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October 28, 2017 9:18 am

Troubling isn’t the word for it, Mr. de Jong

Tuesday, July 15, 2014 @ 3:45 AM

by Dermod Travis,

 

If cabinet ministers had theme songs, Finance minister Mike de Jong's would likely be Nobody Knows the Trouble I've Seen, because when there's a misstep in government it's a safe bet he'll be troubled by it.

In 2010, as Solicitor General, Mr. de Jong was troubled over links between organized crime and casinos in the province, stating: "If some of these early reports are true, yes, it's troubling." In 2011, as health minister, Mr. de Jong was – as he put it – a “little troubled” over an emergency landing of a medevac helicopter in Kamloop's Pioneer Park.

In 2013, as finance minister, Mr. de Jong was “troubled” to learn about cost overruns on various projects at B.C. Hydro.

This June, an audit that he had ordered of executive compensation disclosure at Kwantlen Polytechnic University was released. The findings pointed the finger directly at one of his cabinet colleagues – Advanced Education minister Amrik Virk – for unacceptable practices when Virk was on Kwantlen's board of governors.

Mr. de Jong's response? Troubling: “in the sense that we have guidelines that relate to both the amounts that are allowed to be paid in those circumstances and guidelines that relate to how those amounts must be disclosed. Those requirements weren't met and that's not satisfactory.”

And last week, Mr. de Jong found himself troubled yet again over an audit on the circumstances behind the resignation of former BC Lottery Corporation CEO Michael Graydon. The findings were “troubling to the extent that they reveal a very senior official conducted himself …in a manner that was both inconsistent and fell short of the standards that one would expect.”

Since no actual guidelines existed, there wasn't much the government could do about it, but the Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch would look at it all the same.

However, the fact that a Crown corporation with annual revenue of more than $1.6 billion didn't have guidelines in the first place is more than troubling, it's bordering on amateur hour.

Particularly, since this isn't the first time that the BCLC has found itself with a mess on its hands over the post-employment activities of some of its executive team. Nor is it the second time. Graydon makes three.

In 2007, the BCLC board fired then CEO Vic Poleschuk one day after an internal poll showed that public trust in the corporation had taken a nose dive after B.C.'s ombudsman warned of possible fraud by some lottery retailers. Another poll, one month after the firing, showed little change in public sentiment.

The firing cost the Crown corporation more than $603,000 in severance, but Poleschuk wasn't idle for long. Soon, he was a paid consultant to the Great Canadian Gaming Corporation and by 2010 its senior vice-president of operations.

T. Richard Turner was BCLC chairperson from 2001 to 2005, after which he joined the Canadian arm of Paragon Gaming's board of directors. As Thomas R. Turner, he has also been a registered lobbyist for Edgewater Casino, a Paragon operation.

To this day, Turner is still fighting an order from the Information and Privacy Commissioner to release emails between himself and BCLC CEO Vic Poleschuk from 2005 to 2007. Those emails may contain information regarding a plan to build a casino next to B.C. Place stadium in Vancouver and are part of an access to information request filed by journalist Sean Holman in 2010.

And now – after Michael Graydon's departure for the more comfy surroundings of Paragon Gaming – British Columbians are being asked to buy lock, stock and barrel the idea that the BCLC board had never once imagined that senior staff might one day be tempted by an employment offer from a private company operating in the same sector.

“Wow, we never thought of that” just doesn't fly.

Mike de Jong, troubled as he is by these events, hopes that British Columbians will take comfort in the fact that former B.C. Attorney General Bud Smith – now chair of the BCLC – will develop “an action plan to bolster the policies and procedures related to employee exit, mobile devices, and will include steps to ensure employees have a clear understanding of their obligations.”

That's nice. After three strikes it's about time.

 

Comments

Submitted “article”? Good grief. This is nothing but an attack ad. 250news should be ashamed of itself.

More of an editorial. I think its well within it’s role as the fifth estate.

axman… you think stating facts is an attack ad? You must lost your mind when Harper’s ads hit the television airways.

CBC journalism at it’s best!

I had to double check. I thought I’d stumbled onto the tyee website by accident!

“Nobody knows the troubles I’ve seen” has been used many times as a theme song in B.C. politics, for instance when two premiers stepped down/resigned amidst troubling revelations related apparently to a fund raising society and another matter related to casinos.

Actually politics is a vexing puzzle at best and a destroyer of reputations at worst. Those who engage in it know both the rewards and the risks.

Travis probably remembers that as well…

Lets not overlook the information in the article.

Can we dispute the facts.???

Nice to see stories such as these. More of this type are needed to inform the public of just what goes on around us when it comes to govt and our tax dollars. People that disagree with it are those that like to keep this type of thing hush hush for a reason. Usually because they themselves benefit financially in some way.

Excellent article! Thanks so much.

Some posters react to this article this like true hockey fans. No matter what your team does, show your support.
Don’t pay any attention to the article or give it any thought.

And then there are the posters who push their anti-government agendas no matter what the occasion. And there are people in between.

What was your point again?

Posted by: karrman on July 15 2014 12:39 PM

Don’t pay any attention to the article or give it any thought.

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What article? It’s just some guy off on an anti-Liberal diatribe. It’s never worth the time and effort to reply to people who have already made up their minds.

Judging by some of the comments this guest editorial has received, it is easy to see who prefers to live in Harper Land and Christy World. Forget about the facts and the truths contained in this editorial, some just don’t want to read, or hear, that all is not perfect in their Harper Land, or in this case, Christy World. So tell the rest of us; what is it like looking at the world through rose coloured Lib-Con glasses, where elected representatives can do no wrong in the eyes of the sheeple who voted them in?

Good job publishing this guest editorial, by the way, 250News. Continue to present us with the news, without the spin from the right or the left, it’s the facts and truth that we want! To those who are so easily offended by the presentation of these facts and truths, please look for another news source that spins the false view that everything is, as it should be, in the “trouble free” La, La Harper Land and Christy World you live in.

This message is brought to you by; the people who prefer to live in the “real world”!!!

Peeps: “So tell the rest of us; what is it like looking at the world …blahblah…, where elected representatives can do no wrong “

I’m looking for the post where someone said our elected representatives did ‘no wrong’.

Bud Smith. Hmmmm. Where have I heard that name before.

Posted by: BeingHuman on July 15 2014 3:15 PM

This message is brought to you by; the people who prefer to live in the “real world”!!!

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Lady, you are so far removed from the real world it’s well past funny and into downright scary.

I am deeply troubled that the mighty de Jong is so troubled.

Comments for this article are closed.