The U of Calgary paper supposed to support the tax is full of holes and wishful thinking.

We could lead in mobile communications and other tech, but Harper doesn’t seem to agree.

Just spotted this item (by brilliant Langara journalism grad!!) on the Sun’s website, about Tofino looking at disallowing chains like Tim Horton’s, Starbucks and McD’s. I’ve been wondering when some town in B.C. would do that.

One of my favourite places that I’ve visited in my travels the last few years is Telluride, because they don’t allow any chains. (Though tragically they do allow multi-millionaires to build ginormous third or fourth vacation homes there.) And it’s why Silver Star is one of my favourite ski resorts, where you get to eat in quirky places that are resolutely home-grown.

Just spotted this item (by brilliant Langara journalism grad!!) on the Sun’s website, about Tofino looking at disallowing chains like Tim Horton’s, Starbucks and McD’s. I’ve been wondering when some town in B.C. would do that.

One of my favourite places that I’ve visited in my travels the last few years is Telluride, because they don’t allow any chains. (Though tragically they do allow multi-millionaires to build ginormous third or fourth vacation homes there.) And it’s why Silver Star is one of my favourite ski resorts, where you get to eat in quirky places that are resolutely home-grown.

I’ll be touring around Israel all week and plan to provide regular dispatches on my experiences and some mostly sober thoughts inspired by what I see. A few essays I whipped up on the flight from Toronto to Tel Aviv:

From the Promised Land to the New World and Back Again

I Am A Bacon-Flavored Kind of Kosher

A Country Where You Can Not Get Away from Politics

I’m dead tired, a bit flustered at not being on my home turf for what will be a game-changing event when it comes to Canada’s role in Afghanistan, and already missing my Super Lady most terribly. Must retire for a bit.

Related posts:

1. Let Slip the Dogs of War The Taliban could be finished in 2010. Things are looking…

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Last week, the ministry of children and family development’s top bureaucrat told MLAs she’s “never refused” to meet with the government’s independent child protection watchdog, despite having recently rebuffed the watchdog’s request for a briefing. But the bureaucrat’s political boss, Mary Polak, didn’t find any fault with Lesley du Toit’s contention because, according to her, there’s a difference between a meeting and briefing.

Ms. du Toit made the statement just three months after notifying the watchdog she wouldn’t be giving her “any further briefings” on a massive effort to overhaul the way children are protected in British Columbia.

The minister of children and family development has seen that correspondence, including children and youth representative Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s request for such a briefing.

Nevertheless, when interviewed on Monday about Ms. du Toit’s contention, the minister stated, “I’m not aware of a meeting request that the representative has made that she’s declined.”

But wouldn’t Ms. du Toit’s refusal to give any further briefings to Ms. Turpel-Lafond count as a refusal to meet?

“No, that’s a refusal to give a further briefing,” alleged the minister. “And I’m sure you know, Sean, the difference between just having a meeting and actually preparing and presenting a briefing on substantive ministry work. Those are two very different things.”

“A briefing is where you prepare materials, you prepare content, you prepare an agenda such that you’re going to be able to instruct the person you’re briefing with regard to that information, you prepare question and answer materials for them - there’s all manner of work that goes into a briefing,” she explained.

“It’s a completely different setting then having a meeting where you might dialogue about a range of topics. So I have no doubt that anyone who’s ever experienced a briefing would know the difference between a briefing and a meeting.”

Er, yeah…

And, since the minister opened the door, here’s our view: a briefing is always a meeting, while a meeting might not necessarily be a briefing.

But we’ll be happy to meet with the minister and brief her about that view whenever she likes - although we doubt it will require much preparation.

This is interesting: last week, the government quietly announced it will soon be surveying the experiences of the province’s mental health and addictions services patients. According to a bid document posted on the government’s procurement Website on March 1, the survey aims to “measure the level of satisfaction” with those services, enhance their performance and increase public accountability. The document states this is the first time the government steering committee responsible for patient satisfaction has conducted such a poll. The following is a complete copy of that request for proposal.

Health authorities mental health experience of care survey request for proposal

The author of BC’s changes to disability benefits?

“There are a number of initiatives that are undertaken in the budget to make sure that we continue to put low-income people on the top of the list.”

- Premier Gordon Campbell, March 5, 2010

The poor and the disabled are definitely at the top of the B.C. Liberal government’s list — the hit list for more suffering, that is.

Last week — with tens of thousands of British Columbians having lost their jobs and thousands more dependent on meagre disability benefits to survive — the government slashed social assistance to save $25 million over two years.

At the very top of the Campbell hit list — people with disabilities who have no home or with chronic serious illnesses like HIV/AIDS or diabetes.

And yet the government’s Orwellian headline for its news release actually reads: “Province protects services for low-income clients.”

God help the poor from more B.C. Liberal “protection” — they can’t take it!

In fact, they are “protecting” people with disabilities and those on income assistance between the age of 60 and 64 who don’t pay rent by taking away their minimum $75 monthly shelter allowance.

That will leave those who might be staying with a friend or family member without paying rent — or are simply homeless — just $531 a month to live on.

More ‘protective’ moves

The B.C. Liberals are also “protecting” persons with AIDS and other serious illnesses by making it harder to obtain the Monthly Nutritional Supplement intended to provide vitamins and healthy foods like fruit, vegetables and special meals.

Previously anyone with disabilities on assistance who was suffering from any one of the following conditions was eligible for the supplement:

Malnutrition
Underweight status
Significant weight loss
Significant muscle mass loss
Significant neurological degeneration
Significant deterioration of a vital organ
Moderate to severe immune suppression

Now the government will require having at least two of those conditions to qualify — apparently just “malnutrition” or deterioration of a vital organ alone wouldn’t be enough!

And the government shamelessly used a $20-a-month “bottled water supplement” that it will now eliminate as cover for the cuts.

The reality is that only those with compromised immune systems, when their doctors advise it, could get bottled water to avoid possible health problems.

But this government wants you to think those on income assistance sit around drinking Perrier at your expense. It’s a disgustingly unfair attack on the sick.

Cuts ‘will cost the health system more’

The B.C. Coalition of People with Disabilities is stunned by the government cuts, and knows they won’t save any money.

“Already inadequate support for people with disabilities is being cut further,” the Coalition’s Robin Loxton said in an interview Friday. “In the long term it will cost the health system more and will not save money.”

Why? Because poor people and those with disabilities who are deprived of healthy food and shelter get sick — so sick they end up in hospital for expensive treatment.

Coalition executive director Jane Dyson says things are already bad enough for those on disability benefits.

“People are using part of their food money to pay for housing, so they are already unhealthy,” Dyson said, adding that many people receiving disability support have diabetes, which is further aggravated by eating low cost food.

1,400 people shoved further to margins

The $75 shelter cut will affect about 1,400 people, according to the government, and Loxton says that will particularly hurt the homeless.

“Homeless people have shelter-related costs,” he said. “I don’t know how people do it — the cost of everything is going up and they can barely afford to live.”

But the cuts don’t stop there. Also being slashed are glucometers for diabetics, and pre-made foot orthotics, while dental services and x-rays will be reduced and chiropractic and physiotherapy services eliminated unless required for a “life threatening health need.”

Presumably for this government not being able to walk isn’t life threatening.

But these cuts most certainly are, not to mention utterly rotten.

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Climate change presents the ultimate collective action problem and, atop the Earth, a prime opportunity.

It seems like a boon to democracy, until you examine the dangers.

The poor and people with HIV and chronic illnesses whacked with more cuts to income and health support.

The veteran BC forests activist has a new organization and cause. A Trees and Us podcast.