Thoughts on BC Politics and More

Conservative Official Opposition Municipal Affairs Critic Tony Luck and Rural Communities Critic Sharon Hartwell say a new Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB) report underscores the urgent need to restore independent oversight of municipal spending in British Columbia. “The CFIB report makes it clear that small businesses and taxpayers are losing confidence in how municipalities manage their finances,” said Luck. “For too long, local governments have operated without meaningful accountability. It’s time to bring back the Auditor General of Local Government — this time properly structured under the Auditor General of BC so we get results without creating a new bureaucracy.” The CFIB report paints a troubling picture of municipal finances across the province: rising operating costs outpacing inflation, wage and benefit growth in local government far exceeding the private sector, and a lack of transparency that leaves taxpayers in the dark.  Business owners told CFIB th...

Every summer since I was first elected, I have traveled throughout every community in my riding as part of my annual summer listening tour. Citizens deserve to be heard and meeting with people directly in their home communities is a very important part of being a Member of Parliament. The feedback and concerns, that I hear, are part of the focus for when the House of Commons resumes typically in September. This year, the House is not expected to resume given that the next federal election will be in October. I am frequently reminded at how far away the "Ottawa bubble" is when it comes to those who live in Canadian rural communities. In several parts of my riding there are no public transit options. Where there was once Greyhound service in some areas, it now no longer exists. Some areas have no access to natural gas for home heating. There is also a lack of internet access in many areas and in some cases no wireless signal whatsoever. For this reason, both...

J UNE 19 th , 2019:   We've released a new report: Oversight of Contracted Residential Services for Children and Youth in Care . Overall, the Ministry of Children and Family Development wasn’t providing effective oversight of contracted residential services. Children and youth in care may not be receiving services that meet their needs because the ministry hasn’t set sufficient quality standards for contracted residential services and doesn’t adequately monitor the quality of care that contractors provide. The ministry is also struggling to match the specific needs of individual children and youth to appropriate contracted service providers. For example, Indigenous children and youth can be in placements without an Indigenous cultural component. This is happening in part because the ministry had not assessed the need for placements in contracted residential services or created a plan to provide the right amount and type of these services. We foun...

Alan Forseth ~~ Kamloops, BC ~~ May 15th Earlier this week (Monday May 13 th ) the BC government announced it would be establishing a new Crown agency to oversee the Family Maintenance Enforcement Program (FMEP).   They indicated that on or before the end of October, the provision of family maintenance services would transition from a contracted service provider, to the newly created Crown agency. Apparently, this was to ensure that family maintenance enforcement services for vulnerable British Columbians continue uninterrupted. Seeing this story, reminded me of a woman ( we’ll call her Mary Brown ) who had email me some time b ack about this very thing, and questions she had about how maintenance enforcement was imposed and enforced. She said to me, “ I’m just curious if you can get any statistics of the homeless men and woman, that have children, that they are paying family maintenance in support of their children”.  “I am not...

And here we are once again, at the end of the week.   Climate change ... the injustice done to Vice-Admiral Mark Norman ... mental health and addiction ... a return for a second week of Maslow’s Theory of Needs ... and issues in the forestry industry. All of these stories, and a few more all made it in to the Top 10 this week ... let’s get underway with #10 ... #10 ... DAN ALBAS -- The Auditor General found that “millions of calls”, to federal government call centres, cannot get through to a government agent #9 ... FELDSTED -- We have no hope of rational leadership from anyone connected to this group of self-styled competing elitists #8 ... ADAM OLSEN -- Let's be honest with each other; no matter how many million-dollar announcements government parachutes into communities , throwing more cash at problems will not solve them #7 ... SEAN SMITH -- Basically, climate change is an inevitable part of life on this planet ...