Senator Mike Duffy. Photo: Handout.

If the recent Senate expense scandals have taught Canadians anything, it’s that Parliament of Canada officials will take advantage of the rules to pad their pockets if they can.

Senator Mike Duffy has become the poster boy for Parliament of Canada abuse of expense guidelines but he’s hardly alone. Like Mike Duffy, former Conservative senators Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau are now sitting in disgrace as independents.

Will more senators join them before this mess is properly sorted?

And what about the misguided tweet from newbie Calgary Centre MP Joan Crockatt? Anyone who follows the former Calgary Herald editor, as I do, is familiar with Crockateer’s tenuous grasp of facts and logic. Like this whopper from Monday, in which she forgets there are three former Tory senators, not two, and bizarrely tries to spin the scandal enveloping the Red Chamber: ”Our govt has the highest ethical standards demonstrated by 3 resignations: 2 from Senate caucus & the PM chief of staff.”

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Crockatt’s now infamous tweet has inspired columns by national political pundits, outrage on social media networks, and plenty of head shaking by ordinary Canadians. What it hasn’t inspired is any indication from the Harper Government that substantive reform of the Senate’s free spending ways is on the horizon.

Vacuums have a way of being filled, which is why I wasn’t surprised to find a release from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation in today’s inbox. Director Gregory Thomas is calling on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to introduce an Accountability Act 2.0, “to put an end to expense fraud by Senators and restore the confidence of Canadians in Parliament.”

The CTF proposal has five parts:

• Mandatory online reporting of office, travel, and hospitality expenses for all MPs and Senators (including receipts),
• Annual random audits of MPs and Senators by the auditor general
• Applying the Access to Information Act to MPs and Senators
• Scrapping pension entitlements for those convicted of stealing from taxpayers
• Ability to recall parliamentarians

“When the Conservatives were elected in 2006 they brought in the first Accountability Act in response to the sponsorship scandal, now it’s time for the Accountability Act 2.0 to clean up the senate expense scandal,” said Thomas, who points out that as of this past fall Alberta requires all elected officials, political staff and senior bureaucrats to post expenses and receipts online.

Beacon reporter Christopher Walsh wrote in a February news story that Alison Redford’s government brought in the new rules partly because of lavish spending on the part of Alberta Health Services, which was using public money to buy Calgary Flames tickets, for instance.

Government, it seems, has become big business, but without the spending controls that usually accompany successul private enterprises. Thomas and the CTF say it’s time for the Canadian government to emulate the Prime Minister’s home province.

“Had these rules been in place for the Parliament of Canada two years ago, Senator Duffy’s receipts would have shown that he wasn’t spending much time in PEI while claiming a housing allowance,” said Thomas.

Thomas says Senators and MPs convicted of filing fraudulent expense claims should lose their generous pension entitlements, much like the law recently passed in Nova Scotia by the NDP government.

“There needs to be a cost associated with ripping off taxpayers,” said Thomas. “Otherwise this is never going to stop.”

Indeed.

And given the precedent of at least one province requiring online reporting of expenses, which demonstrates that it can be done without a lot of muss and fuss, the Canadian government should implement this program immediately for all Members of Parliament, senators, and deputy ministers.

Prime Minister Harper says he’s a fiscal conservative, let him behave like one.

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Adrian Dix and BC NDP must rethink the party after humiliating defeat to BC Liberals last week. Photo: BC NDP/Facebook.

By Dermod Travis  

The great thing about political punditry is the ability to be right and wrong at the same time and get away with it, which is why the pundits who were no better at predicting the outcome of the BC election shouldn’t be expected to be any better at interpreting the results.

It’s quite simple: the BC Liberal party set out to win at all costs and did. They ran the better campaign, got their vote out and won. They were even willing to throw a candidate or two under the bus to do it, as witnessed by two full page ads in Victoria’s Times Colonist extolling the virtues of Green party leader Jane Sterk paid for by none other than the BC Liberal party.

Fault them for their tactics, but not even the huffing and puffing of political observers over those tactics seems to resonate long with the voters who ultimately decide elections.

What should be of concern though is the emergence of an almost constant pool of voters in BC and an equivalent block of non-voters.

Employment for women – new opportunities on Canadian oil rigs. Read it today!

In 2009, 1.65 million voters cast a ballot. In the 2011 HST referendum, 1.61 million mailed-in their vote. And last week, 1.63 million made the trek to the polls, although that number will rise slightly when absentee ballots are tallied.

Looked at another way: close to half of the province’s eligible voters continue to turn their back on the ballot box. That’s not a good thing.

And what lurks beneath these numbers should worry BC NDP operatives.

In 1979 at the crest of its support, Dave Barrett and the BC NDP won 46 per cent of the popular vote or 646,188 votes out of 1.4 million cast. They still lost the election. Last week, Adrian Dix and the BC NDP won 39.5 per cent of the vote or 643,399 votes out of 1.63 million cast.

Over 35 years, the BC NDP has seen its share of the popular vote steadily decline and its actual vote stall, despite an electorate that has nearly doubled in size over the same period.

Parties that don’t grow their base lose and risk withering away.

While the Liberals grew their vote marginally over their 1979 Socred brethren, they don’t have too much to boast about either. In 1979, the Social Credit party won 677,607 votes. The B.C. Liberals pulled in 723,618 votes.

BC voters are opting for “anything but” BC NDP

So who was the real winner in the voter sweepstakes last Tuesday? Anything but. In 1979, 81,282 voters opted for anything but the Socreds or the BC NDP. Last week that number more than tripled to 262,405.

As a share of the popular vote, the percentage choosing “anything but” grew from 5.6 per cent of the popular vote to 16.1 per cent.

But it’s not just the province-wide numbers that are telling. As the Liberals showed on election night: “it’s the ridings that count stupid.”

Twenty-five of B.C.’s 85 ridings had a turnout of less than 50 per cent and 19 of those were in the Lower Mainland. The award for most apathetic riding: Richmond-Centre at 38.9 per cent.

Only seven ridings saw a turnout of over 60 per cent and of those the top three had one thing in common: races that engaged voters.

In Oak Bay-Gordon Head, the Green party won its first ever seat in the legislature; in Delta South, Vicki Huntington was re-elected – the first independent to be so in B.C.’s history; and in Saanich North and the Islands, the BC NDP may very well have eked out a victory in the province’s tightest three-way race.

Of course, there were the Wednesday morning quarterbacks who tried to bend the votes of other parties so far out of shape as to claim that such-and-such a party cost such-and-such a party the election.

It may provide comfort to the defeated, but it’s an argument based more on wishful thinking than political acumen. Vote tallies can easily be moved from column-to-column after the fact, voters aren’t so easily moved before the fact.

But the message for the BC NDP in all these numbers is ominous and it’s not just about Adrian Dix.

The BC NDP has been nothing if not short of leaders. In the last 9 elections, no less than seven have been put to the electoral test.

It may have more to do with the brand. Something isn’t connecting with the voters that the BC NDP needs in order to win. And that soul-searching is going to be far harder on the party faithful than a leadership race ever will be.

Dermod Travis is the executive director of IntegrityBC.

B.C. residents, tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

By Ben Eisen and Romy Yourex  

Over the past century, there has been a slight increase in average global temperatures.

Many scientists think this change is caused primarily by the actions of human beings, specifically the emission of GHG into the atmosphere. Further, some scientists warn that computer models suggest that if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, this warming trend may accelerate and cause major environmental and economic disruptions.

There are scientists who are skeptical of this opinion and suggest that the sensitivity of the climate to greenhouse gasses is not alarmingly high. According to this camp, only modest warming (or the suppression of cyclical cooling trends) should be expected in the decades ahead.

Employment for women – new opportunities on Canadian oil rigs. Read it today!

Without wading into this highly politicized debate, it is sufficient for the purposes of this report to state that, given the fact that many scientists predict serious negative effects from increased greenhouse gas emissions, we can assert that rising global GHG emissions should be recognized as posing environmental risks and that reducing Canada’s emissions would help mitigate these risks.

Certain environmentalist groups and critics of the current government’s environmental performance frequently excoriate Canada’s record in this area. These criticisms usually rely on the following two arguments:

1)    Canada’s per capita greenhouse gas emissions are among the highest in the world, and

2)    Canada’s total emissions have increased over the past 20 years while many other affluent countries have achieved reductions.

However, a careful look at the relevant data show that the narrative of Canada as a laggard in this area is something of an oversimplification. In fact, once economic and population growth are accounted for, Canada’s performance compares favourably with many peer countries. This section will put Canada’s recent record on greenhouse gas emissions in context.

Critics of this record frequently point out that Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions have increased since 1990 (the year the Kyoto Protocol was signed), while many comparably affluent countries have achieved significant reductions. And it is true, as Chart 5 shows, that Canada’s emissions have grown over the past two decades. While total emissions began to decline over the past few years, total national greenhouse gas emissions in 2010 were 17 per cent higher than was the case in 1990. By way of comparison, total annual emissions for the EU-15 countries have decreased by approximately 13 per cent over the same period.

Although critics of Canada’s record frequently cite this national emissions growth, it is a crude measure of environmental progress that does not account for the impact of economic growth or even different rates of increase in population among countries.

All else being equal, an increase in a country’s population will lead to an increase in national fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. To conduct a meaningful evaluation of emissions reductions, it is necessary to control for these differences, since it is much harder for a rapidly growing country to achieve absolute emissions reductions compared with a country that is experiencing little or no growth.

Canada has experienced much more rapid population growth than most other affluent countries in recent decades. For example, between 1990 and 2009, Canada’s population increased by 22 per cent compared with just 9 per cent in the EU-15.

Canadian Oil Sands – The 21st Century Belongs to Canada. Read it today!

Since the economic activity of human beings creates a portion of greenhouse gas emissions, population growth is a major driver of national emissions growth. Examining greenhouse gas emissions growth per capita helps account for this important variable. When population growth is considered, we see that Canada’s per capita emissions actually went down by 5 per cent between 1990 and 2010. Although there has been an increase in Canada’s total greenhouse gas emissions since 1990, this increase is primarily a function of population growth, as per capita emissions have been reduced.

Population growth has been highly correlated with higher rates of greenhouse gas emissions growth in affluent countries over the past two decades. The same is true of economic growth. Economic activity often includes the consumption of fossil fuels. All else being equal, higher levels of economic activity lead to higher levels of greenhouse gas emissions.

Therefore, countries with booming economies generally find it much harder to control greenhouse gas emissions than do countries with slowly growing economies. Canada has enjoyed relatively strong economic growth over the past 20 years, and this is a major factor in its inability to achieve the absolute emissions reductions that have occurred in countries where the economies have not grown as quickly.

The effect of economic growth can be taken into account for evaluating Canada’s performance by examining greenhouse gas emissions per unit of GDP. This indicator measures the GHG emission intensity of economic activity by comparing the total amount of activity that takes place in a year with the total amount of GHG emitted. This is a useful statistic because it helps measure GHG emission trends in a way that does not punish economic growth.

Canada has made significant strides in reducing its GHG intensity in recent years. GHG emission intensity per unit of economic activity (adjusted for inflation) dropped by 27 per cent between 1990 and 2010. Chart 6 shows this progress. This statistic means that substantially more goods were produced and more economic activity occurred per unit of GHG emitted in 2010 compared with 1990.

Despite this improvement, Canada’s emission intensity is still relatively high when compared with most of its peers in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Some explanations for this discrepancy include Canada’s cold weather, its large geographic size and the type of natural resources that are located in different countries.

However, the fact that Canada’s per capita emissions and its GHG emission intensity have dropped significantly since 1990 shows that the notion that Canada has not made progress in this area is misleading.

Throughout much of the past 20 years, Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise before starting to drop during the past several years. Although some countries have managed to achieve more-impressive reductions, Canada’s record in this area is not unusually poor compared with peer countries that have experienced comparable levels of economic and population growth.

Some critics frequently excoriate Canada’s environmental record and imply that it is becoming more polluted and less environmentally healthy. But a new report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy doesn’t support that conclusion: Canada’s natural environment, in fact, is becoming cleaner and greener. The report was written by Senior Policy Analyst Ben Eisen and intern Romy Yourex. Today: a look at greenhouse gas emissions.

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Frontier Centre for Public Policy’s Environmental State of Canada: 2013 Update shows vast improvement in Canada’s natural environment over the years.

By Ben Eisen and Romy Yourex  

Canadians care deeply about their natural environment and view the prevention of environmental pollution as one of the most important functions of their governments.

Multiple polls taken over the years have shown that large numbers of Canadians view the preservation of the natural environment as a public policy priority.

In 2009, the Frontier Centre undertook an examination of the long-term trends surrounding the health and vitality of the Canadian environment across a wide range of indicators. Our objective was to provide an overview of Canada’s environmental performance and to help citizens gain a better understanding of the condition of Canada’s natural environment.

Our study concluded that while some areas required further improvement, the dominant theme that emerged from examining the relevant data was that Canada’s natural environment had become considerably cleaner and greener over the previous 30 years. We wrote:

Canadians have a great deal to celebrate when it concerns their environment. Over the past 30 years, Canada has cleaned up its air and water, preserved ecosystems and timberlands and protected the soils that feed not only its people but also many others worldwide.

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Our research showed that Canada made significant strides toward sustainability across a number of dimensions of environmental health. With a few exceptions, the data showed that Canada had a strong medium-term record of progress toward environmental sustainability.

This report is a follow-up and an update to the 2009 paper. It presents data that have become available since 2009 and re-examines Canada’s medium-term environmental performance in light of the most recent information.

Largely, the newly-available data confirm the conclusions of our 2009 paper. While some environmental advocacy groups and commentators insist that environmental pollution is getting worse and that Canada’s track record in this area should be a source of national shame, an objective examination of the data across a broad range of indicators tells a very different story.

Over the past four decades, Canada has made impressive environmental progress. The health and vitality of the country’s natural environment have improved steadily. This has made Canada a healthier place for its inhabitants, while also helping to ensure that future generations will enjoy a healthy natural environment and benefit from Canada’s tremendous natural resource endowment.

To measure Canada’s progress, we examined a number of indicators across several dimensions of environmental sustainability. Specifically, we examined urban air pollution, GHG emissions, freshwater withdrawals, freshwater quality, agricultural soil quality and forestry.

In assessing Canada’s environmental performance, we will detail its great achievements in protecting its environment. However, we will also show where Canada as a whole and some provinces can improve.

Conventional air pollutants

The quality of the air we breathe significantly influences our health. Extensive research has demonstrated that prolonged exposure to high levels of air pollution can cause poor health and, specifically, serious respiratory problems. For this reason, reducing air pollution in urban centres has long been identified as one of the government’s highest priorities in environmental policy.

Happily, urban air quality has improved dramatically in recent decades. Despite rapid population growth and strong economic growth, the recent past saw remarkable declines in the ambient levels of many air pollutants in Canada’s cities and towns.

In our 2009 report, we showed that there was a multi-decade trend toward cleaner air in Canadian cities. For example, one indicator that showed progress was the level of ambient sulphur dioxide in the cities and towns. Sulphur dioxide is a pollutant with significant negative health effects for humans and is linked to increased instances of respiratory disease. In 1977, more than 40 per cent of air quality monitoring stations across Canada collected readings with one-hour averages above the government’s maximum level. By 2001, this number dropped to just 15 per cent. Using the less stringent maximum acceptable standard, only 5 per cent of stations in 2001 failed to meet the standard compared with 20 per cent in 1977. We observed similar trends when we examined data for several other pollutants including nitrogen dioxide (NO2) and VOC levels.

Clearly, there is a long-term trend toward cleaner air in Canada’s urban centres. The most recent data from the government of Canada suggest that this trend is in large measure continuing. Environment Canada tracks ambient levels of five different types of air pollution for its Environmental Indicators series, which monitors environmental performance in Canada. These pollutants are fine particulate matter, ground-level ozone, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and VOC. All five pollutants can cause serious health problems if concentrations exceed dangerous levels in urban centres.

For three out of the five pollutants, the most recent data show a significant medium-term trend toward cleaner air. As the charts below show, there was a statistically significant reduction in ambient levels of sulphur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide and VOC between 1990 and 2010. These data sets are based on the annual average of daily concentrations recorded at stations across Canada. (For some measures, stations are weighted differently depending on their proximity to major population centres.)

The Environment Canada data show:

• Average ambient concentrations of sulphur dioxide dropped from 4.2 parts per billion (ppb) in 1996 to 1.8 ppb in 2010. This is a reduction of 57 per cent.

• Average ambient concentrations of nitrogen dioxide dropped from 17.7 ppb in 1996 to 10.8 ppb in 2010. This is a reduction of 39 per cent.

• Average ambient concentrations of VOC dropped from 138 ppb in 1996 to 57.5 ppb in 2010. This is a reduction of 58 per cent.

There is some variation between regions of the country in terms of precisely how much progress has been made toward a reduction in ambient levels of these air pollutants, but all regions have made significant progress. The following charts illustrate the progress made in controlling the ambient levels of these three important pollutants.

The picture is somewhat more complicated for the two remaining pollutants reported upon by Environment Canada. For fine particulate matter, Environment Canada notes that there was no statistically significant change in average ambient levels between 2000 and 2010. 2010 saw a significant uptick in fine particulate matter levels compared with 2009, thanks largely to forest fires in several regions of the country and a warmer, dryer year in most of Canada.

Canadian Oil Sands – The 21st Century Belongs to Canada. Read it today!

Even with the higher 2010 levels, however, no statistically significant trend in either direction existed over the past decade. Canada has not had as much success in reducing fine particulate matter levels as it has in cutting some other pollutants.

Similarly, ground-level ozone levels have remained stubborn in recent years. In fact, there has been a mild but statistically significant increase in ambient levels of ground-level ozone over the past 20 years in Canada’s towns and cities. The following chart shows population-weighted, warm season average, ambient ozone concentrations between 1990 and 2010.

Ground-level ozone can harm human health by creating and aggravating respiratory disease and by reducing lung function. However, it is noteworthy that the increase in ground-level ozone has been very small relative to the large reductions that were achieved for other types of air pollution.

Overall, the data for these five indicators show that the air Canadians breathe is significantly cleaner and healthier than it was just three decades ago.

This dramatic improvement in Canadian air quality seems even more impressive in light of the population growth in the cities in recent decades. Canadian towns and cities have grown quickly over the past 30 years due to natural population growth, immigration and the significant urbanization of the population. In addition to increasing populations, cities and towns have experienced significant per person economic growth. Together, these trends mean the urban centres have larger populations and are more economically productive than they were in the 1970s.

As urbanization and economic growth unfold, there is a simultaneous improvement in urban air quality. This should be seen as significant evidence of environmental progress.

Some critics frequently excoriate Canada’s environmental record and imply that it is becoming more polluted and less environmentally healthy. But a new report from the Frontier Centre for Public Policy doesn’t support that conclusion: Canada’s natural environment, in fact, is becoming cleaner and greener. The report was written by Senior Policy Analyst Ben Eisen and intern Romy Yourex. Today: a look at conventional air pollutants.

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

If the BC Conservatives were in power, convenience stores would be able to compete with BC liquor storesThe BC Conservative proposal to allow beer and wine sales in convenience stores is a positive step toward liberalizing antiquated provincial liquor laws, says policy analyst Steve Lafleur.

The BC Conservatives made the announcement Tuesday. Leader John Cummins says a BC Conservative government would give British Columbians more choice to buy beer and wine and “take the special interests out of liquor sales.”

“We believe in getting BC back to basics, and that means putting more decision making abilities in the hands of local British Columbians,” said Cummins. “We’ll make life more convenient and affordable for British Columbians, and help grow the economy by removing restrictions on the sale of beer and wine in convenience stores.”

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Lafleur, an analyst with the market-oriented Frontier Centre for Public Policy based in Winnipeg, says Cummins’ idea is a good start, but argues that it’s time to remove government from the liquor business.

“It’s encouraging to see politicians arguing for liquor liberalization, but I think it’s time British Columbians had a broader discussion about why the provincial government has a role in liquor distribution beyond regulation and taxation,” he said in an interview with Beacon News.

The BC government should

SFU marketing expert Lindsay Meredith says there are winners and losers if BC liberalizes its liquor laws. The winners would be private grocery stores while the losers would be B.C. liquor store employee unions and private cold beer and wine stores.

Meredith predicts the BC Conservative campaign promise will be popular.

“It will be a pretty good vote puller, especially for the age 32-50 crowd,” said Meredith. “Those in their 20s and 30s will love it, too, but they don’t vote.”

Who will win the May 14 BC election? Beacon News wants to know what you think. Please fill out this brief Beacon News survey

Beacon News publisher Markham Hislop argues that CBC TV competes against truly independent media.

The CBC popped back on Canadians’ radar last week. A Harper Government bill to give it more control over crown corporations has upset defenders of public broadcasting.

Infographics exhorting me to join the fight to “save” the CBC are flooding my social media networks. The language is apocalyptic and most people reading it probably think Rick Mercer and Peter Manbridge, to say nothing of Ron McLean and Don Cherry, are one step from the unemployment line.

Take this post that accompanies a save the CBC petition on avaaz.org: “The new Harper budget bill is going to do something crazy — take hold of our public media and turn the CBC into a place where Harper’s cronies could control the newsroom. This is how tyrannical governments behave — they try to silence and control independent media.”

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Now hold on right there. Independent media?  To those of us in the biz, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation is a bloated, bureaucratic behemoth that shovels in vast sums of tax dollars, then spits out a meagre product that is routinely ignored by the large majority of Canadians.

Beacon News is independent media. From our humble beginnings five years ago covering S.E. Calgary news to our current incarnation with 28 Beacons from Ottawa to Vancouver Island, we have never received a single cent of government subsidy. Not a cent. Unlike our private sector competitors, who routinely belly up to the public trough for one type of subsidy or another.

Nor have we enjoyed government advertising. All that recent hoopla over Harper’s advertising spending on the Economic Action Plan?  None of that money found its way to Beacon News.

Same goes for the government of Alberta, where about 40 per cent of our readers hail from. We met last summer with Alberta Public Affairs staff, who promised Beacon News would be included in future advertising campaigns. Nada. Now they won’t even return phone calls.

What about the City of Calgary? You’d think populist mayor Naheed Nenshi would be a pal of the little guy. He certainly was in 2010 during the election campaign, when he couldn’t get his face in the Calgary Beacon often enough. Again, nada. But the City is even worse. No one even knows who is responsible for City advertising. Some nameless guy in the bowels of City Hall is the best answer thus far.

A cynic might say that Beacon News hasn’t received government advertising because our ad model isn’t up to snuff.  My reply is that private sector clients like it well enough. One even called it the future of online advertising.

If Beacon News is good enough for private advertisers, why isn’t it good enough for government?

You can understand why I’m not rushing to embrace the Save-The-CBC campaign. Not only do my tax dollars support the CBC to the tune of $1.1 billion, but I also have to compete against the Canadian crown corporation in the marketplace.

That’s right, every day in Calgary and Vancouver and Edmonton, taxpayer-subsidized CBC TV sales reps are calling on the same clients I do, asking for business. Fortunately, their online advertising model sucks, just like most legacy media, but CBC TV still hoovers advertising dollars out of the private sector that are then not available  to Beacon News.

Here’s how Wade Rowland of the Globe and Mail described the issue : “The problem that is killing the CBC is the fact that, on television, it is not a true and authentic public broadcaster. It is an unmanageable hybrid. It must serve a poorly-defined public service mandate, but at the same time it is saddled with commercial sponsorship for half its income.”

What should the Harper Government do with the CBC?

A study from the market-oriented Frontier Centre for Public Policy, written by telecommunications consultant Roland Renner, suggests there are five options for the public broadcaster going forward:

1. Status quo with minor changes – the choice of CBC management.
2. Eliminate the CBC – the preference of many on the right of the political spectrum, who argue there are plenty of private media and broadcasters who essentially offer the same services as CBC.
3. Change the CBC mandate to air Canadian programming only – an option the Canadian arts community would likely favour.
4. Decentralize the CBC into regional blocks – get rid of the CBC’s national mandate, ask the province’s for partial funding, create CBC West, etc.
5. Turn the CBC into a Canadian production entity – no broadcasting role, but retain its production capacity, creating content for private broadcasters, the Web, etc.

Let me suggest a sixth option: blow up the television division and let the CBC survive as a radio-only entity.

CBC TV sucks. If you don’t believe me, ask Canadians, who vote with their remotes and have given up on most CBC programming; CBC news shows and dramas generally rank a dismal last in national and local markets.

Hockey still reigns supreme at CBC, of course, but the betting by many pundits is that TSN will soon squeeze out the venerable Hockey Night in Canada, where the doddering Cherry is long past his best before date. If the CBC loses hockey, how will it replace that 40 per cent of its revenue?

Why bother worrying? Take CBC television out behind the shed and put the poor thing out of its misery.

CBC radio is a national treasure and should be beefed up. Give it enough resources to create both drama and news programming private competitors, like Beacon News, won’t.

To partly compensate for the loss of CBC TV news, throw an advertising bone to truly independent (i.e. not gigantic corporations like Postmedia, Quebecor and Bell Media) media like Beacon News. We’re lean and hungry and a little goes a long way.

Maybe we should create an infographic that says, “Kill CBC TV, save Beacon News.”

If only I could afford a graphic artist to design one.

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

Prince William at the 2011 Calgary Stampede.

A new poll reveals that Canadians are lukewarm to the British monarchy as head of state, but if the country must have a king or queen they prefer Prince William.

In a new Angus Reid online survey of a representative national sample of 1,008 Canadian adults, two-in-five respondents (40%) would like Canada to have an elected head of state, while 28 per cent would prefer to remain a monarchy.

This is the second highest level of support for an elected head of state since Angus Reid began tracking this question in October 2009, according to Mario Canseco, VP of Angus Reid Public Opinion.

More than half of Quebecers (54%) support the idea of having an elected head of state in Canada, while Alberta has the highest level of support for the monarchy (39%, followed by Ontario and British Columbia with 33% each). Men (54%) are more likely than women (33%) to call for an elected head of state for Canada.

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Beacon News readers split on keeping British monarchy

Beacon News readers weighed in on the British monarchy and an elected head of state for Canada:

Roy Eappen, Montreal: “HM is Queen of Canadian (sic). We should continue the Canadian Crown!”

Gerry Jarvis, Edmonton: “The constitutional monarchy might be ineffective, but also inoffensive. It’s a nice link to a very old tradition, and traditions don’t come back once they’ve been disposed of.”

Kali Readwin, Calgary: “It’s a ridiculous and sorely irrelevant practice. Seriously Canada, grow up.”

Neil Young, Calgary: “I’m from the UK and I would have to agree…why do we bother with having the Monarchy as the head?? She doesn’t really do anything for the country as far as making any decisions…heck, she doesn’t make any decisions for GB either, but I can see why they keep that tradition; because it started there. I’d say Canada could release that part of their young tradition.”

Bob Knight, Calgary: “Traditions are part of our heritage…. she is a tradition not a head of state in the true sense of the word… we should be proud of how we got to where we are!”

Dave Noelle, Calgary: “I think there is still value to the position. And I’m not sure election is the best method to fill this position.”

Curtis Joynt, Calgary: “No monarchy. It’s anachronistic. I’m not so sure electing a Head of State to replace an appointed Governor General makes sense but a fixed-term appointment, vetted by an all party committee of Parliament would work. Suffice it to say, it’s about time we cut the cord completely.”

Marg Rosender, Calgary: “The British Monarchy is fine.”

Canadians favour William over Charles as next monarch

At least seven-in-ten Canadians hold favourable views of Prince William (76%), Kate Middleton (75%) and Queen Elizabeth II (70%). Prince Harry is next of the list of popular members of the Royal Family with 62 per cent, followed by Prince Philip with 51 per cent. The results are decidedly less positive for Prince Charles (39%) and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall (23%).

Half of Canadians (49%) support reopening Canada’s constitutional debate to discuss the possibility of replacing the monarch with an elected head of state, while one third (33%) are opposed. Almost half of respondents (47%) would like to see Prince William take over as King after Queen Elizabeth II, while just 18 per cent would prefer to have Prince Charles as monarch.

People who wish to become citizens of Canada recite an “Oath of Citizenship” where they swear, or affirm, to bear true allegiance to Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

Canadians are divided on the oath, with 48 per cent suggesting that it should be changed, and 45 per cent thinking it should remain as it is. While a majority of respondents in Ontario (55%), Atlantic Canada (53%), British Columbia (52%) and Alberta (51%) would keep the current oath, only 21 per cent of Quebecers concur.

From April 22 to April 23, 2013, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 1,008 randomly selected Canadian adults who are Angus Reid Forum panelists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.1%, 19 times out of 20. The results have been statistically weighted according to the most current education, age, gender and region Census data to ensure a sample representative of the entire adult population of Canada.

BC Liberal leader Christy Clark, left, with at the Copper Mountain Mine Wednesday with fourth-generation miner Jay-D and, Fraser-Nicola candidate Jackie Tegart. Photo: BC Liberals.

The BC mining industry enjoyed a stellar 2012, according to a new survey, and campaigning politicians have been pledging new policies and programs to help the sector expand in the future.

International consultancy PriceWaterhouseCooper (PwC) says profits for British Columbian mining companies were lower in 2012 compared to the previous year, which benefited from high international commodity prices.

“BC’s mining industry faced significant headwinds in 2012, including lower commodity prices as a result of global market jitters and a range of rising costs — labour, raw materials and energy,’ said Michael Cinnamond, survey co-author and leader of PwC’s mining practice at PwC. “Lower capital expenditures, revenues and a drop in operating cash flows resulted.”

Gross mining revenues were reported as $9.2 billion in 2012. That is down 7 per cent from $9.9 billion in 2011, when the price of copper reached a new high and coal was near its peak. Commodity prices slid as a result of slower global economic growth and a deepening debt crisis in Europe.

B.C. residents, tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

The prices of BC’s two largest revenue generating commodities, coal and copper, experienced slides as a result, causing a drop in aggregate BC mining revenues and profits for PwC survey participants in 2012.

Employment in BC mining increased to 10,419 in 2012, up 12 pe rcent from 9,310 in 2011. Attracting and retaining skilled labour to mining operations in BC remains a top challenge.

“The industry has developed a number of education and training programs to attract workers, in particular from underrepresented segments of the population,” said Cinnamond. “The hiring of temporary foreign workers was a hot topic in BC’s mining sector in 2012 and is expected to remain in the spotlight in the industry, and across all sectors in Canada, for the next while.”

BC NDP leader Adrian Dix was in Prince George Wednesday and announced new training programs designed to help British Columbians work in the mining and natural gas industries.

“With commodity prices holding near all time highs, jobs and economic growth in the north and interior will be driven by success in mining and natural gas,” said Dix while visting the College of New Caledonia.

“We can’t have more of the same permitting backlogs caused by BC Liberals, more of the same uncertainty, and more of the same jobs without workers and workers without jobs.”

Dix says the NDP policy was developed after consulting with industry and includes investing regionally in industry related training programs; shortened turnaround for Notice of Work permits and an enhanced environmental assessment process with additional resources; encouraging exploration with support for Geoscience BC and the extension of the BC Mining Flow Through Share tax credit.

Premier Christy Clark and the Liberals responded with an announcement Thursday while touring Horizon North Manufacturing, a company that serves resource extraction businesses, in Kamloops.

“The mining sector is critical to our province,” said Clark. “Every $1 invested in mining creates $2.50 in benefits for our economy. That creates jobs across the province, both at mines and at companies that support development like Horizon North.”

Clark says that if the Liberals are returned to power, the New Mine Allowance and other credits allowing new mines and major mine expansions to receive depreciation credits of up to 133 per cent will be extended from 2016 to 2020.

The BC Liberals plan for mining training includes working with school boards to expand vocational training paths in high schools, encouraging partnerships between employers and high schools to offer improved opportunities and scholarships for students, and expanding opportunities for students to begin apprenticeships before graduating high school.

Both the BC Green Party and the BC Conservatives have mining-related policies in their election platforms, but neither has announced new programs or policies during the campaign.

BC mining expanding in 2013

“In spite of slimmer profits in 2012, BC producers continued to move forward with plans to expand and build new mines,” said Marianne Carroll, survey co-author and Manager in PwC’s mining practice.

In 2012, New Gold Inc. celebrated the opening of its New Afton mine near Kamloops, BC. This is the second new mine in BC in two years, after the opening of the Copper Mountain Mine near Princeton, BC in 2011. Copper Mountain was the first major metals mine to open in the province since 1998.

Looking ahead, the next large mines slated to open are the Thompson Creek Metals Mount Milligan project and the Imperial Metals Red Chris project, which are both currently under construction. There are a number of other projects in the pipeline which are currently in the development stage.

Mining projects in the northwest of BC will get a boost from the 344-kilometre Northwest Transmission Line (NTL) currently under construction. Expansion plans at a number of BC’s ports, which serve as a gateway to key customers in Asia, are also underway.

“While 2013 is already proving to be another tumultuous year for BC’s mineral exploration, development and operations, demand for resources is expected to remain steady for the foreseeable future,” added Cinnamond. “The BC industry is working hard to address costs, environmental issues, labour supply and invest in new infrastructure.”

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A NORAD fighter jet on a training exercise. Photo: Capt Tana R.H. Stevenson/NORAD

Training exercises in Canada are routine for NORAD fighter jets

If you live in BC and Alberta and spot NORAD fighter jets over your community today, don’t worry, Canada’s not being invaded.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command will conduct exercise flights today as they practice intercept and identification procedures. The exercise will take place over Alberta and B.C.

Although they are scheduled for late morning to early afternoon, the flights could be delayed due to weather.

Some flights are scheduled to take place over secluded areas of northern Alberta, while others will begin at the Canada and U.S. border near Princeton, B.C. and conclude near Vancouver.

Most of the flights will occur at high altitude; however, anyone who witnesses the flights may hear and/or see NORAD-controlled fighter jets in close proximity to military or military contract aircraft.

Tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

In order to test responses, systems and equipment, NORAD continuously conducts exercises using a variety of scenarios, including airspace restriction violations, hijackings and responding to unknown aircraft. All NORAD exercises are carefully planned and closely controlled, according to a NORAD media statement.

NORAD has conducted exercise flights of this nature throughout Canada and the U.S. since the start of Operation Noble Eagle, the command’s response to the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001.

NORAD is the bi-national Canadian and American command that provides maritime warning, aerospace warning and aerospace control for Canada and the United States. The command has three subordinate regional headquarters: the Alaskan NORAD Region at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska; the Canadian NORAD Region at Canadian Forces Base Winnipeg, Manitoba; and the Continental NORAD Region at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla.

Who will win the May 14 BC election? Beacon News wants to know what you think. Please fill out this brief Beacon News survey

BC Election 2013 graphic: Justafson Marketing.

NDP projected to take 65 seats if BC Election 2013 was held today

After two weeks of BC Election 2013 campaigning, the BC NDP remain comfortably ahead of the Liberals and appear headed for a resounding victory on May 14.

An Angus Reid poll released Friday shows the Christy Clark and the Liberals gained three points, but the improvement came at the expense of the Conservatives and Green Party.

Across BC, 45 per cent of decided voters and leaners (unchanged since mid-April) would cast a ballot for the BC NDP candidate in their riding if the provincial election were held tomorrow.

The governing BC Liberals are in second place with 31 per cent, followed by the BC Conservatives with 11 per cent (-1) and the BC Greens with 10 per cent (-3). Three per cent of respondents would vote for other parties, or an independent candidate in their riding.

The BC NDP continues to hold double-digit leads over the BC Liberals in Metro Vancouver (46 per cent to 32 per cent) and Vancouver Island (45 per cent to 25 per cent). Christy Clark and her party are now six points behind the New Democrats in the Southern Interior (41 per cent to 35 per cent).

BC Liberals closed the gap with women, going from 24 per cent to 29 per cent—although still trailing the BC NDP (48 per cent) by a considerable margin. Among male voters, the New Democrats are ahead by 11 points (42 per cent to 33 per cent).

B.C. residents, tell us what you think of the Canadian oil sands by filling out this brief survey. $2 will be donated to breast cancer research for every completed survey. 

From April 24 to April 25, 2013, Angus Reid Public Opinion conducted an online survey among 812 randomly selected British Columbia adults who are Angus Reid Forum panellists. The margin of error—which measures sampling variability—is +/- 3.5%, 19 times out of 20.

The ongoing Beacon News BC Election 2013 survey, up to 175 responses as of April 29, shows very similar voting intentions for the NDP at 49.7 per cent. The Liberals, however are much lower at 21.6 per cent and the BC Conservatives are third with 20.7, followed by the Green Party at 8.4 per cent. The survey is not scientifically valid and represents a snapshot of the opinions of Beacon News readers.

Another BC Election 2013  poll, this one from Justafson Marketing and released Monday, shows BC NDP support is rock solid and hasn’t changed in six months. The NDP sit at 49 per cent, the Liberals at 27, the Conservatives at 11 and the Green Party at 12.

Top issues reported by Justafson:

• BC NDP: A range of issues are now included among BC NDP supporters’ election concerns. Environment, social issues, education and economy join healthcare with 9% to 11% citing these top election issues. Notably, healthcare dominated NDP supporters’ election concerns in February at 19%.
• BC Liberal: Economy is far and away the top election issue for BC Liberal supporters (45%).
• BC Conservative: Economy is the top election issue for BC Conservative supporters (24%), replacing taxes (their top issue at 15% in February).
• BC Green: The environment continues to be BC Green supporters’ top election concern (36%).
• Undecided voters: Among those who may firm up their vote between now and May 14, the economy (at 18%) is the most frequently cited election concern. Honesty in government, along with healthcare and taxes round out a second tier of election concerns for this group (at 9-10% each).

Telephone-online hybrid poll of 600 adult British Columbians. With weighting, the final data set matches the regional distributions and demographic characteristics (age and sex) of British Columbia according to the most recent census. Margin of error: ±4.0 percentage points, 95% of the time.

Canadian political opinion polling site threehundredeight.com provides the following seat projections based on an aggregation of polls:

• BC NDP – 65
• BC Liberals – 19
• BC Conservatives – 0
• BC Green Party – 0
• Independent – 1

Who will win the May 14 BC election? Beacon News wants to know what you think. Please fill out this brief Beacon News survey