with 49 days untill election day … if they step down today, they will not (Bell already wont) step back in … and they wont collect their Golden parachute… Bond is too stuck on herself to think about doing the “right thing” anyway

LMAO. Pot meet kettle.

Has an investigation been announced ? He just wants them to step down and wait ? I think Heed has been smoking some of that stuf he supports being legalized !

They told him to step down when he was under fire….he is just giving them the same advice apparently.

Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. If it was proper for him to step aside, then it is proper for them to do so. The effects on them would not be a factor if they are ethical persons, would it?

Bell and Bond step down because of McLarens allegations….I don’t think so!

Consider the source of the allegations and measure the valiity of them by the integrity of the accuser….

Looks like McLaren making a vain attempt to try and dodge the lawsuit against him for nonpayment of his loan obligatons…

So, did McLaren call Heed or cause Heed to be called? Or did Fehr do that?

I mean, those two are not sitting there idle every day. They are working the network until they get whatever it is they want at this stage. Let us not be naïve about this.

gus… who did you say joined “Idle No More”” >>???

Heed was under investigation when he stepped down. Bell and Bond are not under investigation! A big difference !

and in the meantime, all Dix and the NDP needs to do is sit on their hands and keep their mouths shut for 7 more weeks ..

So all one has to do to get a Minister to step down is to make an allegation?

Gus, where do you come up with this stuff. Brian Fehr runs a 300 million dollar a year corporation. Do you really think for one minute that he is sitting around twiddleing his thumbs looking to get shirley bond!!!

The Brian Fehr I know doesnt stop moving and working for more than 5 minutes.

Gus, me thinks you need to get out of the basement more often…….

I do not think I said, Stillsmokin. You alleging something? ;-)

Interesting post matt whoever you are.

I think you are the one sitting in a basement and need to get out a bit more often to read that Fehr has indeed been a busy bou. As I said, he is not going to stop. And as you said, he does not sit around.

So he has been squawking to the media and whoever else he can about Pat Bell.

And you think who is going to buy your BS on here?

From CBC Feb 26: “The allegations are contained in a written complaint filed last November by Fehr and his partner Dan McLaren and submitted to Jane Shackell, the lawyer charged with overseeing the fairness of the bid process.”

I think I see the name Fehr in there somewhere. Do you “matt”?

Oh, I see, you couched your post by not mentioning Bell … just Bond …. and you thought you could get away with that ….. LOL.

From the National Post, March 15, 2013 –

“…… Several days later, the pair (Bell and Fehr) had another discussion, alleges Mr. Fehr. He says he (Fehr) asked for an assurance that any potential bid he made be put on a shortlist. “It was me, it was me who said that,” Mr. Fehr told the National Post. “I was like, ‘Man alive, I’m not going to do this [prepare a bid] unless I know there’s a good chance. It was for sure me that brought it up.”

So, we get to see how Mr. Brian Fehr does business in a Natuonal Newspaper.

I can put you mind at ease, matt, I am not in the basement as you can see.

Oh no, the BC Liberals have started eating themselves…
What is this province going to look like a year from now? Can Dix withstand a chinese onslaught? Perhaps the First Nations can defend us. God help us.

Big picture people. The government has no business funding office towers. This is a bad idea that will only get worse. If it needs public money to build it, it will need public money to run it.
Stand up against this pork barrel project if you have a shred of integrity.

Posted by: gus on March 26 2013 2:35 PM

Interesting post matt whoever you are.

sounds like matt smith maybe gus. LOL

Both of them should heed his suggestion kash in.

(oh come on.,… somebody had to say it!)

Herbster, you got it right. My idea would be that the forest industry should be
footing the bill for this project if they thought it would promote the use of wood for tall building consruction.

But instead the taxpayers get saddled with this white elephant to full fill these airy fairy projects. To have government invollved in this or any other project just scews the market. We have a free entrprise system that we are supposed to be living with and that means the government needs to stay with governing and not be invollve in the free market system.
Cheers

“Big picture people. The government has no business funding office towers.”

The government has been funding office towers for many, many decades. It used to be called public works. They built government offices for government workers. Sort of like Cities build City Halls and other offices for city administrative operations.

BTW, why stop at offices. Go to the public works yards and their offices, shops, storage areas, etc.

The only reason why governments might go into long term leases, which they also do, is if they want to reduce the debt load. In my world, it is still a debt load since it is a contract which become a payable.

So, the RCMP Headquarters in Surrey costs close to a billion dollar over something like 25 years instead of say $180 million. It includes all costs of maintenance, janitorial services, financial costs, etc. etc.

These are government offices. Hopefully the main floor will have some private enterprises to serve the public on the street, rather than being a dead storefront opportunity like the Oxford buildng

Matt Smith? I did not know he goes by his middle name. :-0

I hear a rumour that one of the City Councillors who has a key hand in the financial oversight functions wants to make sure that at least one social service organization is moved into a storefront opportunity in the new building in return for making the property available to the province. ):-0

Gus, I think Herbster and Retired02 do have a point.

It’s one thing for the government to build an office tower for government use. It’s quite another matter for the government to build it pursue private sector tenants and to offer to lease the space well below market rent.

They are effectively ‘dumping’ the space on the market right now even though there is more than 85,000 square feet of handicap accessible vacant space available from the private sector.

A decision does need to be made. Do we want private sector or do we want everything provided by the government? Private sector will walk very quickly from investing in the downtown if we want office space to be provided by the government.

Private sector cannot and will not compete with the government.

Gus , your butt is sucking wind again.Im not aware of the government building office towers for private use and to lease. You go on and on about things that are completley irrelevant to what is happening down on George street . All I can say is that your “bullshit baffles brains”
Cheers

This does raise another question that I haven’t heard asked yet.

Government normally would use Shared Services BC to manage and lease their buildings.

Pat Bell has specifically prevented Shared Services BC from being involved because Shared Services BC would not allow Pat Bell to compete with the private sector.

What motivation would Pat Bell have for doing this?

Politics? Retiring? Even in the dictionary pension comes way before the word principal.

“b.b.b” LOL

OK we should have an independent investigation. But before we Spend millions of tax payers dollars, Lets do this cheap. We do not need to line the pockets of lawyers and spend millions to get to a payout to the friends of the government of the day when the final, final, final decision come down. If McLaren is telling the truth, then he has no problem of waiving every single confidential clause that he has had every employee sign in the past 4 years dating back to the time he flipped the property. He would only waive for that period and only for this subject. He has Nothing to hide if he was right honest and true.

All the Liberals are going to leave for any incoming Government after the next election is a skeleton hanging from a tree with a few shreds of meat hanging from it, and crows and flies picking at it.

They have effectively busted the Province. I have never seen such a sorry lot of politicians in my life, and am actually embarrassed that I voted for them on a few occasions a number of years ago.

I feel sorry for the people of BC who will be faced with limited options next election,. I suspect that most will just stay home and say to hell with it.

B

Kash Heed, any one can make an allegation about you. If they do, should you resign? If that is the case then we could have every member of the B.C. parliament resign within 24 hour by making true and untrue claims. Wait a minute,,,,,,,, I think I am on to something.

observation. Funny how after 5PM post drop off. Are you guys posting from work?
Bad employee.

BC Justice system corrupted,
Rez, Res, Resign …

I expect when the NDP form the next Goverment that they will sell the controversial Wood Innovation and Design Centre. Much like the Libs sold the Fast Ferry’s, only this time it will be for scrap lumber rather then scrap metal. Karma is a bitch!

Icicle wrote: “It’s one thing for the government to build an office tower for government use. It’s quite another matter for the government to build it pursue private sector tenants and to offer to lease the space well below market rent.”

I trust that you have relatively good information. As to the private nature of offices in the building. These are the words taken straight from the announcement:
“The WIDC will house wood-related research facilities and classes with the University of Northern British Columbia or another public post-secondary institution, as well as office space for industry and potentially provincial use.”

I hope we can agree that the spaces used by UNBC or another post-secondary institution and potential provincial office or other space uses fit under public use appropriate for publically funded buildings.

Now, let me go to an aspect of this building that the general public might not be aware of. Consider it a research facility located in the downtown rather than a research park at UNBC, if you have not already realized that such is the intention. That has been stated over and over again in the last 3+ years.

Given that, people should be aware or start to become aware that when it comes to effective research in the applied areas, the following typically work together as a sort of consortium or project by project:
1.federal government
2.provincial government
3.universities
4.public research such as National Research Council and FPInnovations in the case of wood product research
5.private research facilities, and
6.private wood product manufacturing companies.
The funding on projects may be 100% government or any lower government component combined with funding from 5 and 6 or even private foundations and philanthropists interested in the objectives of the research.
Read this report on FPInnovations research projects in 2011-2012. http://www.fpinnovations.ca/MediaCentre/Pages/media-annual-reports.aspx
Here is the annual report. Take a look at the representation on the Board.
http://www.fpinnovations.ca/MediaCentre/AnnualReports/2010-11_ra_financier_en.pdf

Canada, both private and government, does a lousy job of research on the world scene when it comes to total investment and even worse when it comes to bringing new products to market. The WIDC provides a small opportunity to improve our standing. Many more Innovation Centres need to be developed across Canada in all types of industries which we can be competitive in. Wood products is certainly one of the.

woo,woo wee. gus I must have to say you are the most informed poster. I will bow to your intellect. This not sarcastic. you the man!!

woo,woo wee. gus I must have to say you are the most informed poster. I will bow to your intellect. This not sarcastic. you the man!!

Icicle wrote: “Pat Bell has specifically prevented Shared Services BC from being involved because Shared Services BC would not allow Pat Bell to compete with the private sector.”
Where does this allegation come from?

Government has two organizations which deal with building procurement – Shared Services BC and Partnerships BC. Shared Services would do well with standard buildings, and would like do a comparative business case of long term lease versus building new buildings. In fact, they might even look at constructing a building in partnership with a private investor.

In this case, the requirement was a bit different. The government wanted to build a building which was relatively innovative. In addition, they wanted to explore the potential of partnerships with private developers interested in investing in a private component to the building. As we all know by now, that did not work out. It did not work out with the sports complex at UNBC either, but people prefer that we forget about that, I think. It also did not work out with the Gateway assisted living project. Small projects tend not to work, it seems. So the WIDC building is another one.

http://www.partnershipsbc.ca/files-4/about.php

So, I question the notion that Pat Bell wanted to build a building which would compete with the private sector. Remember, Pat Bell is a BCLiberal not a BCNDP MLA. It makes no sense. You may have heard wrong, Icicle. Check to make sure that your source is accurate and your understanding of what was said is verifyable.

Rattyboy. I hope that one of the things that governments at all levels and the average taxpayers take away from such attempts (and that is all they are, attempts) at raising the level of understanding a bit higher is that when one is in government one cannot assume that most people understand what is actually proposed. Thes days it is actually the opposite, we must assume that most do not understand.

On top of that, most people do not like it when they discover that they really do not understand, so some will take part in a conversation without having the fundamentals to do so. And govern,ent does not hlep in the failure to communicate. THAT is what a communication officer or department is supposed to do. BUT government typically just gives lip service to those types of postions.

The City suffers from it, the province suffers from it, and the feds suffer from it.

Newspapers used to help in the endeavours to illuminate. The local rag lost that interest when Hoekstra left. They no longer inform. They dig right in and offer an opinion in a very subjective way, often showing their ignorance and misresearched statements.

We are left to our own devices. Today’s world is about learning, not teaching. Teachers are far and few between. Some people are learners and will soak information up and digest it. Others will not.

Cofi is not public sector or Provincial Government.

http://www.opinion250.com/blog/view/25792

As Gus pointed out. Pat Bell intends to lease this space to “private industry”. Last I checked, that’s private sector.

“in the interest of maintaining the integrity of B.C.’s Executive Council”

Integrity??

Icicle wrote: “Cofi is not public sector or Provincial Government.”

COFI is an association of Forest licensees. It is certainly not Provincial Government or a public sector association.

The article linked by icicle states the following: “Allan is the President of the Council of Forest Industries …..He says the Prince George COFI office will move into the new Wood Innovation and Design Centre when it is completed in 2014.”

He says, she says. As we know by now, a lot of people have been saying things that are based on their imagination.

Who knows what COFI has for plans. Certainly they represent the very companies who are involved with research to enhance their products. As I stated before, one of the shortcomings Canada has is being able to bring products to market. That is where research hits the road. The most extreme indicator of that was the researcher who was given government grants to improve a design and manufacturing process for solar cells. He worked at the University of Waterloo. When it came to setting up a manufacturing plant to produce the product and process he had created, they would not help him set up a plant in Canada. Instead, Germany grabbed him, built a plant to his design in eastern Germany and fulfilled tow of their objectives at the same time – to build high tech industry in the economically challenged past East Germany and to become world leaders in solar energy product manufacturing and installations in their country.

THAT is what those who have a vision about how things need to be done in Canada think. I am sorry to see, that we are just a bunch of people who import products from places who understand what it is all about, distribute them to stores and hope people will buy them. We cannot continue to survive that way. We need to add value to the raw materials we have before we pass them along the food chain of consumerism.

Here is the page for Woodworks http:// http://www.wood-works.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1&Itemid=108
The Canadian Wood Council leads this program with FUNDING support FROM the wood INDUSTRY, the FEDERAL government and PROVINCIAL governments across Canada.

Too many people suffer from silocytis – the need to put everything into its own silo and making sure they stay there and do not dare cause them to integrate their roles.

I find it strange that people complain that we use public money to train workers, yet industry is not involved enough to train people on the job. They want government to do that work. An example of industry and government not working together properly. I understand that is one of the NDP platforms, to improve that relationship. Yet, when Industry and government are working together in improving products and bringing them to domestic and foreign markets …. Hey we can’t possibly provide space, give money, work in partnership …. Hurdles, hurdles, hurdles ……

So, let us see what the intent of industry is with the WIDC. Let us hear it from both parties standing at a podium, with cameras on explaining what will happen. THAT is the problem I have with the whole thing. A classic failure to communicate properly to people who love to remain in their comfortable silos for the rest of their lives while Canada’s future is sold out to other countries.

Pat Bell and Shirley Bond are not being investigated and they do not need to step down IMHO. Janine North of NDIT also explained in the free press recently how their organization operates independently and without direct influence from MLAs. MLAs can and do recommend one project over another but they don’t get to vote on which projects to fund or who to loan money to. Dan MacLaren faulted on his loan from NDIT and now he needs to pay back what he owes, plain and simple.

BTW, the Canadian Wood Council is the national association representing manufacturers of Canadian wood products used in construction.

COFI “works within the national and international (Japan, China, Korea) Canada Wood partnership to improve market access at home and overseas and to increase demand for our members’ products.”

Thsi is not Brian Fehr’s company that the building might be offering space to. This is a think tank working out of one place to achieve an objective of improving the process of invention, research, and bringing new products and system to market.

I am more and more coming to undeerstand why PG has such trouble growing their potential. I see it at City Hall, I see it in the community. PG simply does not get it. PG is not market ready to tackle the world. Vancouver is.

This fairness advisor lawyer Jane Shackell of Miller Thomson who prepared the fairness report on WIDC is in the center of allegation of cover up in corruption in Montreal by SNC-lavalin (headquartered in Vancouver):

http://www.biv.com/article/20130325/BIV0118/130329955/-1/BIV/fairness-report-on-evergreen-line-contract-still-under-wraps

“SNC-Lavalin is facing class-action lawsuits from investors in Ontario and Quebec and criminal investigations into the company’s affairs stretch from Africa to Europe to Asia.”

RCMP needs to get involved in investigating this lady and her practices and Shirley Bond needs to step aside from Justice Ministry and obstructing justice.

So now univ is suggesting the lawyer who prepared the report should be investigated? On what grounds?

She prepared the report. It is up to those who it was prepared for to release it.

Irt has been released for the WIDC project. Read it and write a report clearly outlining why she should be investigated for corruption.

Then we can accuse you of corruption.

This can go back and forth forever.
Unless there is a proper, unbiased investigation into who said what and all that has gone on..this isn’t going away.
The optics are just plain bad, and Clark’s refusal to deal with it when she is trying to win an election is a huge mistake on her part.
Expounding on the virtues of Bell and Bond and letting it go at that, isn’t helping the situation.
Better to step back and clear it up before anymore is done or anymore money is spent by anyone.
It’s unfortunate it has come to this, agree with the project or not…but obviously something was done wrong by someone or this wouldn’t have happened.

And it strikes me odd that they are not taking legal steps to protect their reputations?? Unless of course the plan is to use an election loss as part of an action?

We all know how honest the BC Liberals are, they did return to the PST didn’t they?? Oh well, except on used vehicles which are going to remain at 12%…every time they change hands….they will dig into your pocket and steal from you…..they should be ashamed!! Any politician that stands in support of this blatant tax grabbing should hang their heads in shame.

[gus, reread what Retired 02 wrote above. your brain needs a times out.]

The ministers have no cloths now and it reminds me of:

“At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame at their nakedness. So they sewed fig leaves together to cover themselves.” [Genesis 3:7]

This advisor’s report is a fig leaf.

I had a time out ….. I do not read what Retired02 writes and he promised me he would not read mine …. ;-)

Why do you have to keep telling me what I should do. You practicing to be a cyber bully?

This is a bit of a joke i think. This political crap about Pat Bell said this Shirley bond said that.All this is because a few greedy businesse people cant manipulate everyone into their grand scheme of flipping these properties.
In the real businesse world, you need sighned contracts, not heresay. Its too bad we have so many people drawing big wages and at the same time being involved in money scams, A thorough investigation needs to take place. Council members, IPG,
DBAA.Commonwealth campus, and a few more im sure.Bottom line, its all about money.
and Greed.

“It’s unfortunate it has come to this, agree with the project or not…but obviously something was done wrong by someone or this wouldn’t have happened.”

I would not be so sure of it not having happened if everything was done right.

I think everyone is forgetting the character we are dealing with. I will repeat the famous quote from Fehr.

From the National Post
Several days later, the pair (Bell and Fehr) had another discussion, alleges Mr. Fehr. He says he (Fehr) asked for an assurance that any potential bid he made be put on a shortlist. “It was me, it was me who said that,” Mr. Fehr told the National Post. “I was like, ‘Man alive, I’m not going to do this [prepare a bid] unless I know there’s a good chance. It was for sure me that brought it up.”

With someone like that involved one is sure the whole thing can be characterized as SNAFU no matter what anyone else does. it becomes the nature of the beast.

But hey, this is politics at work during election time, so people line up on one side or the other, flags waving, and everyine is blind to those who try to stand aside and take an objective view. It is not a game with referees who can call an infraction.

All we need is the audience in the Roman coliseum looking at the emperor and indicating to him whether it should be thumbs up or down.

….. wait … isn’t Facebook, the great social media resource, like that?

“It was me, it was me who said that,”
So he admits he wanted Bell to break the law and make the bid unfair… and, as has been said before, now that it didnt go his way he is crying foul…

What is significant is that “the corruption discourse in BC Liberal government” and “the corruption discourse in QC former liberal government” is now finding a joint point of reference and that is the [fig] leaves sewed together as reports by this fairness advisor lawyer Jane Shackell for the not so honorable ministers.

Bell Bond “Bullshits Baffles Brains” (i.e. b5)
© Retired 2

Shackell has even referred to “the part of the process” she was empowered to look into.
Instead of running a review with limited parameters that were instituted to result in the desired political outcome for the Liberals, why not run a full, independent review of what occurred on the part of all parties involved to get to the bottom of the matter? Doesn’t the public deserve that?
Heed stepped aside twice so that allegations against him could be reviewed without his office falling into disrepute. Why won’t Bond and Bell do the same? Let the matter be fully examned.

awwww is Shirley and Pat being picked on again??? Did everyone forget Green??? Ohhh yeahh.. forgot.. her day comes up on Fridays

Next up is the Carbon Credit scandal; where the Fiberals gave undeserving companies big money for nothing. Bill Bennet even had the report delayed so they could maybe edit it???

Mr. Heed said there has been a lot of discussion about the matter in Victoria, with “upwards of eight” MLAs in his circle agreeing the ministers should resign. Mr. Heed, who will not seek re-election, would not name those in agreement, saying “I’ll leave it for those colleagues to come forward.” [Globe and mail]

Let’s see when the next MLA comes forward with a call to resign.

Denaljo…the Carbon Credit scam is a big one.
It is being suggested that the B.C.Liberals were in fact giving large amounts of cash to cetain companies and a portion of that money was coming back as a donation to the party.
How odd.
Why am I not suprised, if that in fact proves to be true?
Will we ever know the truth?
I doubt it…somehow they always manage to cover up the stinky stuff.
Never seen the likes of these bandits,and they are still spending our tax dollars on large wooden boxes etc.