Austerity for me but not for thee?

Today the news sites are jam packed with interesting tidbits about government spending and the disparity of wealth in this country.

First out of the gate is the fact that CEO’s and CFO’s earned the median Canadian income by noon today.

According to a report by economist Hugh Mackenzie, of the CCPA, reported by the CBC.

The 100 highest paid chief executives whose companies are listed on the  S&P/TSX composite index made an average of $8.38 million in 2010, according  to figures pulled from circulars by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives,  a left-leaning think-tank.

That’s 189 times higher than the $44,366 an average Canadian made working  full time in 2010, the report says. And it’s a 27 per cent raise from the $6.6  million average compensation for the top 100 CEOs in 2009.

 

Then I learned that several BC Crown Corporations were spending outlandish amounts of taxpayer dollars on season boxes at the Canucks games and other various big ticket events, in order to entertain well heeled prospective clients.  From the Vancouver Sun…

 

BC Hydro is unloading its luxury Canucks’ suite, saying it was the right  thing to do during a time of upward pressure on rates for its customers,  according to documents obtained by The Vancouver Sun.

The Crown corporation spent just under $1 million on Canucks’ suites and  sponsorships between April 1, 2007, and Aug. 29, 2011.

The luxury suites were used to fete major industrial customers, allowing  Hydro to take its energy conservation push from the “boiler room to the board  room,” the Crown corporation says.

The suites come with satellite TV and a private restroom, and access to  catered food, wine and other beverages. The cost is about $70,000 a year, but  suite holders must also purchase playoffs tickets at an additional cost.

Hydro also spent more than $10 million on charities and other sponsorships  during the five-year period, also aimed largely at delivering a power  conservation message.

BC Hydro is a Crown Corporation, built by British Columbians to serve BC with cheap, clean power.  In my opinion they have no need to advertise.  That $10 million on charities and sponsorships should have been spent on maintaining infrastructure and high quality jobs in our Province.  I saw my Meter Reader today.  He is a nice young man, with young children and a mortgage.  “How are you?”, I asked.  “Still working”, he replied grimly.  We had a conversation two months ago, the last time he was by, where I showed him my hand printed sign, a notice to Corix of non compliance to the smart meter installation that the BC Government is pushing down our throats at a cost of 1 Billion Dollars!  We talked about things then briefly, when he told me of his young family and his worries about unemployment, I assured him that there is much support for his plight, that BC would rise up to back our loyal workers and save our Crown Jewel.  I reminded him today, “There is a class action lawsuit started against the meters, we will prevail”.

But Hydro wasn’t alone.  The BC Lottery Corporation was also heavily invested in this scam,

 

The findings were obtained under a provincial freedom of information (FOI)  request that also showed the B.C. Lottery Corp. spent $9.3 million on  sponsorships, tickets and other promotions during the same period, largely with  the Vancouver Canucks…
…During the five-year period, the B.C. Lottery Corp. also spent money on  Canucks’ sponsorship deals that allows them to advertise during games, about  $6.7 million.

Another $900,000 was spent on B.C. Lions’ sponsorships and promotional  activities…

…The suites are used to host the Crown corporation’s business partners  including pub and bar owners, as well as prize winners and “big” casino players,  said BC Lottery vice-president of customer strategy and corporate relations  Marsha Walden.

The sponsorships with sports teams — largely providing advertising of lottery  products — is a natural one for BC Lottery, said Walden.

“We are in the entertainment business and that’s what helps us drive the $2.6  billion in revenue we generate for the province [annually],” she said.

The B.C. government takes home about $1 billion in profit annually from  lottery and casino revenues.

The millions of dollars spent by BCLC on “big” casino players is money laundering.  Gordon Campbell and his media cronies/operatives destroyed the NDP over bingo-gate, campaigned on not expanding gambling in the Province, and here we are, a decade later…our government is addicted to gambling.  Rich Coleman expanded online gambling limits to within $1 of FINTRAC’s threshhold of daily gambling activity requiring federal investigation for criminal money laundering.  Paragon Gaming was a big supporter of Gordon Cambell.  They want into the big Marshmallow in Vancouver with the $600 Million retractable roof that we paid for.

If all of this news wasn’t bad enough on the first business day of the year, later I found this story.

High Flying Bureaucrats, by Stephen Taylor.

Many senior bureaucrats go through the program, but here’s a sample:

Richard Wex, the Assistant Deputy Minister for policing, law enforcement and the interoperability branch. From January 16th through February 5th of this year, Mr. Wex traveled from Canada, to the US and Brazil at a cost of $21,999.23. From April 30th – May 14th, he hopped between Belgium, to Norway, to India at a cost of $21,745.32.

Also traveling this year, consider Marie Lemay, the CEO of the National Capital Commission. The taxpayer spent $21,745.86 in January and February of this year taking her to Calgary, Chicago, Washington, Rio and Brasilia, and another $23,826.87 shuttling her from Brussells, Oslo, Frankfurt, Chennai and New Dehli in May

Do go read the entire article, as that is just an excerpt, a drop in the bucket of a program with $145 million in taxpayer dollars…

My point is, these are drop in the bucket examples of abuses of Government spending that should be redirected to actually stimulating the actual economy and by that I mean putting money into the hands of the rank and file 99%.  It doesn’t take a University of Calgary Economics Graduate to figure it out.  (In fact, a UofC is the last place one might find such wisdom.)  There should be no child left behind.  Lowering Corporate tax rates is counter-productive.  End of story.  Period.