[mobglob-discuss] A year in Liberal BC

[Bella]

Liberal Governance 
June 1, 2001 
Deputy Ministers get 32% pay raise. Heads of Crown Corporations have
pay 
increased by up to 150%. 

June 4, 2001 
Premier Gordon Campbell hikes pay of ministerial assistants by about 
$15,000 a year. 

June 5, 2001 
Gordon Campbell announces largest cabinet in BC's history while 
eliminating the ministries of Environment and Multiculturalism and 
shutting out all of his Chinese Canadian MLAs, including veteran Ida 
Chong. 

June 6, 2001 
Personal income taxes cut by 25%, overwhelmingly benefiting the
wealthy, 
not the bottom 2 tax brackets. Campbell says tax cuts will mean greater

revenue for health and education. 

June 7, 2001 
BC Liberal president Andrew Wilkinson hired for $180,000 a year Deputy 
Minister post 

June 28, 2001 
First act of minister responsible for public safety: scrap photo radar.


July 11, 2001 
Campbell government chops 14 government employees charged with 
responsibility for BC's endangered species and kills both Buy BC
program 
and the BC Shares food bank program. Later caves to public pressure and

reinstates BC Shares for remainder of fiscal year. 

July 13, 2001 
Campbell government fires the ICBC board of directors, including 
president Thom Thomson -- then "unfires" Thomson. 

July 14, 2001 
BC Liberal government overturns grizzly bear moratorium 

July 17, 2001 
Campbell government pulls out of a suit supporting the right of same
sex 
couples to be married. 

July 23, 2001 
Fiscal Review Panel confirms NDP budget surplus of $1.1 billion for 
2001-2002. 

July 26, 2001 
Human Rights Commissioner fired 

July 30, 2001 
Collins announces $700 million in business tax cuts in first budget. 
Forecasts $1.5 billion deficit and 3.8% economic growth for 2002. 

August 1, 2001 
Environmental auditor axed 

August 9, 2001 
Contract imposed on BC nurses and health science professionals. 

August 10, 2001 
Softwood Lumber Duty imposed by Americans 

August 14, 2001 
Campbell government kills universal childcare, pay equity, anti-SLAPP 
legislation, and protection for practitioners of complementary medicine

and removes the independence of the Child, Youth and Family Advocate. 

August 14, 2001 
Campbell government passes legislation to boost the pay of 5 Liberal 
backbenchers by $6000 per year for the previously unpaid positions of 
government caucus committee chair 

August 15, 2001 
BC Liberal government passes bill to make education an essential 
service, a bill so flawed the Campbell Liberals have already had to 
contemplate amending it. 

August 22, 2001 
Liberal's overturn WCB anti-smoking regulations, force workers to
inhale 
second-hand smoke. 

August 29, 2001 
Campbell Liberals abandon their court case against the Nisga'a Treaty 

September 4, 2001 
Collins downgrades growth forecast for 2002 by a "full point" from 3.8%

-- but doesn't warn the Premier's office beforehand. Campbell
government 
scrambles to adjust its fall agenda. Collins still expects to meet $1.5

billion deficit forecast. 

September 5, 2001 
Campbell fires Val Roddick as head of Core Review process after she 
talks about opening up the process to the public and makes himself the 
new chair. 

 

September 7, 2001 
Local communities and chambers of commerce celebrate the official 
opening of the Island Highway, but Campbell government refuses to 
participate.  Province does, however, find time to take down "Ginger 
Goodwin Way" signs from Cumberland portion of highway. 

September 7, 2001 
BC's unemployment rate reaches two year high -- 7.9 per cent.  Collins 
"confounded". 

September 12, 2001 
Capital spending frozen at colleges and universities. 

September 13, 2001 
First Quarter Report released. Deficit jumps to $2 billion, up $500 
million. Collins says government will be "downsized". 

September 17, 2001 
Collins announces government ministries to be cut by 10 to 40 per cent.


September 28, 2001 
BC taxpayers learn that the Campbell government is letting the BC 
Liberal Party off the hook for the costs of the abandoned Nisga'a 
lawsuit. 

September 29, 2001 
Gordon Campbell tells British Columbians in the middle of an economic 
downturn and massive job losses to "fly to San Francisco for the 
weekend" -- or maybe he really only was directing that at the 
well-heeled crowd at the party's convention. 

October 3, 2001 
Three-year health and education funding freeze announced.  Liberals 
break promise to increase funding with economic growth. 

October 3, 2001 
Deregulation minister Kevin Falcon first promises release of the 220 
regulations destined for the government's open trash bin. 

October 6, 2001 
Welfare recipients across BC receive warning letters from Human 
Resources minister Murray Coell - just in time for Thanksgiving. 

October 10, 2001 
Hydro chair Larry Bell reveals that the BC Liberals plan to renege on 
their commitment to phase out Burrard Thermal. 

October 15, 2001 
Affordable Housing Week begins. Liberals announce affordable housing 
projects on hold. 

October 17, 2001 
Eye exams de-listed from MSP coverage. 

October 29, 2001 
NDP Opposition urges Premier Campbell to convene a fiscal summit of 
business, labour, academic and community leaders in light of province's

looming fiscal crisis. 

October 29, 2001 
Minimum wage reduced to $6 an hour for new workers 

October 30, 2001 
Mental Health Advocate Fired 

October 30, 2001 
Health Planning Deputy Minister, John Tegenfeldt fired - earnings and 
severance total $300,000 for five months work. While he is replaced by 
the D-M of Health Services DM, Health Planning Minister Sindi Hawkins 
mysteriously keeps her job. 

October 31, 2001 
Forest Minister Mike De Jong's proposal for profit-based stumpage is 
leaked to the press, to a chorus of contempt from industry experts. 

November 1, 2001 
Gordon Hogg confirms hot lunch programs at community schools on
chopping 
block 

November 15, 2001 
Finance committee reports out -- Liberal backbench recommends premier 
proceed with caution on cuts to public services. 

November 20, 2001 
Government announces 1/3 of public sector to lose jobs; biggest cuts in

Canadian history. Hires comedian to ease the blow. 

November 22, 2001 
Second Quarter Report Released. Deficit Climbs to over $2 billion. 
Economic growth for 2002 downgraded to 0.6% from 3.8% in July. 

November 30, 2001 
16 questions proposed for aboriginal treaty referendum. Cost to total
$9 
million. Aboriginal leaders call for boycott. 

December 6, 2001 
Document leaked to NDP Opposition details sweeping cuts to Pharmacare 
and MSP. 

December 6, 2001 
Women's groups in Victoria boycott the government's annual vigil a at 
the legislature in memory of 14 women slain in 1989, saying the 
provincial government's spending cuts will push women into further 
violence and poverty. 

December 7, 2001 
BC unemployment rate climbs to 8.5 % for two year high. 

December 12, 2001 
The Campbell government announces it is slashing the number of health 
authorities in BC, a move that hurts small communities by centralizing 
decision-making in Victoria and moving heath care farther away from
home 
-- in direct opposition to the recommendations of the 1991 Royal 
Commission on health. 

December 19, 2001 
Campbell government releases report on coastal forestry that calls for 
the closure of half the mills in the region. This report comes on the 
heels of 2 other reports quietly released in the week before Christmas 
that also target coastal communities, leading to higher hydro costs and

big increases in ferry fares. Campbell's coastal MLAs remain silent in 
the face of these attacks on their communities. 

December 19, 2001 
Campbell government's Finance Committee recommends deep cuts to the 
watchdogs of government: the Child, Youth and Family Advocate (45%),
the 
Ombudsman (35%), the Police Complaint Commissioner (30%), Elections BC,

the Freedom of Information and Privacy Commissioner (35%), and the 
Auditor-General, (15%). Only the Conflict of Interest Commissioner's 
budget is spared.  The cut to the Auditor-General is yet another broken

New Era promise: The Campbell Liberals' election platform stated: "A BC

Liberal government will increase funding for the Auditor-General's 
Office, to help identify and prevent waste, and to increase 
value-for-money." (New Era, p.8) 

December 20, 2001 
Ipsos-Reid releases a poll showing the Campbell Liberals plummeting by 
22 points in approval ratings. The pollster called the size of the drop

for such a new government unprecedented: "The size of this drop cannot 
be ignored," said pollster Daniel Savas. "The things they are doing are

starting to create some opposition." The poll also revealed that a 
majority of British Columbians - 53% - no longer believe the Campbell 
government's line that tax cuts will pay for themselves. 

December 27, 2001 
The media reveals that Mike de Jong has had sensitive documents 
concerning the softwood lumber dispute stolen from his SUV while he
went 
Christmas shopping at a mall. He thought he had the material "hidden 
pretty well" For a contrast to his attitude in Opposition, consider De 
Jong's response in the spring of 1997 when he was the recipient of some
confidential government documents that had similarly been stolen from
the vehicle of a senior civil servant and then discarded: "Words alone
cannot convey the outrage I feel that material of such a sensitive
nature would literally be found blowing across a farmer's field."

December 31, 2001 
Media reports first surface of the Campbell government's plan for the 
first round of massive civil service cuts in mid-January, involving 
grief counsellors, rides home for the distraught and a strategy to 
ensure fired employees don't steal government property. The contract
for 
handling the firing of up to 12,000 jobs -- what the Campbell
government 
is calling "Announcement Day" -- is being contracted out by the
government. 

January 1, 2002 
The cost of getting sick goes up in British Columbia, as the Campbell 
government's first cuts to Medicare, announced in December, go into 
effect. Media also note that the first day of the New Year usher in 
"invisible tax breaks" that for most British Columbians will mean 
"little or no difference in their take-home pay" -- but will reduce 
government revenues by $2 billion. (Times Colonist 02/01/2002)  - In a 
related development, the New York Times published a story on New Year's

Day in its international section entitled "Tax cut costly to British
Columbia's Liberals" 

January 4, 2002 
Media reports that the Campbell government plans to spend over $100,000

on a PR campaign to "brand" BC. 

January 8, 2002 
The BC and Yukon Territory Building and Construction Trades Council 
revealed the Campbell government has quit a federal-provincial project 
dedicated to keeping tabs on the underground economy, turning its back 
on about $84 million a year in revenues lost to government coffers 
in this sector. 

January 10, 2002 
The Campbell government's competition for the privatization of welfare 
closed, with the favoured company widely rumoured to be Accenture, the 
company responsible for the Harris government's disastrous and costly 
experiment in welfare privatization. The Ministry of Human Resources 
had quietly fast-tracked a request for proposals on November 29, 2001. 

January 10, 2002 
The Richard Stewart Resignation Debacle 12:00 p.m.- Jenny Kwan calls
for 
BC Liberal MLA Richard Stewart's resignation from the government's
leaky condo committee after Stewart is named in a lawsuit by the
trustee of the New Home Warranty Program.  

1:00 p.m. - BC Liberal Caucus releases letter from Richard Stewart to
Premier Gordon Campbell resigning from the leaky condo committee.

The letter is dated January 8, 2002, two days before the Committee
chair 
and the Minister responsible for leaky condos assured British
Columbians 
that Mr. Stewart was not in a conflict of interest.  
1:30 p.m. - BC Liberal Caucus releases letter from Richard Stewart to
Premier Gordon 
Campbell resigning from the leaky condo committee.  This letter is
dated 
January 9, 2002. 

January 12, 2002 
Stats Canada reports that BC lost more jobs than all the rest of Canada

in the month of December and that the unemployment rate has jumped to 
9.7%, a 7 year high. BC lost 11,000 jobs in December, 4000 more than
the 
rest of the country combined. 


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