We are gathered here tonight ......

Well, my haircut went up $2.00 due to HST at an even $20.00 I guess the barbers will have to get their tip from Gordy somehow.

One local store where I buy a daily paper (after standing in line behind gamblers) has taken the opportunity to increase the price by 23 cents. I suppose seven percent is higher math than they can handle.
I look forward to those price decreases that Gordo Campbell promised us.
By the way, I read that added HST cost will not be included in statistics giving us the purported cost of living increases. Any manipulation to keep the fantasy figure under two percent...

Can anyone actually provide a link to any statement saying that consumer prices will decrease? Business costs should decrease slightly as they can now get a refund on PST taxable items when before they could not. In retail for instance the PST they paid on rent (not sure about that one) and reciept paper is now refundable. Big deal. There primary costs are the resale products and labor and I dont think that there is a change there.

The big differene is cost of capital. This is a major concern as our productivity is sooooo low. Increased capital investment is the only way we can hope to stay competitive.

So forget about lower prices. How about the battle to keep jobs in BC? Isnt that important? For decades unions have managed to increase wages far faster than productivity. We need to stem that tide if we want to stay employed and keep a strong middle class.

Let me say that I hate government and politicians. But every now and then they get something right.

But heres the reality that no one wants to face. Our lives arent going to get any better. The hay days of the new west (North America) are behind us. The unfettered spending of the 70s, 80s and 90s is going to catch up with us. We would be doing well to maintain our current quality of life. We arent going to improve it. Thats reality. The sooner we face that fact the better.

"So forget about lower prices. How about the battle to keep jobs in BC? Isnt that important? For decades unions have managed to increase wages far faster than productivity. We need to stem that tide if we want to stay employed and keep a strong middle class"

Bull

I have been trying for 23 days to get and answer to and email I sent to Colin Hansen and almos that long for one I sent to Gordon Campbell...neither have even has the courtesy of a rely...even a I'll get back to you ..and doing it would have been nice..

I guess it was beyond their level of comprehension or they are just too busy trying to make us believe they are good guys and we little peons are below them so we don't deserve and answer.

I slept with the window open last night and woke up coughing. Smoke is heavy in the air this morning.

Born in BC
From your very own tax-dollar paid glossy brochure comes this:
HOW DOES THE HST
lower
pricES?
Companies in B.C. will no longer pay
Provincial Sales Tax (PST) on things used to
run their business, including heat, power,
office supplies, vehicles and other inputs
necessary to do business.
Businesses will also save time and $150
million annually in administrative costs
because they will now only remit one tax
form instead of two.
In total, that’s $2 billion in savings that
can be passed on to consumers through
lower prices. Lower costs mean lower
prices for consumers as businesses strive
to be more competitive.
Check out the link at: http://hst.blog.gov.bc.ca/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/HST_brochure.pdf
Have a wonderful long weekend, everyone !

Yep, everything from my monthly parking charges to my alarm monitoring bill have gone up. Where are these "savings" for me, the consumer?

Why can't they set up a green wave for between 7:30 and 9:30am and 4:30-6:30pm on the highway between PGSS and the Hart Bridge. I have to stop at every light every morning and every evening. Other cities have been doing it for decades.

Good Morning Prince George.

I hope you enjoy this wonderful day. Not to hot and not to cold. Just like Goldilocks's porridge, just the way we like it.

Mr Campbell and his entourage came to town and did the sod turning at the Cancer Clinic, and then unveiled the plaques at the Simon Fraser Bridge. Even though most of the people in Prince George were not aware that he was coming to town, it was still a great event, enjoyed by other politicians, and invited guests. Sorry I missed it.

Mr. Campbell and friends then attended a closed meeting with Pr George community and business leaders, who pleaded for more money for the Airport and the Pine Pass, and tried to get a commitment on the Wood Innovation Centre. A great time was had by all that were invited. Again Im sorry that I was not able to attend, along with 50,000 other voters in Prince George, but what the hell, as long as we pay taxes and pick up the tab, why should we care.

Its important that our Politicians and Business leaders have the time and space to interface and get things done.

The main thing is, is that the sun is shining, the grass in green, squirrels are chattering, crows cawing, and generally everthing is coming up roses.

Have a nice day.

Because they want you to stop at every light so you can view the beautiful sites along the way

I had my Dad and brother here from other parts of the country this past weekend and my brother was coming to get me one morning from the downtown and at a light a young girl spilled her cookies in front of the rental. For short time here dropped a lot of money. Taxes to high to stay here. But said it was a pretty town. Sunday afternoon was like being in the wind west with nobody downtown. But did enjoy visit.

My haircut also went up 2 bucks!
How much is the HST again??

A Wood Innovation Centre in PG. Does anyone have an idea of what such centres look like?

Here is where the existing centres are, what they look like and the kind of facilities they contain. I think it will become relatively obvious that if the proposed centre here will be similar, with offices and heavy manufacturing research labs, that the CBD is not exactly a good fit.

On the other hand, such a facility would be an ideal fit as the seminal plant in an industrial research park such as the one in Quebec City in which one of the facilities linked is located. Let downtown be populated with more appropriate buildings and let this facility be built where it belongs to bring much more benefit to this city over the long term than it ever could in a CBD location.

The buildings and an example of a High Tech Park:
http://www.forintek.ca/public/eng/E1-about/0a.historic.html
The building at UBC and its case study in support of wood as a building material for such buildings:
http://www.forintek.ca/public/pdf/buildings/case_study_west.pdf
The building in Quebec City and its case study in support of wood as a building material for such buildings:
http://www.forintek.ca/public/pdf/buildings/case_study_east.pdf
The Quebec Metro High Tech Park http://www.parctechno.qc.ca/eng/interactive_map.asp

I think it is high time to give the City some direction. They say they want input into these things. I do not think they really mean that though. In reality they want to be left alone.

So, if it is to be an industrial research park, where should it go?

1. The UNBC grounds as it has been planned from its inception?

2. Boundary Road to the west overlooking the City?

3. A new greened-up PG Golf Course lands with the wood innovation centre at the intersection of the highways?

4. A progressive infill into the Queensway east dying industrial area with the Wood Innovation Centre at the entrance to the City from the east with a "greenway" Patricia Blvd parkway leading into the City, past the new creative economy industries of PG?

http://www.forintek.ca/public/eng/E1-about/0a.historic.html

The building at UBC and its case study in support of wood as a building material for such buildings:
http://www.forintek.ca/public/pdf/buildings/case_study_west.pdf

The building in Quebec City and its case study in support of wood as a building material for such buildings:
http://www.forintek.ca/public/pdf/buildings/case_study_east.pdf

The Quebec Metro High Tech Park http://www.parctechno.qc.ca/eng/interactive_map.asp

Hello .... City Council .... where are you??

Hello .... City Planning ..... where are you?????

I bought a $6 burger the other day and paid 72cents in HST on it... went to the grocery store and bought some ice cream and another 72 cents on that too... turns out pet food is now taxed HST as well... feels like being nickle and dimed at every turn.

I thought food was to be exempted, but I guess the corporations needed their tax cut on Gordon's eyes.

Gus I agree with you.. great research. Thanks.

Food that makes people and animals fat and food that is prepared has HST on it.

Thus chicken has no HST on it. Neither do buns.

But a chicken on a bun has HST on it. So does Barbequed chicken.

There is no value added to a chicken when it is raised, killed, plucked, gutted, de-boned, skinned and packaged. Thus there is no HST.

However.

1. put part of it on a bun, there is 12% value added.

2. don't debone and skin, but put on a spit and broil it, then there is 12% valued added tax.

So, make you chicken on a bun at home and make your roasted chicken at home and you will become rich!!! :-)

Some pictures from google earth.

The industrial park from the air.
http://i32.tinypic.com/aph10m.jpg

Forintek East from the street
http://i31.tinypic.com/vem334.jpg That is not concrete, that is wood allowed to turn grey which will allow it to last for 100+ years if there is air circulation behind.

Forintek East from the air
http://i32.tinypic.com/2ica9f4.jpg
You can see that they need yards for the materials, roof exhausts for the industrial fumes from the glues, paints, etc. and even space to have outdoor fires (notice the plumes to the right)

Forintek West
http://i28.tinypic.com/2073vgi.jpg
Similar layout with offices in the lower half and industrial labs in the upper half.

These are workspaces for doing real industrial applied research. I am thinking that is what we are talking about here, not some cyber research stuff that has to be tested and tweaked somewhere else.

Here is a new one....
we now pay HST on pop and water...
and her is the kicker...
you pay HST on the return deposit as well!

Interesting. So when I bring in my $1 worth of pop bottles, I will get $1.12 back. Right?

I charge HST also. :-)

http://www.cra-arc.gc.ca/E/pub/gm/b-089/b-089-e.pdf

That bulletin from 8 years ago actually says differently. If there is a returnable container, there is no GST/HST cahrged on that.

Assuming that the principle stays the same in BC and Ontario, and it makes sense that it should, then there should be no charge.

So we can see the problem already then not only with this one but with a few others as well. There are rules that need a 49 page bulletin just for returnable containers and we have a retailer public and a purchasing public that really are not into all that legal mumbo jumbo, don't know what they are supposed to do and make up their own rules.

Who loses? The purchaser most of the time because the retailer is going to er on the side of caution that he/she is not going to be bitten.

So, to the BCLiberals that thought up this stupid scheme and were unable to properly implement it, THANKS!!!!!

So BCRacer, I went out on a limb and trusted you in what you said. Hopefully you are right! :-)

But I can see that that is exactly the kind of thing where there will likely be differences between ma and pa convenience stores and larger grocery chains.

For clarification...

There is no HST on the Deposit. There is HST on the recycling fee. It's completely different.

Encorp charges a "fee" on top of the deposit as it's way of raising funds. They say they get no money from the Gov't (so says their website).

On my Save On Foods grocery bill, it reads this...

Cranberry Juice $2.50
Deposit $.020
Recycling Fee $.05 + HST

For those keeping score, that is $0.006 tax, which of course will be rounded up to a penny.

Can anyone tell me if a cop can pull anyone over for no reason.When I asked what for,he told me it was because I was a male driving a car registered to a female,that female would be my wife.Then the cop told me that he can pull anyone over for no reason,as the supreme court has given him that right.This just generally pisses me off,because if they can perform this kind of thing,why don't the cops just sit outside the renegade clubhouse or pull over all the people known to police,as I'm fairly certain they could harass these people right out of town if the supreme court gave them cart blanche to pull anyone over for no reason.

jakeadoo. I beleive that I heard somewhere that they can now stop you for no reason. They originally got the OK from the Supreme Court to stop you in a **roadblock**, however now I undersand that they can just stop you for no reason.

Its just another case of your freedoms being stripped away little by little. Problem is everytime they bring in a new law, people shake their heads up and down, and say **yes that is a good law** so as result you now have this for a scenario.

1. Policeman stops your car for no reason

2. Checks to ensure that you and your passengers are wearing seatbelts.

3. Determines the age and weight and height of younger passengers to see whether or not they should be in booster seats.

4. Asks you if you have been talking on your cell phone. (He thinks maybe you were)

5. Smells smoke in car, and asks if you were smoking with children under the age of 15 in the car.

6. Asks if you have been drinking, gives you a breath test to see if your over .08, if your over .08 charges you with driving with a blood alcohol reading of over .08.

7. If you refuse to blow in the analyser he charges you with refusing to take a breath test, and fines you $500.00

8. If you blow under .08 but over .05 rather that give you a roadside suspension as in the past, he now fines you $350 to $500.00 for driving with a blood alcohol reading in excess of .05.

9. If you try and get out of your car and reason with him, he puts his hand on his gun and tells you to remain in the car.

10. He then runs your plates through the computer to determine if you have any past criminal convictions, or chargess, or outstanding fines, etc./

11. He then asks you to open your trunk, so he can see if you have any open liquor in the car. (He is really looking for drugs)

12. Having backed up traffic for a mile, created a dangerous situation for others on the road, throughly pissed off a large number of people, he tips his hat, and tells you to have a nice day.

If the present rate of stupid laws continues,it will only be a matter of time before they are taking stool samples, to determine what illness you might have, and of course they will have to check for high blood pressure. Police will have to take 2 years of medical school to learn how to extract blood, and do stool tests.

Anyone who thinks that all these laws are necessary are just kidding themselves.

Someone once said that a Country can be judged by the number of laws it has on the books. The more laws you have the poorer Government you have.

Have a nice day.

Cops won't sit outside the renegade clubhouse because the renegades have lawyers that run circles around the cops and law system and besides they might shoot back. All the little laws are only put forth to make the government and cops look like they are doing something. Notice how only grow-ops are being busted, that takes little skill and good for show. Busting the chem labs takes skill of which the government will not pay for. Crime does pay because if caught what does the bandit get, nothing because of our hug and thug system.

**I beleive there are more instances of the abridgement of the rights of the people by the gradual and silent encroachments of those in power, than by violent and sudden usurpations. James Madison**

**It is always with the best intentions that the worst work is done. Oscar Wilde**

**The more corrupt the state the more numerous the laws. Tacitus**

The Big Nothern Health NEEDLE Van ,was seen delivering needles to a BIG apt. on 20th about four people were out side waiting for it, this was about 9 o'clock tonight , then one person shot up out in the open. Nothern Health better look into this, WHY ARE WE DELIVERING NEEDLES TO DRUG ADDICTS?? when we are shuting down schools. Any one with children liveing in this apt. better get out. How sick is this?this is not how I want my money spent.

Maybe the Police and Nothern Health should be looking into what the Needle Van is up to maybe they are also selling drugs ??

"the cop told me that he can pull anyone over for no reason, as the supreme court has given him that right"

Yes, but not quite from what I can tell. There are a couple of conditions that must be present. Because your case was a probable cause, even though questionable, it does not fit into the same category. It would be interesting to find out if others get stopped under that possible ruse.

Here are the sources I base that on. The source I do not have is any of the most recent supreme court cases that are available.
----------------------------
This is the BC law student legal advice page http://www.lslap.bc.ca/main/?manual which is a quick high level overview of current law in various areas.

Chapter 11 of the manual deals with motor vehicle law http://www.lslap.bc.ca/UserFiles/11_MotorVehicleLaw%2009.pdf
on page 4 it deals with police authority to stop
“ ….. random checks by the police for MOTOR VEHICLE FITNESS, POSSESSION OF VALID LICENSE and PROPER INSURANCE, and SOBRIETY OF DRIVER violate

1. s. 9 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and

2. Part I of the Constitution Act, 1982,
However, under s. 1 of the Charter such checks are considered reasonable limits so long as they are “TRULY RANDOM ROUTINE CHECKS.”

Note that stopping for possible stolen vehicle is not addressed.

Thus, the test is the four purposes and the checks were RANDOM and ROUTINE. Other than that, the stopping would have to be PROBABLE CAUSE. I am not sure whether a male driving a vehicle registered to a female would be probable cause. That would have to be determined by the frequency that people would drive cars belonging to someone else. From my point of view if this was taken to court, I would need to show that the officer knew based on his reasonable understanding that the frequency of such an occurrence was not only very low, but that the vehicle in question fit the description of a vehicle reported to be stolen in the area.

However, the reality is that you would never go there unless you had a ton of money, so you simply bear the results of an officer who is having a bad hair day and count your blessings that he did not taser you.
-----------------

Here is the summary from the Supreme Court of the precedent case. It was a 5 to 4 decision to uphold the conviction of a driver stopped in a similar fashion and found to not have a license to drive. It was upheld on the basis of part one of the Constitution Act, that the powers are reasonable based on the seriousness of the problem of traffic accidents.
[url] http://www.hrcr.org/safrica/privacy/r_ladouceur.html[url]

Here are the words of the 4 dissenting judges which I strongly agree with.

“The random stop constituted an arbitrary detention. The Crown's efforts to discharge its s. 1 onus must be viewed in the context of the s. 9 breaches sanctioned to date in meeting the objective of ridding the highways of dangerous drivers. Police officers are entitled to stop motorists at organized check points as part of the R.I.D.E. program to provide a roadside screening test of sobriety and to check for licences, insurance and mechanical fitness. The organized check point is available, therefore, as a means of detection of the unlicensed driver. This case may be viewed as the last straw. IF SANCTIONED, A POLICE OFFICER COULD STOP ANY VEHICLE AT ANY TIME, IN ANY PLACE, WITHOUT HAVING ANY REASON TO DO SO. FOR THE MOTORIST, THIS WOULD MEAN A TOTAL NEGATION OF THE FREEDOM FROM ARBITRARY DETENTION GUARANTEED BY S. 9 OF THE CHARTER.

The Crown has not demonstrated that this unrestricted power is a necessary addition to the impressive array of enforcement methods which are available. Random checking at a stationary, predetermined location infringes the right much less than the unlimited right contended for. It is somewhat more carefully designed to serve enforcement, and is less intrusive and not as open to abuse as the unlimited power sought to be justified. THE ROVING RANDOM STOP, BY CONTRAST, WOULD PERMIT ANY INDIVIDUAL OFFICER TO STOP ANY VEHICLE, AT ANY TIME, AT ANY PLACE. THE DECISION MAY BE BASED ON ANY WHIM. THE UNLIMITED POWER HAS THE POTENTIAL OF BEING MUCH MORE INTRUSIVE AND OCCASIONING A GREATER INVASION OF PRIVACY.

http://www.canlii.org/en/on/onsc/doc/2004/2004canlii18216/2004canlii18216.pdf

This case from the Ontario Superior Court of Justice agreed with the driver's opinion that the detention and search were unreasonable, not for the purposes in the Supreme Court case (suspicion of stolen car) and the drug evidence collected was inadmissable, thus siding with the driver.

Based on that, and the assumption that there are not any more recent cases (which is a big if) the officer is ill informed.

However, what can one do about it? Therein lies the real rub with the system!!!

These words from the judge are comforting:

"With respect to the rights of the accused against unreasonable search and to counsel, I need not exhaust the record by analyzing the facts as they relate to the alleged breaches.

I am satisfied that the arbitrary detention of the accused is sufficient to trigger s. 24 of the Charter and exclude the fruits of the search of the accused.

I say this because to permit the stopping of vehicles and the detention of drivers without articulable cause would be a lamentable day for the freedom and liberty of our citizens.

"WHY ARE WE DELIVERING NEEDLES TO DRUG ADDICTS"

That is simple! To help reduce the spread of HIV.

http://www.tearfund.org/News/Press+releases/Criminalising+drug+addiction+fuels+spread+of+HIV.htm

As it says in the above: "Drug addiction is a disease, not a crime and must be treated as such."

I realize that it is difficult for some people to get their minds around that one. Luckily Northern Health does not have that problem. Maybe they do, however, need to inform the public a bit more about what it is they are doing and whether it is accomplishing their objectives.

http://www2.northernhealth.ca/Your_Health/Programs/Mental_Health_and_Addictions/PrinceGeorge_000.asp

"The needle exchange is a public health initiative that utilizes public health practice within a harm reduction environment. The services provided are as follows: needle exchange, condom and pipe distribution and health information related to these products"

They also have a Methadone program.