Friday, December 07, 2012

We Are Shocked!.....Shocked, We Tell You...

.

...To Learn That The Dippers And Labour Are Working Together.


And...

According to the latest from Mike Smyth and (especially) the screaming headlines on the front page of today's Province over gigantic skull shots of Jim Sinclair and Adrian Dix, it is something both leaders have been trying to keep supersonic, double-probation, cone-of-silence...

Secret.

After all a 'leaked' secret document from the BC Federation of Labour says so.

Except.

Well.

The document that Mr. Smyth used to write his piece that hit the streets this morning was not.

Secret, I mean.

In fact it is freely available as the result of a series of BC Fed workshops.

Regardless....

Here's what I figure maybe, just perhaps, really went down....

First....Last week Mr. Dix was on 'Voice of BC' with Vaughn Palmer. 

Second...Mr Palmer subsequently wrote a fair and balanced piece in the VSun on Tuesday where he pushed Mr. Dix pretty hard on a number of issues regarding the Dippers interactions with Labour. The biggest portion of the piece focussed on the longterm 'card certification' issue which Mr. Dix clearly stated he is in favour of. There was also some other interesting thoughtful (core Dipper-type) labourish stuff like, say, this:

...(Dix's) route to a skilled workforce is through enhanced, labour-backed apprenticeships.

“The Liberals changed the apprentice system. They put themselves in charge. We now have 37-per-cent completion rates in apprenticeship. That’s not very good. In union-backed apprenticeship programs, it’s over 90 per cent.

“The unions were essentially excluded by the Liberal Party — very much deliberately —from management of that system. This is where I think their ideology has got in the way of common sense. You need both business and labour involved in that.”

Details in the NDP election platform, due early next year. “That’s what I’m arguing for,” says Dix. “Making choices, telling people what those choices are before the election, and then — hopefully, if we’re elected; if people choose to elect the NDP — implement them.”

But no grounds for doubting that when he does lay out his choices on employment standards, apprenticeships and the labour code, they’ll be along the lines touted by the labour movement...



Third (and this part is conjecture on my part)....The Wizards behind the curtains in Snookland rubbed their hands with focus group-backed glee and figured the time had come to push the big labour bogeyman issue for all it was worth...

Fourth....The non-secret, super-secret document is 'leaked'...Mr Smyth then does his job (which is not that egregious actually, and I, personally, would like to see E-BC rule on the matter of BC Fed people helping with fundraising)....

Fifth....The Province trumpets blow really big and loud, on the 'secret cabal' aspect of the thing, and....

Sixth...The surrogates fire up the Wurlitzer.

****

Meanwhile, it has now been four full days since the False Railgate Affidavit Announcement by Richard Butler in BC Supreme Court and still there has not been one single, solitary pg A5,764 story buried deep within any proMedia outlet other than the original report by Mark Hume in The Globe on Monday.

OK?

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11 comments:

North Van's Grumps said...

Since Elections BC starting keeping tabs on political party contributions, on-line, AND using that data from start to current... the BC Liberals want to keep the Public focus today on the "Secret" FOR YOUR EYES ONLY, documents between Labour and the BC NDP.

Cassidy Olivier wasn't interested in writing about the SECRET documents.... the Editor for his newspaper, the Province, was, and did so, with a bold, large print front page EXPOSE` that makes a mockery of Olivier's hard work.

Since Christy came to power in early 2011, $64 million of GOVERNMENT funds from taxpayers from All sources, has been poured down the drain on partisan Advertising, promoting the Government, while not mentioning that a matching amount ...... Shhhhh ... this trinket.... Shhh of $66,506,677.53.... that's a tad over $66.5 MILLON which the BC Liberals have legally received, from ALL sources.

In the same TIME Frame, the BC NDP have received a whopping $23,148,438.18.... like you know a ... THIRD, of the BC Liberal Party coffers.

Which would you rather have, the 1% with only one vote each running/ruining BC or the 99%?

Anonymous said...

Malice Aforethought

Rick Thorpe DESTROYED the apprentice system and it took the BC Liberals years to bring it back to a level that is only a shadow of its former self.

And now the BC Liberals say that there are not enough skilled trades people available and they need to allow cheap offshore labour in to fill the gaps.

RossK said...

Thanks NVG--

______
MA--

Can you send me details to pacificgazette at yahoo dot the two letter abbreviation for canada?

.

North Van's Grumps said...



Industry Training and
Apprenticeship Commission aka ITAC
was abandoned by the BC Liberals in 2002 to cut costs.
******************
The BC Model of the NEW ERA Apprenticeship program ITA was based on New Zealand's Model which had been up and running 13 years before the BC Liberals "borrowed" it, almost. One reason as to why the BC Liberal government used this particular model is because of a similarity in the Population of New Zealand to British Columbia... however where the BC Government budgeted for $80 million ... New Zealand was spending over $330 million annually ... in other words Gordon Campbell and Thorpe GUTTED the program by "Taking the Knife too far" again. "...By the summer of 2003, staff at the former ITAC had been reduced from 120 to less than 15. Regional Offices were closed."
**********************
December 20, 2002 the BC Liberals cut the legs out from under 16,500 apprentices enrolled in the system, with another 14,000 trainees engaged in Entry Level Trades Training and told them YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN....

RossK said...

So....

The apprenticeship program was Hochsteined?

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North Van's Grumps said...

Yep!

karen said...

If we really do have a skills shortage, I would bet it has a lot to do with the way the apprenticeship system is set up. I know A LOT of apprentices who gave up, because it was taking too long to get into school, because the system was too complicated to navigate, because they couldn't find anyone who could answer their questions.

I had just written my Interprovincial carpenter's exam and received my red seal when all of this happened and they instituted what I called the BC Mini-tickets. I was so mad. Not only did it not give the apprentice a full range of skills and allow crappy companies to pay them less, but it clipped their wings. Those "technician" tickets are useless outside of the province.

kootcoot said...

Without putting on my tinfoil hat, could I be allowed to suggest that virtually eliminating skills training was simply a step towards the ultimate goal of importing cheaper, willing to work more dangerously, "temporary" migrant labor?

I would be fine staying home and doing my blog and playing my guitar for a living wage, oh wait, now that I'm retired I get that, and I didn't even have to wait until I was 67...........

Canadians are simply in the way of the plans of Harper and those in the BC liaRs Club!

Troy said...

And once elected, Dix will begin the Orange Terror, which, yes, is terrifying as it sounds.

RossK said...

Mr. Thomas--

And will the result be, say, this 'terrifying'?

(all achieved, of course, without a massive tax/user-fee shift onto the backs of the citizenry or a massive public asset give away).

Troy said...

More money for social welfare, buffed up labor rules, and actual oversight of industry? My goodness, the coming Orange Terror must have right wingers cringing under their blankets.
Importantly for me is the prospect of a BC government that'll actually work with First Nations, instead of around First Nations, and in some cases against First Nations.
It's bad enough having a federal government that's actively undermining First Nations relations at every turn, but to have a provincial government that doesn't care, either way.
I will be honest. I am looking forward to the Orange Terror. Please, Mr Dix, lemme operate the guillotine once or twice, okay?