other provinces and not leave the table for a photo-op.

As we work toward this long term strategy, there are some steps that can be taken immediately. BC Doctors are paid based on a huge set of fee schedules. These are complex and due to the speed of advances, they become outdated quickly and hard to keep updated. The result is that doctors are paid far too much for some procedures that have been simplified and far too little for others where more expensive procedures have now become available. To manage these, we need to start doing comparative reviews between all the provinces to see what is being paid for similar procedures in each province.   This would identify large differences and set the priorities for review.

The second issue, of doctors not wanting to live in the small communities, is related.  Since they are not paid a salary as such, but get paid based on these fee schedules, they do not have the same opportunity for wages in a small community. More than that, they also do not have the same variety of work since people will go into the major centers for complex health issue and therefore the smaller communities do not offer the same challenges as the larger centers.  No one wants to get trapped on a dead end career path so understandably they are concerned.  The incentives currently offered do not address their concerns adequately.

Most politicians are not health care professionals and so we need to work with the doctors to address these issues.  A few ideas I am starting to discuss with the medical community are:

1)      Tie the fee schedules to an adjustment so that in the smaller communities the fees are adjusted up.

2)      Look at salaries for doctors in small or remote communities rather than fees.

3)      Work with the smaller communities and the doctor's to find ways to make them attractive as a step in a career plan. This could include help with business set up or other benifits.

I am dedicated to working with our communities and our doctors to find solutions that meet everyone’s needs.  I have some starting points but what is needed is the hard work to craft a solution. I am dedicated to do just that.

I have begun discussing these ideas with our local doctors and will be solidifying an approach in the months ahead to help bring doctors back into our communities.

I would ask that any health care professionals that would like to join this conversation please contact me with your input. Together we will meet the needs of the Shuswap and create a framework that can be used througout the province.

Youth and Government

We are coming toward Rememberance Day and I was thinking of what our fathers and grandfathers fought for.

I had the privilege today of addressing a social studies class at the Salmon Arm Senior Secondary School. They had just been reviewing the political spectrum (right to left) and I was able to give them my understanding as the BC Conservative candidate.

Most of all, however, I told them that they are our future and politics is nothing more than how we govern ourselves. If we don't get involved, then someone else will do it for us, but in doing so, we will lose our freedom. I encouraged them to join a political party and learn what the issues are.

The Canadian government commissioned a French version of Flanders Fields which was completed by Major Jean Pariseau. I left them with my translation of the final French stanza (I didn't read them the French but include it here for those who would have just had to look it up).

À vous jeunes désabusés,
À vous de porter l'oriflamme
Et de garder au fond de l'âme
Le goût de vivre en liberté.
Acceptez le défi, sinon
Les coquelicots se faneront
Au champ d'honneur.

It is for you, young and disillusioned
It is for you, to carry the banner
and to keep in the depths of your soul
the craving to live in freedom.
Accept the challenge, for if not
the poppies will fade
from the field of honour

The challenge is to govern ourselves in a way that will continue to give meaning to those who risked it all and lost their lives to give us a democracy so that we could govern ourselves.

As we move toward Nov 11th, let us remember that wearing a poppy is respectful, but building our communities together is what makes the poppies grow.