You know Carole, the trouble with your questions is that you've got to remember the issue is not "listening." You were annoying Carole when you "looked at the facts." Of course everyone is against the HST. It means more paperwork. It means changing the system. People don't like change. I didn't like your second question either Carole: "When will the BC Liberals do the right things and scrap the HST?" I mean like, how silly are you Carole? When will the Liberals do the right thing? They already think they are doing the right thing. If you'd wanted your questions to be at all logical, you would have had to have said: "When will the Liberals do [what I consider to be the right thing] and scrap the HST?"
As for what Mr. Hansen said in return, I had to check out his sources. I found Mr. Hansen's reference of support from the retail council of Canada, they praise the exact same thing that I mentioned. Unlike the unqualified support Mr. Hansen talks about, the support offered by the retail council of Canada appears to be singular and a product of blind faith in economists who say the HST will be a good thing. I found a PDF, associated with the BC Chamber, praising the HST. Of course the chartered institute of accountants and the certified general accountants support the HST, the implementation of the HST will make it more important than ever to file tax returns and it also allows our accountant friends to profit from hosting a series of events in advance of the HST's implementation. Ah capitalism and profit: what the HST is all about. Concerning Mr. Hansen's mention of ShelfSpace and their representation of tens of thousands of businesses who support the HST, I checked ShelfSpace's website, and they themselves say they only represent thousands of businesses, that is thousands across Canada, not thousands across BC like Mr. Hansen suggested. Concerning ShelfSpace's support of the HST, I found an ad warning businesses about the new hst charges to their memberships, and a letter saying yes to the HST but only at a rate lower than 12%. Finally, yes, small businesses are "benefiting" from the Liberal government, what with the always changing levels for income tax exemptions, but this "benefit" is definitely not specific to the HST.
This argument is frustrating. Why can't someone just put up their hand, patiently wait to be called upon, and then ask "How about retailers just fold the cost of the tax into the price of the object, or the service?" At least then we know how much things cost, and as for the niggling concerns of the rate of taxation, give people a month and I'm sure people will forget all about what percent we're paying.
For her final question Carole played the ultimate fool by relating a comic bookstore owner whose doors will close with the HST when Mr. Hansen was quick to point out that books are already exempt from PST and so the tax rate slapped upon them will go unchanged. AHAHAHAHA. Perhaps, what the owners of Legends Comic Books were trying to allude to, was that the HST will eat up people's monies for comic books. Or maybe, the fact that comic books are going extinct thanks to technology and such things as web comics.
Bruce then stepped in and could have asked an interesting question but he lost focus. He meant to ask one about HST and how it will affect the commissions small businesses used to be able to collect from the BC government in exchange for collecting the PST. Although Mr. Hansen recognizes the compliance costs that small businesses used to pay and will supposedly no longer pay after July 1st, he failed to mention whether small businesses will still be eligible for PST commissions. He did seem to suggest though that such commissions will no longer be necessary as the introduction of the HST will seemingly eradicate the high compliance costs that small businesses used to have to deal with. Hmmm...... unnecessarily complicated.
Dougie D then stepped up to be the useless smuck of the day. Of course the Liberals aren't going to just stop the HST. What planet did you grow up on? Optimismville? Same for Norm M. Mr. H was quick to pick up on Norm's rhetoric and easily used it to his advantage. I still don't understand where the new jobs will come from, but like I mentioned a few days ago, we low income folks will be fine under the HST so long as we remember to sigh up for our HST/GST credits. Good thing my dad does my taxes!
Cary Coons then stood up and tried to ask a focused question on the impact of the HST on ferry prices but ended up generalizing to an increased burden on coastal communities which just allowed Mr. H to again expound upon how the HST will result in the creation of new jobs. I found yet another generic looking PDF supposedly associated with the Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters Association that Mr. H talked about. Gary then pulled a Carole and directly asked about HST and ferry fares, just to find that ferry fares don't have GST so they will be exempted from the HST. Hmmm.... apparently BC Ferries has to pay GST, but as a transportation service are not allowed to charge GST. Or maybe they can just charge GST on cabins and reservations? Is this some sort of hotel thing? I thought hotels would cost less under the HST? Reservations too should cost less b.c the service should be cheaper to provide right?
Urgh, Jenny Kwan then asked her first question in a long time. Thankfully she doesn't get to stand up as often as she used to. She gets angry very quickly and can be difficult to listen to. True to form her question was useless and silly. She asked which Liberal would have courage to go against the HST? See Jenny, I don't think opposition to the HST is a courage thing for the Liberals. It seems to be more of a need for brains and an understanding of social class, economic efficiency, and utilitarianism. Liberals definitely don't have any of these. Not sure the NDP do either, but hey, at least they have the worthy position against the tax. Jenny K's question was rewarded with no one raising to acknowledge her. Ooooooo snap. Legislative fail for you Jenny K. You are not allowed to talk again in QP for 1 year! I wish............
Shane Simpson then got up to talk about an interesting issue, how Elections BC have rebuked the Liberals for wanting to send distribute a pro-hst mailout so that we poor citizens could have the facts. AHAHAHAHA. I don't think the Liberals even have the facts to mail out but whatever. Shane wanted to know if the Liberals will respect Election BC's ruling, and if they will, how much taxpayers money has been wasted in creating such spin. Well, first off, I just read in the TYEE today, that the Libs are planning on sending their pro HST mailout in July, after the initiative campaign is over. And I also read in the TC, an editorial on how ineffective our HST initiative will be. Perhaps we should look forward to reading the truth about the HST while we're all enjoying the sunshine later this summer and some government representatives are busy tallying the millions of signatures that are sure to be gathered in the initiative drive.
QP then ended with a spirited and highly irrelavent back and forth between Mike F. and Mike DJ. I had to check back to the video from QP to even get an idea of the tone of their conversation. Mike F gave quite the emotional tirade just to sit down with a very smug look on his face after not even asking a question, and Mike DJ, well, he is just a very sexy beast. MDJ was going on about an email he supposedly had from Vander Zalm talking about safe sex and how "The province needs to degrade itself more and sink further into a mindless immoral state with its sad and dire consequences."
Alright kids, whats the first lesson and smear tactics 101. Take a full length document, chose one isolated sentence and read it aloud.
On the positive side, watching QP allowed me to bask in the glory of Ida Chong's supreme 1980s outfit.
Questions they should have asked:
1) Who are the vast majority of businesses who will benefit? What are the minority who will not? How will this benefit/lack of benefit occur? Can you provide us with detailed information on this?
2) Why are you able to spin the removal of the PST? Under the HST will the Province not still collect 7% tax?
3) Comparing the current costs and commissions system faced by small businesses, under the HST will the current ratio of costs to commissions be affected? Will this be in a positive or negative direction? Can you please explain why?
4) How will the manufacturing and exporting of our natural resources be more competitive under the HST? (Perhaps b/c foreign companies can take advantage of purchasing lower cost machinery for the purposes of manufacturing our natural resources elsewhere? YAY)
Opposition members take note, at the end of a daily blog, I should have more than 4 questions for you. My only having four questions seems to indicate that you truly wasted QP yesterday.
Here is website against the HST if anyone is interested.
Friday, April 30, 2010
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
It was another HST days in QP today. I sure hope they change things up a bit tomorrow, the HST is a tad boring. I suppose it could get interesting though if the NDP actually learned to ask some good questions. Anyhoo, here are my coles notes:
Mr. Hansen cut Carole off short today in QP with a zinger. Admittedly, there she was today talking about a lack of consumer confidence, when just yesterday she bemoaned a consumer rush to beat the HST. Kudos to Mr. Hansen for actually listening to and remembering what he says in QP:D Carole's follow up questions on whether the BC government will present as much information as the Ontario government on which items will be hit by the HST seemed pretty silly. The Liberal government has been maintaining a website about the immediate financial implications for consumers for a while now. I'm inclined to think the Liberals are disinclined to lie about something they could so easily be held to account for. I quite enjoyed Mr. Hansen's efforts to try and portray the NDP as wanting to make the general public pay both the PST and the HST. What is better though, is this press release from the Liberal War Chest praising the Liberals for "abolishing" the PST. I don't think tucking away is the same as abolishing. Finance Critic Bruce Ralston jumped in to accomplish about the same as Carole did, which of course was nothing. Same for Dougie D.
No wait, I take that back. Dougie D did manage to pull yet another quote from Carole Taylor's recent interview, unlike the quotes used yesterday, this one was actually kinda relevant. The quote involved Ms. Taylor's speculations on increased border traffic for consumer purposes in the wake of continued parity and the impended implementation of the HST. Mr. Hansen didn't like that though, he marked his submission with silence on the issue.
As for Mr. Hansen's reference to a recent Conference Board of Canada report "Harmonize Consumption Taxes to Improve Economic Efficiency" the way he references the article doesn't really appear consistent with what the article appears to be about. The article speaks about the benefits of a nationally harmonized sales tax, it is only 9 pages long so I highly doubt it also touches upon the "benefits" of the supposed benefits for the isolated provincial implementation.
Shane Simpson then started talking about real estates and the HST. I probably should have researched the issue a little bit for you, so as to cut through some of the discrepancies between what the NDP and the Liberals say. I couldn't stop laughing though over Mr. Hansen's second zinger of the day when called out Shane's use of "averages."
Nicholas Simmons then started talking about kids, summer camps, and the HST. He also cited some policy researcher, Jon Kesselman, who has said that low income folks will be worse off with the HST. Mr. Hansen corrected him on this, if you look to yesterday's post you'll see that I agree. We all know the middle class will be hardest hit. Gary Coons then jumped into ask why the parents of poor church kids will have to pay more for summer camp. I don't know about you but I'm not any more inclined to trust the churchies than I am Mr. Hansen.
Questions the NDP should have asked
1) Will the minister acknowledge that perhaps research on the economic benefits of the HST in the Atlantic provinces is not comparable because unlike here in BC, the introduction of the HST in the Atlantic provinces saw a reduction in overall tax rates?
2) How does the HST help the forestry sector? Are these monies directed towards helping the forestry sectors monies that will stay in BC, or international pockets?
3) All the questions I suggested yesterday that they ask.
Today's Little Bit of Excitement
Robin asked the Minister why some teacher on the mainland got fired for being a lesbian parent. Perhaps she was fired because she was a bad teacher? Or maybe she was just let go because the school districts have no money?
Here's to hoping the Opposition tries to cover a different topic tomorrow.
Mr. Hansen cut Carole off short today in QP with a zinger. Admittedly, there she was today talking about a lack of consumer confidence, when just yesterday she bemoaned a consumer rush to beat the HST. Kudos to Mr. Hansen for actually listening to and remembering what he says in QP:D Carole's follow up questions on whether the BC government will present as much information as the Ontario government on which items will be hit by the HST seemed pretty silly. The Liberal government has been maintaining a website about the immediate financial implications for consumers for a while now. I'm inclined to think the Liberals are disinclined to lie about something they could so easily be held to account for. I quite enjoyed Mr. Hansen's efforts to try and portray the NDP as wanting to make the general public pay both the PST and the HST. What is better though, is this press release from the Liberal War Chest praising the Liberals for "abolishing" the PST. I don't think tucking away is the same as abolishing. Finance Critic Bruce Ralston jumped in to accomplish about the same as Carole did, which of course was nothing. Same for Dougie D.
No wait, I take that back. Dougie D did manage to pull yet another quote from Carole Taylor's recent interview, unlike the quotes used yesterday, this one was actually kinda relevant. The quote involved Ms. Taylor's speculations on increased border traffic for consumer purposes in the wake of continued parity and the impended implementation of the HST. Mr. Hansen didn't like that though, he marked his submission with silence on the issue.
As for Mr. Hansen's reference to a recent Conference Board of Canada report "Harmonize Consumption Taxes to Improve Economic Efficiency" the way he references the article doesn't really appear consistent with what the article appears to be about. The article speaks about the benefits of a nationally harmonized sales tax, it is only 9 pages long so I highly doubt it also touches upon the "benefits" of the supposed benefits for the isolated provincial implementation.
Shane Simpson then started talking about real estates and the HST. I probably should have researched the issue a little bit for you, so as to cut through some of the discrepancies between what the NDP and the Liberals say. I couldn't stop laughing though over Mr. Hansen's second zinger of the day when called out Shane's use of "averages."
Nicholas Simmons then started talking about kids, summer camps, and the HST. He also cited some policy researcher, Jon Kesselman, who has said that low income folks will be worse off with the HST. Mr. Hansen corrected him on this, if you look to yesterday's post you'll see that I agree. We all know the middle class will be hardest hit. Gary Coons then jumped into ask why the parents of poor church kids will have to pay more for summer camp. I don't know about you but I'm not any more inclined to trust the churchies than I am Mr. Hansen.
Questions the NDP should have asked
1) Will the minister acknowledge that perhaps research on the economic benefits of the HST in the Atlantic provinces is not comparable because unlike here in BC, the introduction of the HST in the Atlantic provinces saw a reduction in overall tax rates?
2) How does the HST help the forestry sector? Are these monies directed towards helping the forestry sectors monies that will stay in BC, or international pockets?
3) All the questions I suggested yesterday that they ask.
Today's Little Bit of Excitement
Robin asked the Minister why some teacher on the mainland got fired for being a lesbian parent. Perhaps she was fired because she was a bad teacher? Or maybe she was just let go because the school districts have no money?
Here's to hoping the Opposition tries to cover a different topic tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Tuesday April 27
Today began with some fiery questions on the HST. Carole was in true snarly form and tried her best to get Mr. Hansen to admit to being a devious troublemaker. Mr. Hansen worked hard to defend Bill 9 and actually made some relevant arguments in the process. He advocated for the passage of Bill 9 so as to protect British Columbians from having to pay both PST and HST. Hmmm.... He also said that the only things being charged HST in the interim would be articles intended for delivery after July 1st. This does not coincide with what Carole was talking about when she provided a litany of service providers offering deals before April 30th. This whole "buy now beat the HST" thing seems shifty though. Its a message box through and through. Neither the opposition or the government are providing us the public with an itemized breakdown.
Questions Carole should have asked
1) Can the minister provide a list of items that will cost less in an HST world?
2) How is it that hotel rooms will be cheaper when hotel operators are having to deal with an HST world?
Bruce Ralston then picked up the HST thread throwing around some bunk on how sports tickets will cost more after May 1st. Mr. Hansen says they'll only cost more after July 1st.
Questions Bruce should have asked:
1) Where will HST result in the creation of new jobs?
2) Where will small businesses make more profit under the HST?
3) Where will the economy profit under the HST?
4) How will the HST, a value added tax, result in more money in peoples pockets?
Jenny Kwan then jumped in to the HST debate by questioning Mr. Hansen's previous claim about the need for transitions rules to help cut off the PST from certain goods and services in advance of the introduction of the HST. Neither she nor Mr. Hansen did tell us good folks which goods and services they might be talking about. Like Bruce before her, Jenny asked Mr. Hansen of why roof repairs are going to cost more after May 1st. In hindsight, what difference does paying two additional months of taxes actually make? We all know that the Liberals are underhanded, I'd hope to heck though that they can keep an accurate tally of which items receive what tax.
Questions Jenny should have asked
1) How does getting rid of corporate income tax result in more jobs?
2) Whose facts are you using to claim that BC has the most dynamic economy? Where did you get the stat on 390,000 people?
It was then Bob Simpson's turn to try and jump on Mr. Hansen. Bobbo wasn't really paying attention to what Mr. Hansen was saying, preferring instead to step up the rhetoric when he asked "If everything is going to be cheaper post May 1st, why is everybody going to such great lengths to avoid paying the HST? If it's cheaper, why aren't they putting up billboards saying "pay later?" Such a question allowed Mr. Hansen to skip to his desired location and take a swipe at the 1990s NDP, he also spoke of how businesses will be able to get HST rebates.
Questions Bobbo should have asked
1) Will large and small businesses get the same rate of return on HST paid? Can you provide a breakdown of the expected returns for each level of business?
2) How is it that houses up to $550,000 in price will actually be lower after the HST?
A scary lady named Michelle Mungall then continued with the HST threat. As usual her question was kinda complicated when she drastically overreached the parameters of her questions (resort passes) by asking why the premier is making families struggle. I don't know about you, but I imagine a number of families would be struggling if they really committed themselves to actively utilizing a seasons pass at a ski hill before July 1st. Scary lady did however make a valuable point of the influence of the HST on Tourism. Everyone loves to go to places like Alberta and Oregon precisely because they have no consumer taxes.
In true form, Mr. Hansen ignored the scary lady, I don't blame him, and spoke instead on how the HST will again increase jobs. He also said that HST will result in more pay raises and more job security. Ah, Mr. Hansen, can you please source this argument for me?Are we just going to be paid more because things are going to cost more? That'd be nice, seems to me though that wages truly do not keep pace with inflation. Everyone who makes less that 100k a year knows this.
Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Arts and Culture
Spencer made his first showing in QP today. As usual he tried to make himself big and blustery, I just thought his question was useless as he failed to listen to Mr. Hansen's lesson on how HST will only be charged on products and services being delivered after July 1st.
Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Membership Costs
Ray Chouhan then tried to play the hardworking family angle, failing to listen and understand why the costco memberships already have HST on them.
Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Families
Mikey got up to ask more of the same, why hockey will cost more May 1st instead of after July 1st, yadayada.
Questions Mike Should have Asked
1) Where will these 113, 000 new jobs be? Will they be local? Will they be full time? Will they be permanent? Who will be paying the wages to these 1130,000 new employees.
2) Does the Minister recognize that the HST is a highly unpopular tax? Is the Minister concerned about his future electability if he passes this tax?
3) Can you please provide us with the literature which demonstrates how BC will gains so many benefits from increased taxation? Why do you still believe in these statistics after Jack Mintz
has been publicly discredited?
My Musings
Every question after the first question was a total waste. I'm sure there are more important things in the world than a negligible revenue neutral tax shift. Perhaps we could talk about how all the necessary social services are going to be paid for? As for all us poor british columbians who are going to be hardest hit by the HST, don't worry, we'll be fine so long as we're all signed up to receive our GST and HST rebates cheques. I love me my rebate cheques. So when Mr. Hansen say's the low income folks will be better off with the HST, I can concur and say, well yes, we will be receiving larger rebate cheques.
It's kinda fun being a student and having an excuse to be poor. And oh, if you look at the "answers" provided by Mr. Hansen, seems he tends to go into more depth when he is actually provided with a worthy opponent.
Questions Carole should have asked
1) Can the minister provide a list of items that will cost less in an HST world?
2) How is it that hotel rooms will be cheaper when hotel operators are having to deal with an HST world?
Bruce Ralston then picked up the HST thread throwing around some bunk on how sports tickets will cost more after May 1st. Mr. Hansen says they'll only cost more after July 1st.
Questions Bruce should have asked:
1) Where will HST result in the creation of new jobs?
2) Where will small businesses make more profit under the HST?
3) Where will the economy profit under the HST?
4) How will the HST, a value added tax, result in more money in peoples pockets?
Jenny Kwan then jumped in to the HST debate by questioning Mr. Hansen's previous claim about the need for transitions rules to help cut off the PST from certain goods and services in advance of the introduction of the HST. Neither she nor Mr. Hansen did tell us good folks which goods and services they might be talking about. Like Bruce before her, Jenny asked Mr. Hansen of why roof repairs are going to cost more after May 1st. In hindsight, what difference does paying two additional months of taxes actually make? We all know that the Liberals are underhanded, I'd hope to heck though that they can keep an accurate tally of which items receive what tax.
Questions Jenny should have asked
1) How does getting rid of corporate income tax result in more jobs?
2) Whose facts are you using to claim that BC has the most dynamic economy? Where did you get the stat on 390,000 people?
It was then Bob Simpson's turn to try and jump on Mr. Hansen. Bobbo wasn't really paying attention to what Mr. Hansen was saying, preferring instead to step up the rhetoric when he asked "If everything is going to be cheaper post May 1st, why is everybody going to such great lengths to avoid paying the HST? If it's cheaper, why aren't they putting up billboards saying "pay later?" Such a question allowed Mr. Hansen to skip to his desired location and take a swipe at the 1990s NDP, he also spoke of how businesses will be able to get HST rebates.
Questions Bobbo should have asked
1) Will large and small businesses get the same rate of return on HST paid? Can you provide a breakdown of the expected returns for each level of business?
2) How is it that houses up to $550,000 in price will actually be lower after the HST?
A scary lady named Michelle Mungall then continued with the HST threat. As usual her question was kinda complicated when she drastically overreached the parameters of her questions (resort passes) by asking why the premier is making families struggle. I don't know about you, but I imagine a number of families would be struggling if they really committed themselves to actively utilizing a seasons pass at a ski hill before July 1st. Scary lady did however make a valuable point of the influence of the HST on Tourism. Everyone loves to go to places like Alberta and Oregon precisely because they have no consumer taxes.
In true form, Mr. Hansen ignored the scary lady, I don't blame him, and spoke instead on how the HST will again increase jobs. He also said that HST will result in more pay raises and more job security. Ah, Mr. Hansen, can you please source this argument for me?Are we just going to be paid more because things are going to cost more? That'd be nice, seems to me though that wages truly do not keep pace with inflation. Everyone who makes less that 100k a year knows this.
Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Arts and Culture
Spencer made his first showing in QP today. As usual he tried to make himself big and blustery, I just thought his question was useless as he failed to listen to Mr. Hansen's lesson on how HST will only be charged on products and services being delivered after July 1st.
Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Membership Costs
Ray Chouhan then tried to play the hardworking family angle, failing to listen and understand why the costco memberships already have HST on them.
Impact of Harmonized Sales Tax on Families
Mikey got up to ask more of the same, why hockey will cost more May 1st instead of after July 1st, yadayada.
Questions Mike Should have Asked
1) Where will these 113, 000 new jobs be? Will they be local? Will they be full time? Will they be permanent? Who will be paying the wages to these 1130,000 new employees.
2) Does the Minister recognize that the HST is a highly unpopular tax? Is the Minister concerned about his future electability if he passes this tax?
3) Can you please provide us with the literature which demonstrates how BC will gains so many benefits from increased taxation? Why do you still believe in these statistics after Jack Mintz
has been publicly discredited?
My Musings
Every question after the first question was a total waste. I'm sure there are more important things in the world than a negligible revenue neutral tax shift. Perhaps we could talk about how all the necessary social services are going to be paid for? As for all us poor british columbians who are going to be hardest hit by the HST, don't worry, we'll be fine so long as we're all signed up to receive our GST and HST rebates cheques. I love me my rebate cheques. So when Mr. Hansen say's the low income folks will be better off with the HST, I can concur and say, well yes, we will be receiving larger rebate cheques.
It's kinda fun being a student and having an excuse to be poor. And oh, if you look at the "answers" provided by Mr. Hansen, seems he tends to go into more depth when he is actually provided with a worthy opponent.
Monday, April 26, 2010
Monday April 26
Things actually got off to a balanced and rational start in QP today. Wish I could say the same about the end..............
Surgical Services in Fraser Health Authority
Adrian Dix began with "Will the minister tell this House and the residents of the fastest growing health authority in the province what surgeries will be canceled, which hospitals will be affected, and what operating rooms will be closed?" Dix was of course talking about an internal document released to staff in the Fraser Health Authority on a reduction in the medically necessary scheduled surgery budget by 14% in 2010-2011. This question was specific, relevant, and for that reason an uncommon beast. Kevin responded to this query by mitigating the threat presented in Dix's request. Kevin spoke of much smaller reduction (1-2 not 14%) and also made sure to mention that there have been 15% budget increases in the ministry of Health. Sure, sure, sure. Didn't answer the question Kevin.
Dix followed this up by repeating his initial question, and even commented on the reasonable nature of his own question. Kevin didn't like this though, claiming that the NDP only measures the success of a the health care system by what goes in, not by what comes out. Um, Kevin, if this was true, Dix wouldn't have just been asking you the questions he's been asking you....... Kevin went on to mention statistics compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, statistics which supposedly identify BC as #1 when it comes to the delivery of elective surgery procedures. Hmmm.... too bad Dix was actually talking about medically necessary procedures there Kevin.
I'm not sure where to find Kevin's statistics concerning the 1-2 % but I did locate the document on which he is basing his claim that BC leads the entire country in wait times for surgical procedures. Looking at Table one on page 4 of the document in question, you will see that yes indeed, BC is the only province to have achieved the legislated benchmarks for 75% of the cases of Hip replacements, knee replacements, cataract surgery, hip fracture repair, and cancer radiation treatment. No information is given mind you, on where this 75% is drawn from, and what the experience of the other 25% may have been.
Dix went on to identify for Kevin's sake that BC is 10th in the country in diagnostics procedures, MRIs and such. I'll take Dix's word on this one b/c statistics on MRI and CAT scans performed by BC were not reported to the individuals who compiled the report by the CIHI that Kevin was so readily touting. Dix then changed it up a bit in his question by asking "why is the minister laying off sterilization staff right now, and why people in Fraser Health should expect longer wait times when their own minister is from their region is not protecting their interests?" Kevin didn't quite hear Dix on this one, he focused again on the CIHI results instead. I can tell you though, that Kevin's assertions of BC being #1, are not correct. Check it out for yourselves.
Staffing of Sterilization Units in Fraser Health Authority
Sue Hammell then picked up on Dix's previous attempt by asking: "Will the minister reconsider these cuts to the sterilization departments?" Interestingly, Kevin actually acknowledged the cuts, and of course he also downplayed them. For Sue's next question she became a little more unclear when she asked "Will the minister apply the lessons from these recent incidents and reject cuts to sterilization departments in the Fraser Valley?" The ambiguity allowed Kevin to jump right in to identify the merits of the Faser Valley. He also spoke of the NDP having had no cleanliness audit procedures for hospitals, and he said it like this was a bad thing. I'm inclined to think it was b/c cleaning staff used to be well-paid, and #2 there were not as many crazy diseases 10 years ago.
Questions Sue should have asked
1) How will the staff who are being laid off affect the surgery budget?
Acute Care Beds at St. Joseph's Hospital
Scott Fraser then picked up on a hot topic from last week, that of the acute care beds in the northern part of the island being used for residential care for old folks. Scotty asked " Will the minister finally agree to meet with the Comox Valley residents and physicians and hospital staff to consult with them about how to keep these essential acute care beds open?" Apparently there was a meeting and Kevin did not show up. It was essentially a rehash of last week though, so I'm skipping through.
Comments By Former Finance Minister on Harmonized Sales Tax
John Horgan thought he'd be all smart and sassy but ended up getting played by Mr. Hansen. He tried to rub the "defection" of Carole Taylor in his face by reading a series of quotes from a recent interview she gave on the topic of the HST. Johnny's first Q was "Will he agree with his former colleague, Carole Talyor, the former Finance Minister, that this government was elected based on misinformation?" Duh, of course he will not agree with you.
Mr. Hansen got Johnny good. Thanks to the structure of QP, whereby the opposition has to submit their Qs a few days in advance giving the governing party time to prepare, Mr. Hansen went digging through Hansard for what he considered a goody, a quote from Mr. Horgan in finance committee meeting expressing his wife's support for the possible harmonization of PST and GST. If however one goes and reads the quote in its entirety, they see that Johnny was simply trying to draw out the presenter, never was he actually presenting his own opinion as Mr. Hansen tried to allude. Check it for yourself, the part where Johnny speaks is down near the bottom of the page, just below the [2000] mark.
Johnny never admitted nor denied the quote, preferring to joke instead about an all powerful wife. He then missed the mark in his next question by asking "Does he agree with his predecessor, the Minister of Finance, that this tax was misinformation and deception before the election and a tax shift from business to consumers after the election?" This allowed Mr. Hansen to play up the "benefits" of the HST.
Questions Johnny should have asked
1) Can you provide us with a graph detailing the benefits for small businesses vs. big business under the HST
2) Will the minister acknowledge the HST will shift the tax burden from big business to consumers?
3) Will the minister provide a detailed breakdown of just how exactly he expects the trickle down effect to work?
Doug Donaldson and Mr. Hansen then has some further exchange on the topic of the HST, I couldn't be bothered to understand it though, so let's move along.
Funding for School Band Programs
Again Robin was given the go-ahead on school questions, this time posing a doubled barreled super whammy "Can the Minister of Education tell this House why she's forcing the closure of band and string programs in Vancouver and taking apart the quality educations system that this province has enjoyed?"
Let me pretend to be Margie: "Well, Robin, first off, where is your batman? Second off, I hate music. Hate it hate it hate it with a passion. I especially hate classical music. My mother always pined about how my father would serenade her with string concertos and man, I just hated her for having such love in her life. As for why I am single-handedly destroying BC's quality education system, well, can't you see that I am an elitist snob? Private schools are like so totally the way to go."
Wouldn't it be fun if Margie actually answered like this?
Questions Robin Should have Asked
First off Robin needs to recognize in his questions that the Vancouver school board is not being targeted. All schools are being forced to make cuts. Vancouver has been lucky to have held on to their strings program for so long. He needs to recognize the Margie probably couldn't care less about the strings program, and that she sure as heck did not single-handedly seek its demise. If anything, all this exchange was missing was a honest faced comment by Rich Coleman speaking so earnestly about those poor kids who need free lunches. Who wins in that equation Robin, middle/upper class kids who take cello lessons, or malnourished street kids?
1) Is the minister aware of the scientifically established correlation between early music involvement and later economic and social success? Does she recognize that music lessons contribute to intellectual development?
2) Will there be any money is future budgets for the purposes of funding school music programs?
3) What does the minister suggest parents and students do to raise funds for their strings program? Might the liberal caucus be willing to attend a concert?
Meeting Between School Trustees and Education Minister
Nasty old Diane then kept true to form when she closed off the festivities today by demanding of Margie " How is she going to fix the crisis in BC schools when she won't talk to parents, she won't talk to students, and now she won't talk to school boards?" Crikey Diane, if you want to rub someone's face in the mud, you'll never accomplish it by advertising the mud as a deluxe spa treatment. Your silly question to Margie first required Margie to acknowledge a crisis in our school system, and then, required her to accept that she hasn't been talking to parents, students, or school boards? How silly are you Diane. Of course she has been talking to them. She just doesn't seem to have been listening.
Questions grumpy old Diane should have asked
1) Is it true that the minister left the Trustee's meeting early (FYI the trustees were actually streaming this meeting of their live and I watched a bit of it).
2) What did the minister dislike about the meeting/ the questions they asked
3) Does the rain in Spain fall mainly on the plain?
Surgical Services in Fraser Health Authority
Adrian Dix began with "Will the minister tell this House and the residents of the fastest growing health authority in the province what surgeries will be canceled, which hospitals will be affected, and what operating rooms will be closed?" Dix was of course talking about an internal document released to staff in the Fraser Health Authority on a reduction in the medically necessary scheduled surgery budget by 14% in 2010-2011. This question was specific, relevant, and for that reason an uncommon beast. Kevin responded to this query by mitigating the threat presented in Dix's request. Kevin spoke of much smaller reduction (1-2 not 14%) and also made sure to mention that there have been 15% budget increases in the ministry of Health. Sure, sure, sure. Didn't answer the question Kevin.
Dix followed this up by repeating his initial question, and even commented on the reasonable nature of his own question. Kevin didn't like this though, claiming that the NDP only measures the success of a the health care system by what goes in, not by what comes out. Um, Kevin, if this was true, Dix wouldn't have just been asking you the questions he's been asking you....... Kevin went on to mention statistics compiled by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, statistics which supposedly identify BC as #1 when it comes to the delivery of elective surgery procedures. Hmmm.... too bad Dix was actually talking about medically necessary procedures there Kevin.
I'm not sure where to find Kevin's statistics concerning the 1-2 % but I did locate the document on which he is basing his claim that BC leads the entire country in wait times for surgical procedures. Looking at Table one on page 4 of the document in question, you will see that yes indeed, BC is the only province to have achieved the legislated benchmarks for 75% of the cases of Hip replacements, knee replacements, cataract surgery, hip fracture repair, and cancer radiation treatment. No information is given mind you, on where this 75% is drawn from, and what the experience of the other 25% may have been.
Dix went on to identify for Kevin's sake that BC is 10th in the country in diagnostics procedures, MRIs and such. I'll take Dix's word on this one b/c statistics on MRI and CAT scans performed by BC were not reported to the individuals who compiled the report by the CIHI that Kevin was so readily touting. Dix then changed it up a bit in his question by asking "why is the minister laying off sterilization staff right now, and why people in Fraser Health should expect longer wait times when their own minister is from their region is not protecting their interests?" Kevin didn't quite hear Dix on this one, he focused again on the CIHI results instead. I can tell you though, that Kevin's assertions of BC being #1, are not correct. Check it out for yourselves.
Staffing of Sterilization Units in Fraser Health Authority
Sue Hammell then picked up on Dix's previous attempt by asking: "Will the minister reconsider these cuts to the sterilization departments?" Interestingly, Kevin actually acknowledged the cuts, and of course he also downplayed them. For Sue's next question she became a little more unclear when she asked "Will the minister apply the lessons from these recent incidents and reject cuts to sterilization departments in the Fraser Valley?" The ambiguity allowed Kevin to jump right in to identify the merits of the Faser Valley. He also spoke of the NDP having had no cleanliness audit procedures for hospitals, and he said it like this was a bad thing. I'm inclined to think it was b/c cleaning staff used to be well-paid, and #2 there were not as many crazy diseases 10 years ago.
Questions Sue should have asked
1) How will the staff who are being laid off affect the surgery budget?
Acute Care Beds at St. Joseph's Hospital
Scott Fraser then picked up on a hot topic from last week, that of the acute care beds in the northern part of the island being used for residential care for old folks. Scotty asked " Will the minister finally agree to meet with the Comox Valley residents and physicians and hospital staff to consult with them about how to keep these essential acute care beds open?" Apparently there was a meeting and Kevin did not show up. It was essentially a rehash of last week though, so I'm skipping through.
Comments By Former Finance Minister on Harmonized Sales Tax
John Horgan thought he'd be all smart and sassy but ended up getting played by Mr. Hansen. He tried to rub the "defection" of Carole Taylor in his face by reading a series of quotes from a recent interview she gave on the topic of the HST. Johnny's first Q was "Will he agree with his former colleague, Carole Talyor, the former Finance Minister, that this government was elected based on misinformation?" Duh, of course he will not agree with you.
Mr. Hansen got Johnny good. Thanks to the structure of QP, whereby the opposition has to submit their Qs a few days in advance giving the governing party time to prepare, Mr. Hansen went digging through Hansard for what he considered a goody, a quote from Mr. Horgan in finance committee meeting expressing his wife's support for the possible harmonization of PST and GST. If however one goes and reads the quote in its entirety, they see that Johnny was simply trying to draw out the presenter, never was he actually presenting his own opinion as Mr. Hansen tried to allude. Check it for yourself, the part where Johnny speaks is down near the bottom of the page, just below the [2000] mark.
Johnny never admitted nor denied the quote, preferring to joke instead about an all powerful wife. He then missed the mark in his next question by asking "Does he agree with his predecessor, the Minister of Finance, that this tax was misinformation and deception before the election and a tax shift from business to consumers after the election?" This allowed Mr. Hansen to play up the "benefits" of the HST.
Questions Johnny should have asked
1) Can you provide us with a graph detailing the benefits for small businesses vs. big business under the HST
2) Will the minister acknowledge the HST will shift the tax burden from big business to consumers?
3) Will the minister provide a detailed breakdown of just how exactly he expects the trickle down effect to work?
Doug Donaldson and Mr. Hansen then has some further exchange on the topic of the HST, I couldn't be bothered to understand it though, so let's move along.
Funding for School Band Programs
Again Robin was given the go-ahead on school questions, this time posing a doubled barreled super whammy "Can the Minister of Education tell this House why she's forcing the closure of band and string programs in Vancouver and taking apart the quality educations system that this province has enjoyed?"
Let me pretend to be Margie: "Well, Robin, first off, where is your batman? Second off, I hate music. Hate it hate it hate it with a passion. I especially hate classical music. My mother always pined about how my father would serenade her with string concertos and man, I just hated her for having such love in her life. As for why I am single-handedly destroying BC's quality education system, well, can't you see that I am an elitist snob? Private schools are like so totally the way to go."
Wouldn't it be fun if Margie actually answered like this?
Questions Robin Should have Asked
First off Robin needs to recognize in his questions that the Vancouver school board is not being targeted. All schools are being forced to make cuts. Vancouver has been lucky to have held on to their strings program for so long. He needs to recognize the Margie probably couldn't care less about the strings program, and that she sure as heck did not single-handedly seek its demise. If anything, all this exchange was missing was a honest faced comment by Rich Coleman speaking so earnestly about those poor kids who need free lunches. Who wins in that equation Robin, middle/upper class kids who take cello lessons, or malnourished street kids?
1) Is the minister aware of the scientifically established correlation between early music involvement and later economic and social success? Does she recognize that music lessons contribute to intellectual development?
2) Will there be any money is future budgets for the purposes of funding school music programs?
3) What does the minister suggest parents and students do to raise funds for their strings program? Might the liberal caucus be willing to attend a concert?
Meeting Between School Trustees and Education Minister
Nasty old Diane then kept true to form when she closed off the festivities today by demanding of Margie " How is she going to fix the crisis in BC schools when she won't talk to parents, she won't talk to students, and now she won't talk to school boards?" Crikey Diane, if you want to rub someone's face in the mud, you'll never accomplish it by advertising the mud as a deluxe spa treatment. Your silly question to Margie first required Margie to acknowledge a crisis in our school system, and then, required her to accept that she hasn't been talking to parents, students, or school boards? How silly are you Diane. Of course she has been talking to them. She just doesn't seem to have been listening.
Questions grumpy old Diane should have asked
1) Is it true that the minister left the Trustee's meeting early (FYI the trustees were actually streaming this meeting of their live and I watched a bit of it).
2) What did the minister dislike about the meeting/ the questions they asked
3) Does the rain in Spain fall mainly on the plain?
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Thursday April 22
Thursday's QP was an interesting affair. Mary McNeil, Minister of State for the Olympics and Act Now BC, responded nearly the same way each time that a nearly identical question was asked by three times by Carole, twice by John Horgan, twice by Mike Farnworth, and twice by Shane Simpson. Twelve times a question was asked, and 12 times an answer was actually provided. Odd pattern I though. Very similar to the NDP's attack on school district funding from Wednesday, still ineffectual though mind you. Not once did the NDP get the answer they were seeking. How hard could it have been for the Liberals to just simply admit to the NDP that yes, yes indeed, we used lots of tax payers dollars for the purposes of enjoying ourselves at the Olympics?
Reporting on Government and Crown Corporations: Olympic Games Tickets
Farnworth raised the issue most clearly, when he asked for clarification on whether crown corporation monies were used as a slush fund to purchase tickets for the Olympic Games. Mary McNeil made sure to specify that a detailed report on who attended which events on the coin of which organization, would be available soon. Carole called her out though, on how this report would exclude monies ostensibly spent by Crown Corporations. Considering the Olympics almost 2 months ago, I suppose its fair to presume that such information should be available. McNeil also mentioned that the crown corporations should have such details available on their individual websites. Excuse as I go check this out..........
I found one page on free tickets to the Olympics being granted by BC Hydro, the free tickets only seemed to come in exchange for joining the PowerSmart team though. BC Hydro even gave out tickets to the gold medal mens hockey game, no word though on just how many tickets they gave away, just that "numerous" tickets were given. Perhaps this is what the NDP were cheesed about on Thursday? Probably not eh. Should we trust BC Hydro and their triple bottom line? At least they were smart enough to not pay for Blair Lekstrom's bill during the Olympics, Lekstrom being the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources. Was this just a ploy to make it look as though all the NDP's questions from Thursday were totally unfounded?
Looking to the blacked out FOI request the NDP received from BC Hydro, transparency seems to be limited. But shouldn't the NDP know this by now? Shouldn't they realize the limits imposed by their current interactions with the Liberals? And shouldn't they by now be striking upon a different approach? This I tell you, is why I've started this blog. While one reader the other commented that the questions I suggest as what the opposition should have asked, is more the substance of the estimates debates than it is appropriate fodder for question period, I ask, shouldn't both be allowed to be equally substantive? If of course that is, the estimates debates have any meat to them? All I know, is that QP is a far more public affair that the estimates debates are, and for that reason alone, they deserve accurate and rational information and contextualization.
Questions the NDP should have asked:
1) Was the money spent on awarding free tickets to Olympic events money well spent? What was the rate of return for money invested?
2) Who designed the Olympic and Paralympic ticketing and hosting strategy?
3) How many tickets were given to people outside of BC/outside of BC?
4) Were the various minsters required to authorize the decisions made by the respective crown corporations to fund a series of Olympic tickets?
5) Is there any chance that had we been in power instead of you, that we would have come up with a similar ticketing and hosting strategy?
Annual Facilities Grants for School Districts and Carbon Neutrality
Again Robin Austin began the education questions. Guess the NDP are so impressed with his success at getting answers over this past week (*cough cough*) that they keep him at the front of the line. He began by speaking about the province wide loss of capital grants for schools. This led me straight to the government's 224 page estimates budget from last fall, I wanted to be prepared for Margie's response on the issue. She stated that there is 110 million dollars available for schools through capital grants, and that this money is available for building upgrades. However, if you look at Schedule C of the Estimates Budget (Page 201) you will see that only 1,852,000 is available for disbursement through the Ministry of Education and that this money is to be used for Information Systems and not building and tenant improvements as Margie suggests. I'm confused.
Furthermore, no information is available anywhere specifying either a budget, or an allotment for school districts to purchase carbon offsets. I believe this is the point that NDP'ers Robin, Rob Flemming, and Harry Bains were trying to get at. The way they approached it though, allowed good old Margie considerable room to maneuver through and encouraged her to attack the NDP at every chance. I found one of her comments to be a little much though, when she said "It's certainly interesting to be preached at by an Opposition that didn't have a plan for the energy or the environment." Of course the NDP didn't have a plan to save the environment back in the 1990s, the whole climate change thing is rather new after all.......
As for the substance of her own defence of the Liberal's education ministry climate change strategy, I found it a bit specious. In response to Robin's second question, Margie spoke of how school districts will receive by spring 2011, 700 million dollars in Carbon tax revenue. The Carbon Tax is fully revenue neutral, so I find this hard to believe. Yes, schools do get back the carbon tax they pay, but this was not what Robin was talking about. And this reimbursement on came after considerable protest by the school districts, and can only ever be the product of an increased administrative effort when just Wednesday Margie was talking about how she wants school districts to find administrative savings.
Rob Flemming, the environment critic was quick to pick up the carbon offset requirements recently imposed upon school districts. He spoke of the irony of school districts being required purchase carbon offsets through Pacific Carbon Trust, a company who I don't even want to know founded, for the purposes of building new furnaces at deluxe Whistler resorts. You can check this equation out for yourself. First see here for evidence requiring the Ministry to purchase from Pacific, and then here to see just what Pacifica is all about. Glad to see our education monies are being well spent. The questionable science surrounding the usefulness and validity of carbon offsets aside, this whole equation is a tad appalling. I wonder how many of our current MLAs are actually products of the BC education system? Good thing, as Margie says, school districts "have multiple *cough* sources of revenue."
And I'm sorry, but I just cannot finish analysing Thursday's QP, I've reached my stupidity limit.
Questions that should have been asked
1) Who owns and profits from Pacifica Carbon Trust? Who are the major shareholders?
2) Why must school districts be carbon neutral?
3) Has there been public consultation on the merits of school districts being carbon neutral?
4) What science are you using on carbon offsetting?
Reporting on Government and Crown Corporations: Olympic Games Tickets
Farnworth raised the issue most clearly, when he asked for clarification on whether crown corporation monies were used as a slush fund to purchase tickets for the Olympic Games. Mary McNeil made sure to specify that a detailed report on who attended which events on the coin of which organization, would be available soon. Carole called her out though, on how this report would exclude monies ostensibly spent by Crown Corporations. Considering the Olympics almost 2 months ago, I suppose its fair to presume that such information should be available. McNeil also mentioned that the crown corporations should have such details available on their individual websites. Excuse as I go check this out..........
I found one page on free tickets to the Olympics being granted by BC Hydro, the free tickets only seemed to come in exchange for joining the PowerSmart team though. BC Hydro even gave out tickets to the gold medal mens hockey game, no word though on just how many tickets they gave away, just that "numerous" tickets were given. Perhaps this is what the NDP were cheesed about on Thursday? Probably not eh. Should we trust BC Hydro and their triple bottom line? At least they were smart enough to not pay for Blair Lekstrom's bill during the Olympics, Lekstrom being the Minister of Energy, Mines, and Petroleum Resources. Was this just a ploy to make it look as though all the NDP's questions from Thursday were totally unfounded?
Looking to the blacked out FOI request the NDP received from BC Hydro, transparency seems to be limited. But shouldn't the NDP know this by now? Shouldn't they realize the limits imposed by their current interactions with the Liberals? And shouldn't they by now be striking upon a different approach? This I tell you, is why I've started this blog. While one reader the other commented that the questions I suggest as what the opposition should have asked, is more the substance of the estimates debates than it is appropriate fodder for question period, I ask, shouldn't both be allowed to be equally substantive? If of course that is, the estimates debates have any meat to them? All I know, is that QP is a far more public affair that the estimates debates are, and for that reason alone, they deserve accurate and rational information and contextualization.
Questions the NDP should have asked:
1) Was the money spent on awarding free tickets to Olympic events money well spent? What was the rate of return for money invested?
2) Who designed the Olympic and Paralympic ticketing and hosting strategy?
3) How many tickets were given to people outside of BC/outside of BC?
4) Were the various minsters required to authorize the decisions made by the respective crown corporations to fund a series of Olympic tickets?
5) Is there any chance that had we been in power instead of you, that we would have come up with a similar ticketing and hosting strategy?
Annual Facilities Grants for School Districts and Carbon Neutrality
Again Robin Austin began the education questions. Guess the NDP are so impressed with his success at getting answers over this past week (*cough cough*) that they keep him at the front of the line. He began by speaking about the province wide loss of capital grants for schools. This led me straight to the government's 224 page estimates budget from last fall, I wanted to be prepared for Margie's response on the issue. She stated that there is 110 million dollars available for schools through capital grants, and that this money is available for building upgrades. However, if you look at Schedule C of the Estimates Budget (Page 201) you will see that only 1,852,000 is available for disbursement through the Ministry of Education and that this money is to be used for Information Systems and not building and tenant improvements as Margie suggests. I'm confused.
Furthermore, no information is available anywhere specifying either a budget, or an allotment for school districts to purchase carbon offsets. I believe this is the point that NDP'ers Robin, Rob Flemming, and Harry Bains were trying to get at. The way they approached it though, allowed good old Margie considerable room to maneuver through and encouraged her to attack the NDP at every chance. I found one of her comments to be a little much though, when she said "It's certainly interesting to be preached at by an Opposition that didn't have a plan for the energy or the environment." Of course the NDP didn't have a plan to save the environment back in the 1990s, the whole climate change thing is rather new after all.......
As for the substance of her own defence of the Liberal's education ministry climate change strategy, I found it a bit specious. In response to Robin's second question, Margie spoke of how school districts will receive by spring 2011, 700 million dollars in Carbon tax revenue. The Carbon Tax is fully revenue neutral, so I find this hard to believe. Yes, schools do get back the carbon tax they pay, but this was not what Robin was talking about. And this reimbursement on came after considerable protest by the school districts, and can only ever be the product of an increased administrative effort when just Wednesday Margie was talking about how she wants school districts to find administrative savings.
Rob Flemming, the environment critic was quick to pick up the carbon offset requirements recently imposed upon school districts. He spoke of the irony of school districts being required purchase carbon offsets through Pacific Carbon Trust, a company who I don't even want to know founded, for the purposes of building new furnaces at deluxe Whistler resorts. You can check this equation out for yourself. First see here for evidence requiring the Ministry to purchase from Pacific, and then here to see just what Pacifica is all about. Glad to see our education monies are being well spent. The questionable science surrounding the usefulness and validity of carbon offsets aside, this whole equation is a tad appalling. I wonder how many of our current MLAs are actually products of the BC education system? Good thing, as Margie says, school districts "have multiple *cough* sources of revenue."
And I'm sorry, but I just cannot finish analysing Thursday's QP, I've reached my stupidity limit.
Questions that should have been asked
1) Who owns and profits from Pacifica Carbon Trust? Who are the major shareholders?
2) Why must school districts be carbon neutral?
3) Has there been public consultation on the merits of school districts being carbon neutral?
4) What science are you using on carbon offsetting?
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Wednesday April 21st
Four topics were covered in yesterday's QP: Acute care beds being used for seniors in the north island, education funding, civilian oversight in the police complaint process, and youth mental health. Save for the brief question on civilian oversight, yesterday's QP was essentially a repeat of Tuesday. The Ministers involved were: Kevin, Margaret, Mike de Jong standing in for Kash Heed, who as we know has temporarily stepped down, and Mary Polak finished things off with another new hair cut.
Health Care Questions
Carole began as usual. She was trying to talk about how acute care beds were being used for seniors care beds and was wanting to evince a promise from Kevin that such a makeshift process was not going to continue. However, as always, she wasn't as clear as she could have been. Her first question "Will he agree today to protect the services and make a commitment that there will be no reduction in acute care at St. Joseph's hospital?" went entirely unanswered. But interestingly enough, Kevin jumped right on the unmentioned subtext of her question and explained why the acute care beds were being cut. A very prescient individual he is.
Carole's next question"Will he commit today to working with Comox Valley residents and health care professionals who have ideas to resolve the challenges and keep the acute care beds at St. Joseph's?" totally ignoring Kevin's previous response. She really should not accuse someone of not listening when she herself can often have a hard time hearing what others say. Her refusal to listen allowed Kevin to kindly repeat himself and also throw in a jab at the NDP for their inability to manage change. A big part of the Liberal platform is that they claim to do things differently.
For her final question, Carole asked "Why does he refuse to consider the proposals that are being put forward by health care professionals and the community in the Comox Valley?" This really is a poor question b/c again, it doesn't provide Kevin with any expected parameters for a desirable response. Granted, prior to her question, Carole spoke briefly of the available residential beds, ones primarily in old folks homes that have been closed down, but she did not specify that reopening such beds was actually one of the available proposals. Without any concrete question to respond to, it was not unexpected that Kevin leapt on his opportunity to again expound upon previous NDP flaws, flaws which of course occurred before Carole even joined the NDP, but whatever. Kevin proudly related that while the number of acute care beds at this given hospital declined from 125 to 109 during the NDP's time in power, all throughout the Liberals reign, this number of 109 has remained constant.
Winner of this exchange? Carole and Kevin = Tied for stupidity.
If we look back on the transcript, Carole actually begins by asking why the number of acute care beds is decreasing to the tune of 18 acute care beds and she labels this a 22% cut. Hmmm... looks like we need to do some math. 22% of 109 = 24. Hmm... This isn't right, it isn't consistent with what either Kevin or Carole are talking about. For Carole's figures to work out, there needed to have been 82 acute care beds at St. Joseph's hospital, and not the 109 that Kevin mentioned. Such differences lead us to some questions that should have been asked:
1) How have the usage/staffing trends changed at the St. Joseph's hospital over the past 20 years? (Both of these factors affect bed availability)
2) What sort of demographic trends have their been in the north island over the past 20 years? (This would affect the number of seniors needing long term residential care)
3) How many residential care beds have been created/closed over the past 20 years?
4) What have the waiting lists been for the beds over these past 20 years?
5) Does St. Joseph's actually need a large number of acute care beds? Regardless of whether this number is 82, or 109?
Questions Carole should have asked:
1) Has the Minister documented conversations with officials at St. Joseph's stating an inability to meet acute care beds due to the number of beds being redirected to the Liberal's eldercare pathways system?
2) What does the Minister propose to meet this need if such need does indeed exist?
3) Can the Minister provide details of a cost benefits analysis on the difference in expenditures required to either A) keep seniors residential care homes open B) use acute care beds as temporary seniors beds?
Exchange # 2
Heath critic Adrian Dix stepped up to continue Carole's questioning. Interestingly enough, Adrian jumped right in and provided some contextualization on the need for such a cost benefit analysis by speaking on how these redirected beds will increase wait times and such. For his first question Adrian asked " Will the minister put on hold this damaging effort to cut 22 % of the acute care beds at St. Joseph's Hospital and talk to the community about better options?" Unfortunately, such a questions allowed Kevin to jump right on the NDP record of "listening to the community" when they notoriously cut health care spending during their time in power.
For his second question, Adrian became more inflammatory "Will the minister put this cockeyed idea of cutting acute care beds and transforming them into long-term care beds when there are other long term care beds available? Will he put it on hold and meeting with the community this week?" Hmmm.. first, lets look up the definition of cockeyed, from my Oxford dictionary we have: crooked or askew, not level, absurd, impractical, and or having a squint. I'm guessing Adrian was going for the "absurd/impractical" usage. However, without the information on questions I proposed above, none of us can meaningfully discuss how "absurd/impractical" this whole issue is now can we? Anyhoo, what Kevin manages to do, is totally negate the NDP's initial question, concerning the 22% cut to amount of acute care beds, and go on a bit about how the Liberal government does things differently. In my books, they sure don't do things differently because doing things differently would mean that they actually answer questions.
School District Costs and Funding
Robin Austin, critic for Fisheries and Rural issues began again yesterday with questions about education funding. He was talking about budgetary shortfalls faced across the province, his question kinda missed the mark though when he asked "Are trustees making up these budget numbers, or is the minister misleading parents and communities in an attempt to lay the blame for education cuts on local school boards?" This is a classic example of what I called an accusatory question in my research, not to mention the mismatch between Robin's premise and the eventual question that he asked. Such a failure of a question allowed smarmy old Margaret to jump right on her statistics which clearly demonstrate how regardless of the shortfalls beings experienced by the various school boards, education funding in fact continues to go up. I always love it when the Liberal government attempts to fool us with lump sum numbers. Margie's use of the statistics that the school districts are expecting 60,000 fewer students this fall was a sneaky move as she failed to fully contextualize how this is 60, 000 fewer students in the fully public system since 2000, a 10 year and not a 1 year trend.
For his next question, Robin tried to match the sneakiness but failed miserably when he asked "Will the education minister show some respect for parents by stepping outside of the message box and committing today to ensure that schools have the resources they needs to give our children the education they deserve?" The number of presumptions in this question gave Margie an easy jumping in point to easily begin critiquing the NDP record on education but she managed to restrain herself, working instead to question the reasons for why school districts are facing such shortfalls, especially since they have fewer students to contend with.
Lana Popham, the agricultural critic then took a swing by asking "Will the minister step outside the message box, show some respect to parents and explain why this government is underfunding education?" Granted, Lana did establish her question within a background of funding cuts occurring in her local district, but just like Robin, she failed to provide any basis for the "message box" comment. Anyways, what politicians would willfully admit that they are only capable of repeating what they are told to say regardless of how true such an accusation might be....... Margie attempted to save herself by pulling out some numbers and restating her commitment to doing things differently. Details on what she believes to constitute doing things differently however are always a tad sparse.
This was a big hint that Diane Thorne, a grumpy old lady who is the critic for Housing and consumer affairs, missed entirely. Her question was "I am also wondering if this minister can step outside of her message box, get off her spin, and explain to us why growing districts are facing budget shortfalls and having to lay off staff?" I had myself a little chuckling fit by the time doddy Diane reached her question due to the intensity of this little old ladies hypocrisy. Margie was ready though and quick to jump on this one, thoroughly trouncing doddy Diane by correcting her use of facts concerning enrollment in Richmond. Margie however proceeded to misuse her facts by claiming there to be 550,000 students in BC when according to the Ministry's own service plan there are approximately 580,000, not including the 69,000 in independent schools or the 2500 being home schooled.
Doug Routely, opposition critic for citizen's services then attempted to pick up the opposition torch by asking "If she's willing to step outside of that message box long enough to answer to trustees, students, and parents in the Cowichan district, what is she going to do to rescue our districts from her underfunding?" This in my opinion is a very difficult question. I'm sure good old Doug has to be aware that Margie herself probably has very limited power, by the way in which she speaks she doesn't seem to have much knowledge or original thought. How can he honestly expect her to single-handedly rescue all of the school districts? Naturally, to minimize the expectations for her actions, Margie began by speaking to the caliber of our school districts, and scolding Doug for undermining public, parents, and teacher's confidence. Sorry Margie, confidence is already low, check here.
Long serving member Harry finished off the education issue by asking "Why is it that the minister across the way won't get out of her public affairs bureau induced message box and answer the question?" Seems Lali was also referring to budget cuts, but his approach was different in that he attempted to paint the problems faced by the Kamloops-Thompson school district, represented by the Honourable Kevin Krueger, as unique. All Lali served to do however, was demonstrate that all school district in BC, regardless of political affiliation, are being given the same short stick. Margie finished off with a little jab about the NDP poor math skills and also called out Robin for being on record as supporting the closure of schools when student #s are dwindling.
End result: No answer on why education funding is inadequate for school districts.
What questions should have been asked?
For context to these questions, I look to the Ministry's service plan, which I already referenced above. Within their section on contextual factors, a lot is said on how the classroom must now embrace technology, and that more members of the classroom than ever are now dealing with an array of learning disorders and other physical and mental difficulties. I'm no accountant, at least not yet, but I can bet that these three factor could easily account for the majority of increase in student costs. And here is another thing, why doesn't the opposition require the government to provide numbers that account for inflation? 1 billion 2001 dollars was capable of buying more than 1 billion 2010 dollars can. I'm sure even a grade 4 or grade 7 student could tell you that one. I'm too fed up with politicians to even bother writing what questions they should have asked.
Civilian Oversight
Mike Farnsworth, the finance critic and overall good guy spoke about how Linda Bush was dropping her lawsuit against the RCMP. I saw that article in the paper yesterday, but never actually read it to find out why she dropped it. For his question Mike asked, "How long does Linda Bush have to wait and the people of BC have to wait until we have a true civilian oversight regarding police investigations in this province?" Even though no information was given on what the lawsuit had been, or why her son had been killed, Mike de Jong as the fill in for the Solicitor General appeared well briefed on the issue and covered it respectfully. He spoke of civilian oversight procedures already in place, and also of changes to the legislation involving police complaint commissioner which the Liberals have enacted. I'm not sure what to say, perhaps Miss Bush dropped her case because it was found that her case had no basis?
Youth Suicide Awareness Program
In regards to a recent cut by the Ministry of Children and Families to a suicide awareness program for youth, Maurine Karagianis, the child and families critic, had this to say "What kind of backward thinking is she using to cut suicide and prevention education from greater victoria schools?" Mary Polack's response was "We're changing to meet the needs of a changing group of people who live in southern Vancouver Island, and we're very proud of the investment that we continue to make in doubling the amount for children and youth with metal health needs in BC." Mary's response made Maurine look like the one guilty of backwards thinking.
Not to be outdone, Maurine followed up with "Can she explain what in the world she is thinking by cutting a service like this to vulnerable teens and their families? What in the world could she be thinking?" In response to Maurine, Mary clarified Maurine's intentions to portray the whole issue as a budget reduction issue. Mary spoke more of the "service realignment" and how the Liberals have not only doubled the amount of financial support they provide, but have also doubled the amount the of youth they are seeing. Her statement saw the end of yesterday's QP.
Questions that should have been asked by Maurine
1) What is the Minister prepared to do to serve the x# of youth who utilized the suicide awareness for youth line that has recently been cut?
2) Why have the number of youth requiring mental health services doubled in the past 10 years?
General Note
People will never tell you why they're stupid. This makes sense, they're stupid. B/c they're stupid, the chances they know why they are stupid are slim.
Health Care Questions
Carole began as usual. She was trying to talk about how acute care beds were being used for seniors care beds and was wanting to evince a promise from Kevin that such a makeshift process was not going to continue. However, as always, she wasn't as clear as she could have been. Her first question "Will he agree today to protect the services and make a commitment that there will be no reduction in acute care at St. Joseph's hospital?" went entirely unanswered. But interestingly enough, Kevin jumped right on the unmentioned subtext of her question and explained why the acute care beds were being cut. A very prescient individual he is.
Carole's next question"Will he commit today to working with Comox Valley residents and health care professionals who have ideas to resolve the challenges and keep the acute care beds at St. Joseph's?" totally ignoring Kevin's previous response. She really should not accuse someone of not listening when she herself can often have a hard time hearing what others say. Her refusal to listen allowed Kevin to kindly repeat himself and also throw in a jab at the NDP for their inability to manage change. A big part of the Liberal platform is that they claim to do things differently.
For her final question, Carole asked "Why does he refuse to consider the proposals that are being put forward by health care professionals and the community in the Comox Valley?" This really is a poor question b/c again, it doesn't provide Kevin with any expected parameters for a desirable response. Granted, prior to her question, Carole spoke briefly of the available residential beds, ones primarily in old folks homes that have been closed down, but she did not specify that reopening such beds was actually one of the available proposals. Without any concrete question to respond to, it was not unexpected that Kevin leapt on his opportunity to again expound upon previous NDP flaws, flaws which of course occurred before Carole even joined the NDP, but whatever. Kevin proudly related that while the number of acute care beds at this given hospital declined from 125 to 109 during the NDP's time in power, all throughout the Liberals reign, this number of 109 has remained constant.
Winner of this exchange? Carole and Kevin = Tied for stupidity.
If we look back on the transcript, Carole actually begins by asking why the number of acute care beds is decreasing to the tune of 18 acute care beds and she labels this a 22% cut. Hmmm... looks like we need to do some math. 22% of 109 = 24. Hmm... This isn't right, it isn't consistent with what either Kevin or Carole are talking about. For Carole's figures to work out, there needed to have been 82 acute care beds at St. Joseph's hospital, and not the 109 that Kevin mentioned. Such differences lead us to some questions that should have been asked:
1) How have the usage/staffing trends changed at the St. Joseph's hospital over the past 20 years? (Both of these factors affect bed availability)
2) What sort of demographic trends have their been in the north island over the past 20 years? (This would affect the number of seniors needing long term residential care)
3) How many residential care beds have been created/closed over the past 20 years?
4) What have the waiting lists been for the beds over these past 20 years?
5) Does St. Joseph's actually need a large number of acute care beds? Regardless of whether this number is 82, or 109?
Questions Carole should have asked:
1) Has the Minister documented conversations with officials at St. Joseph's stating an inability to meet acute care beds due to the number of beds being redirected to the Liberal's eldercare pathways system?
2) What does the Minister propose to meet this need if such need does indeed exist?
3) Can the Minister provide details of a cost benefits analysis on the difference in expenditures required to either A) keep seniors residential care homes open B) use acute care beds as temporary seniors beds?
Exchange # 2
Heath critic Adrian Dix stepped up to continue Carole's questioning. Interestingly enough, Adrian jumped right in and provided some contextualization on the need for such a cost benefit analysis by speaking on how these redirected beds will increase wait times and such. For his first question Adrian asked " Will the minister put on hold this damaging effort to cut 22 % of the acute care beds at St. Joseph's Hospital and talk to the community about better options?" Unfortunately, such a questions allowed Kevin to jump right on the NDP record of "listening to the community" when they notoriously cut health care spending during their time in power.
For his second question, Adrian became more inflammatory "Will the minister put this cockeyed idea of cutting acute care beds and transforming them into long-term care beds when there are other long term care beds available? Will he put it on hold and meeting with the community this week?" Hmmm.. first, lets look up the definition of cockeyed, from my Oxford dictionary we have: crooked or askew, not level, absurd, impractical, and or having a squint. I'm guessing Adrian was going for the "absurd/impractical" usage. However, without the information on questions I proposed above, none of us can meaningfully discuss how "absurd/impractical" this whole issue is now can we? Anyhoo, what Kevin manages to do, is totally negate the NDP's initial question, concerning the 22% cut to amount of acute care beds, and go on a bit about how the Liberal government does things differently. In my books, they sure don't do things differently because doing things differently would mean that they actually answer questions.
School District Costs and Funding
Robin Austin, critic for Fisheries and Rural issues began again yesterday with questions about education funding. He was talking about budgetary shortfalls faced across the province, his question kinda missed the mark though when he asked "Are trustees making up these budget numbers, or is the minister misleading parents and communities in an attempt to lay the blame for education cuts on local school boards?" This is a classic example of what I called an accusatory question in my research, not to mention the mismatch between Robin's premise and the eventual question that he asked. Such a failure of a question allowed smarmy old Margaret to jump right on her statistics which clearly demonstrate how regardless of the shortfalls beings experienced by the various school boards, education funding in fact continues to go up. I always love it when the Liberal government attempts to fool us with lump sum numbers. Margie's use of the statistics that the school districts are expecting 60,000 fewer students this fall was a sneaky move as she failed to fully contextualize how this is 60, 000 fewer students in the fully public system since 2000, a 10 year and not a 1 year trend.
For his next question, Robin tried to match the sneakiness but failed miserably when he asked "Will the education minister show some respect for parents by stepping outside of the message box and committing today to ensure that schools have the resources they needs to give our children the education they deserve?" The number of presumptions in this question gave Margie an easy jumping in point to easily begin critiquing the NDP record on education but she managed to restrain herself, working instead to question the reasons for why school districts are facing such shortfalls, especially since they have fewer students to contend with.
Lana Popham, the agricultural critic then took a swing by asking "Will the minister step outside the message box, show some respect to parents and explain why this government is underfunding education?" Granted, Lana did establish her question within a background of funding cuts occurring in her local district, but just like Robin, she failed to provide any basis for the "message box" comment. Anyways, what politicians would willfully admit that they are only capable of repeating what they are told to say regardless of how true such an accusation might be....... Margie attempted to save herself by pulling out some numbers and restating her commitment to doing things differently. Details on what she believes to constitute doing things differently however are always a tad sparse.
This was a big hint that Diane Thorne, a grumpy old lady who is the critic for Housing and consumer affairs, missed entirely. Her question was "I am also wondering if this minister can step outside of her message box, get off her spin, and explain to us why growing districts are facing budget shortfalls and having to lay off staff?" I had myself a little chuckling fit by the time doddy Diane reached her question due to the intensity of this little old ladies hypocrisy. Margie was ready though and quick to jump on this one, thoroughly trouncing doddy Diane by correcting her use of facts concerning enrollment in Richmond. Margie however proceeded to misuse her facts by claiming there to be 550,000 students in BC when according to the Ministry's own service plan there are approximately 580,000, not including the 69,000 in independent schools or the 2500 being home schooled.
Doug Routely, opposition critic for citizen's services then attempted to pick up the opposition torch by asking "If she's willing to step outside of that message box long enough to answer to trustees, students, and parents in the Cowichan district, what is she going to do to rescue our districts from her underfunding?" This in my opinion is a very difficult question. I'm sure good old Doug has to be aware that Margie herself probably has very limited power, by the way in which she speaks she doesn't seem to have much knowledge or original thought. How can he honestly expect her to single-handedly rescue all of the school districts? Naturally, to minimize the expectations for her actions, Margie began by speaking to the caliber of our school districts, and scolding Doug for undermining public, parents, and teacher's confidence. Sorry Margie, confidence is already low, check here.
Long serving member Harry finished off the education issue by asking "Why is it that the minister across the way won't get out of her public affairs bureau induced message box and answer the question?" Seems Lali was also referring to budget cuts, but his approach was different in that he attempted to paint the problems faced by the Kamloops-Thompson school district, represented by the Honourable Kevin Krueger, as unique. All Lali served to do however, was demonstrate that all school district in BC, regardless of political affiliation, are being given the same short stick. Margie finished off with a little jab about the NDP poor math skills and also called out Robin for being on record as supporting the closure of schools when student #s are dwindling.
End result: No answer on why education funding is inadequate for school districts.
What questions should have been asked?
For context to these questions, I look to the Ministry's service plan, which I already referenced above. Within their section on contextual factors, a lot is said on how the classroom must now embrace technology, and that more members of the classroom than ever are now dealing with an array of learning disorders and other physical and mental difficulties. I'm no accountant, at least not yet, but I can bet that these three factor could easily account for the majority of increase in student costs. And here is another thing, why doesn't the opposition require the government to provide numbers that account for inflation? 1 billion 2001 dollars was capable of buying more than 1 billion 2010 dollars can. I'm sure even a grade 4 or grade 7 student could tell you that one. I'm too fed up with politicians to even bother writing what questions they should have asked.
Civilian Oversight
Mike Farnsworth, the finance critic and overall good guy spoke about how Linda Bush was dropping her lawsuit against the RCMP. I saw that article in the paper yesterday, but never actually read it to find out why she dropped it. For his question Mike asked, "How long does Linda Bush have to wait and the people of BC have to wait until we have a true civilian oversight regarding police investigations in this province?" Even though no information was given on what the lawsuit had been, or why her son had been killed, Mike de Jong as the fill in for the Solicitor General appeared well briefed on the issue and covered it respectfully. He spoke of civilian oversight procedures already in place, and also of changes to the legislation involving police complaint commissioner which the Liberals have enacted. I'm not sure what to say, perhaps Miss Bush dropped her case because it was found that her case had no basis?
Youth Suicide Awareness Program
In regards to a recent cut by the Ministry of Children and Families to a suicide awareness program for youth, Maurine Karagianis, the child and families critic, had this to say "What kind of backward thinking is she using to cut suicide and prevention education from greater victoria schools?" Mary Polack's response was "We're changing to meet the needs of a changing group of people who live in southern Vancouver Island, and we're very proud of the investment that we continue to make in doubling the amount for children and youth with metal health needs in BC." Mary's response made Maurine look like the one guilty of backwards thinking.
Not to be outdone, Maurine followed up with "Can she explain what in the world she is thinking by cutting a service like this to vulnerable teens and their families? What in the world could she be thinking?" In response to Maurine, Mary clarified Maurine's intentions to portray the whole issue as a budget reduction issue. Mary spoke more of the "service realignment" and how the Liberals have not only doubled the amount of financial support they provide, but have also doubled the amount the of youth they are seeing. Her statement saw the end of yesterday's QP.
Questions that should have been asked by Maurine
1) What is the Minister prepared to do to serve the x# of youth who utilized the suicide awareness for youth line that has recently been cut?
2) Why have the number of youth requiring mental health services doubled in the past 10 years?
General Note
People will never tell you why they're stupid. This makes sense, they're stupid. B/c they're stupid, the chances they know why they are stupid are slim.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Tuesday April 20th
Three main topics were covered yesterday: hospital crowding, mental health services for youth, and school districts. Two Ministers fielded these questions: Kevin Falcon for the health care issues, and Margaret MacDiarmid for education.
Exchange #1
As usual Carol James started things off. She began by asking what Kevin intended to do today to combat the issues of crowding in Vernon. This is what I would categorize as an impossible question. Ministers are often not capable of acting today, especially when the problem presented to them is as systemic as the overcrowding in the hospital in Vernon. Kevin Falcon, always the quick thinker easily capitalized on Carole's present by delivering a synopsis of why it was the NDP's fault that situation in Vernon has arisen. Carole's follow up question of why doesn't Kevin listen to the doctors provided Kevin with another easy to catch lob. He got to talk more on the 180 million dollars that the Liberals are investing to help the Vernon hospital. For her final question, Carole asked again what the Minister would do today. I don't blame Kevin for missing the question though, as it was buried by an unrelated question accusing Kevin of not being upfront with the public when even though Kevin is one of my least favourite politicians, he is always very clear in displaying his feelings and intentions. To his credit, Kevin finished things off by talking of recent action taken by the Liberal government to combat the issues being experienced by the Vernon hospital.
Winner of this exchange: Kevin
What Carole was intending to ask/should have asked instead
Question 1: "What does the minister plan to do today to deal with these serious concerns?" Here Carole is asking what Kevin is going to increase the capacity of emergency room doctors at the Vernon Hospital. However, her question is very nebulous and doesn't provide Kevin with any parameters for an expected response. For instance, when I ask you what you want for dinner, I expect you'll respond by saying something food related. Specific to her question, Carole could have asked any of the following alternatives:
1) Will the government commit to hiring more doctors/nurses for the Vernon ER?
2) Will the government provide monies to purchase more beds for the Vernon ER?
3) Will the government talk to Provincial med school representatives to ensure that more family doctors are opening up in Vernon because having more family doctors available tends to keep more people from the ER etc.
Exchange #2
Health Critic Adrian Dix then continued the issue once Carole had used up her allotted questions. Adrian can be a little difficult to listen to in QP b/c he tends to be very incendiary with the way that he talks. As a true testament to the often playground nature of QP, I have even heard fellow MLAs mock the stammer that Adrian often acquires when he gets a little too excited. Adrian performed according to expectations yesterday allowing Kevin to speak more of the Liberal accomplishments.
Question 2:
When I wrote my thesis last year I noted that even though opposition members are only supposed to ask one question per question and answer turn, they can often end up asking more than one question. So keeping with the rules, I only analyzed the first question that was asked. However, within Adrian's performance yesterday, his second question "What is the minister going to do now to help doctors in Vernon deal with the crisis in their Emergency rooms" was a lot more coherent and relevant than his first question "What's the minister going to do now?" I expect the Minister is going to stand up as soon as you finish talking and commence grandstanding.
Questions the Opposition health critic should have asked instead:
1) What is the minister going to do in the interim, while waiting for the completion of the new care tower, to assist doctors with the crowding?
2) What proportion of this new tower will actually be dedicated to ER space?
3) Will new staff be hired so as to maximize care delivery once the new tower is opened?
4) Why does the minister keep talking about mistakes that we the NDP made instead of focusing on actions the Liberal government can take in improve health care?
To be continued....
Exchange #1
As usual Carol James started things off. She began by asking what Kevin intended to do today to combat the issues of crowding in Vernon. This is what I would categorize as an impossible question. Ministers are often not capable of acting today, especially when the problem presented to them is as systemic as the overcrowding in the hospital in Vernon. Kevin Falcon, always the quick thinker easily capitalized on Carole's present by delivering a synopsis of why it was the NDP's fault that situation in Vernon has arisen. Carole's follow up question of why doesn't Kevin listen to the doctors provided Kevin with another easy to catch lob. He got to talk more on the 180 million dollars that the Liberals are investing to help the Vernon hospital. For her final question, Carole asked again what the Minister would do today. I don't blame Kevin for missing the question though, as it was buried by an unrelated question accusing Kevin of not being upfront with the public when even though Kevin is one of my least favourite politicians, he is always very clear in displaying his feelings and intentions. To his credit, Kevin finished things off by talking of recent action taken by the Liberal government to combat the issues being experienced by the Vernon hospital.
Winner of this exchange: Kevin
What Carole was intending to ask/should have asked instead
Question 1: "What does the minister plan to do today to deal with these serious concerns?" Here Carole is asking what Kevin is going to increase the capacity of emergency room doctors at the Vernon Hospital. However, her question is very nebulous and doesn't provide Kevin with any parameters for an expected response. For instance, when I ask you what you want for dinner, I expect you'll respond by saying something food related. Specific to her question, Carole could have asked any of the following alternatives:
1) Will the government commit to hiring more doctors/nurses for the Vernon ER?
2) Will the government provide monies to purchase more beds for the Vernon ER?
3) Will the government talk to Provincial med school representatives to ensure that more family doctors are opening up in Vernon because having more family doctors available tends to keep more people from the ER etc.
Exchange #2
Health Critic Adrian Dix then continued the issue once Carole had used up her allotted questions. Adrian can be a little difficult to listen to in QP b/c he tends to be very incendiary with the way that he talks. As a true testament to the often playground nature of QP, I have even heard fellow MLAs mock the stammer that Adrian often acquires when he gets a little too excited. Adrian performed according to expectations yesterday allowing Kevin to speak more of the Liberal accomplishments.
Question 2:
When I wrote my thesis last year I noted that even though opposition members are only supposed to ask one question per question and answer turn, they can often end up asking more than one question. So keeping with the rules, I only analyzed the first question that was asked. However, within Adrian's performance yesterday, his second question "What is the minister going to do now to help doctors in Vernon deal with the crisis in their Emergency rooms" was a lot more coherent and relevant than his first question "What's the minister going to do now?" I expect the Minister is going to stand up as soon as you finish talking and commence grandstanding.
Questions the Opposition health critic should have asked instead:
1) What is the minister going to do in the interim, while waiting for the completion of the new care tower, to assist doctors with the crowding?
2) What proportion of this new tower will actually be dedicated to ER space?
3) Will new staff be hired so as to maximize care delivery once the new tower is opened?
4) Why does the minister keep talking about mistakes that we the NDP made instead of focusing on actions the Liberal government can take in improve health care?
To be continued....
New Year, Same Old
I've been busy with my Public Administration studies but the Liberal government's recent announcement to go forward with the site C dam encouraged me to return to nascent blogging endeavours for the purposes of outlining the questions that our Opposition party members should really be asking. I am now making a commitment to post an analysis of each day's QP as it occurs and as soon as it is posted.
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