Gordon Campbell to step down

[zedex]

Correct !!! Every one of them have only a few things in mind:
what can they get from us while they are in office
who is going to pay them for favors
making a name , however bad, for themselves

None have any vision of the future and what could be as oppossed as to what it is. The only goals they have are for the term they serve and nothing more.

The vast amount of land here provides far more than enough for preservation and industry. Most of the "protected" land does nothing more than drain resources to guard it and provides nothing more. There are thousands of acres that could serve a valuable use and still be maintained in a "eco-friendly" manner.

Now, say someone builts a plant somewhere. People come to work. They need housing, stores, recreation, entertainment, roads, food, etc............. the list goes on. One job market spurs another and another and another. Before you know it, that one job market has created a whole working town.

I cannot see why this could not happen. Think the island, for example. If you went due west from the center of Nanaimo for about 10 miles, what is there? Could it be used? What about that area just north of Lantzville where there is nothing. Couldn't that be used?

The possibilities are endless, but with short sighted, "all for me" people in offices, the possibilities are only what you see here: talk. A useless, meaningless bundling of words.

[Wyatt Earp]

There's a post on here somewhere Zedex, from me that basically indicated that the parkway should have been a real freeway that ran parallel to the power lines behind benson. There is much to be said for protecting things but at the same time there is much to be said for getting people and goods moving which doesn't have to be by car but instead rail or bus.

[Trailblazer]

Correct !!! Every one of them have only a few things in mind:
what can they get from us while they are in office
who is going to pay them for favors
making a name , however bad, for themselves

None have any vision of the future and what could be as opposed as to what it is. The only goals they have are for the term they serve and nothing more.

The vast amount of land here provides far more than enough for preservation and industry. Most of the "protected" land does nothing more than drain resources to guard it and provides nothing more. There are thousands of acres that could serve a valuable use and still be maintained in a "eco-friendly" manner.

Now, say someone builts a plant somewhere. People come to work. They need housing, stores, recreation, entertainment, roads, food, etc............. the list goes on. One job market spurs another and another and another. Before you know it, that one job market has created a whole working town.

I cannot see why this could not happen. Think the island, for example. If you went due west from the center of Nanaimo for about 10 miles, what is there? Could it be used? What about that area just north of Lantzville where there is nothing. Couldn't that be used?

The possibilities are endless, but with short sighted, "all for me" people in offices, the possibilities are only what you see here: talk. A useless, meaningless bundling of words.

Cheap land does not build an economy, just ask the guys at the Cable Bay debacle or even those at Sandstone.
I would agree that we need investment & we need good paying industrial jobs; but we cannot even manage the jobs we already have in forestry & fishing to name but two.
One of the limiting factors of 'expansion' (often called growth) is the absence of an adequate water supply.
Nanaimo needs ,a minimum, of $20 million to bring up the water supply to adequately supply us as we are never mind expand. To expand the system will cost about $70 million!(new dam) who will pay for that? the developers; I don't think so.
Perhaps we will mortgage our kids future (again) & the taxpayer will pay for those 'perceived" benefits.
I'm sure Mr Earp will realise that in his neck of the woods(Cedar) all development has been put on hold because of a shortage of water even after an annual payment for the last water works expansion!
Further "expansion" will again be at the taxpayers expense as water rates are sure to go up next year.
WE have in Nanaimo more than we need when it comes to retail space; in fact we have more per ca-pita than anywhere else in Canada; so why build more? Any new retail space only serves to drain the existing retailers in the existing malls ; hardly sustainable..
We also have to consider just exactly what "industry" we wish to attract; where can we compete?
There are those who promote the Raven coal mine which will almost surely come at the expense of a $35 million per year shellfish industry.(think acid rain) we have to think before we jump..
Unless we control our own borders (NAFTA, GAT, etc we are not in control of our future) and will therefore subscribe to the lowest common denominator of lower working standards & lower environmental standards; the choice is ours!

[zedex]

I get what you are saying about the water situation and retail space but again, this goes right back to the short sighted gov't. They should ahve expanded the system little by little after establishing mainlines to areas where the demand will be. But, no. Instead they do only what is needed and nothing more. Even at that, they drag their feet.

As for retail space, yes, there is plenty of it. Why? Simply put, the gov't on federal and provincial levels tax people to death and businesses pay dearly, Who can afford that? Besides that, while retail puts some people to work, major industry puts towns to work.

The timber industry was killed by unions wages and unrealistic demands and the high prices that follow. The union leaders are too stupid to see that by demanding a meanial job pay $25/hr plus a host of benefits, they put people out of work. I personally know of one man that earns {takes home} about $870/wk, he sweeps floors. A union job. The employer is struggling to stay alive and keep people working but the union is going to end up putting all of them out of work. This has happened time and time again.

Unions need to back off and let the employers build back up during these harsh times but they refuse. They still want more and give less. Wait............ doesn't that sound just like the gov't? take more, give less and still bitch about it.

We are in a great location for attracting big business. Scenic, plenty of fishing, decent {for some, not so much} weather, easy access to cross pacific shipping, the US border is only two hours away, etc. BC could become a mecca for large companies looking for an abundance of labor and easy access to other countries' borders among other things.

But, the BC gov't as well as the local gov't isn't about to let this happen. They don't promote this place and its offerings. They refuse to offer any deals.

I don't get it. It seems to me that by taxing ten times as many people less they would get more than taxing the few so hard.

And, they need to drop the monopoly scheme they got going on. Lets get more power companies in here, more phone companies, more cable companies. This would employ people and give us better options, lower prices.

All in all, if we had work and competition with lower prices, people would be happier here. They would spend more time and money right here in BC. F#@*ing gov't losers. We need people with vision and drive and the desire to do good for the people of the province.

[Wyatt Earp]

TB:

This area can compete in other forms of natural reasource extraction - one of which we have lots of history in already, coal, and the other is natural gas. There are already groups massing to bring about a huge change in this area with an influx of oil and gas experts all searching for and processing natural gas. Terasen didn't build Mt. Hayes for nothing. As far as water goes, with this increase and the call to design and inspection that I have heard about the water supply is being looked at - time will tell what happens but it wouldn't take much for Shell or Conocco or Kinder Morgan much to develop that to assist in their approval and development of their plans, plants, jobs and tax base. As far as $70M for a new dam that chump change as it would likely be more in line with $275M I would think.

Water in the Cedar area is the least of our issues, the larger problem we have is lack of sewer because when the **** flows into the water system it still stinks. Not sure where your development information comes from since there are a number of small ones happening just around the corner from my place. The issues with the Cedar Village are more to do with ownership and money than water.

The main issue with Nanaimo and the RDN is red tape. There is far too much of it. Go elsewhere, except Vancouver and you'll be welcome to spend money, bring jobs and so on. Here everyone, and I do mean everyone takes their share before anything even starts - and you wonder why things cost so much...

[Wyatt Earp]

Zedex,

Sometimes vision is like hind sight, a little foggy... LOL...

I will go one more step on your soap box and say that every gov't funded program (on some level) straight across the board is broken. There isn't a single one in this province that really works. Think about that, we stand on the cusp of a collapse of universal health care because so many people in this country just stick their heads in the sand and think that it is our right and it should just "be" yet they have no way of supporting it - through taxes or users fees - it just isn't sustainable. Look, I think it is a great thing but it's in trouble, as is CPP, EI and all the rest of it. Add to that all the crap tax we pay and lack of efficiency we have and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that it doesn't work.

[Wyatt Earp]

Looks like we might have some "reason" injected into this set of idiot laws with Rich. It would seem that he's got more than a bit of support from the hopitality industry on this one since their customers have dropped another 20 to 30% after the HST hit them.

Education is the better way as a law based on fear clearly doesn't work. I would think that Rich will likely scrap this poorly thought out addition but time will tell. Not sure if there is hope but is certainly refreshing.

[click]

major industry puts towns to work.

The timber industry was killed by unions wages and unrealistic demands and the high prices that follow.

Unions need to back off and let the employers build back up during these harsh times but they refuse. They still want more and give less. Wait............ doesn't that sound just like the gov't? take more, give less and still bitch about it.

We are in a great location for attracting big business. Scenic, plenty of fishing, decent {for some, not so much} weather, easy access to cross pacific shipping, the US border is only two hours away, etc. BC could become a mecca for large companies looking for an abundance of labor and easy access to other countries' borders among other things.

But, the BC gov't as well as the local gov't isn't about to let this happen. They refuse to offer any deals.

And, they need to drop the monopoly scheme they got going on. Lets get more power companies in here, more phone companies, more cable companies. This would employ people and give us better options, lower prices.

All in all, if we had work and competition with lower prices, people would be happier here. They would spend more time and money right here in BC. F#@*ing gov't losers. We need people with vision and drive and the desire to do good for the people of the province.

Apparently we are all entitled to our opinion here. Even if it is based in prejudice, assumption and misinformation.

The thread is about Criminal Campbell stepping down.
Criminal Campbell and his gang of merry men are the "open for business" right leaning government. Their tenure defines the true corruption that the buzzword "competition" represents.
And unions didn't destroy the forestry industry.

IMO Some folks have been brainwashed, others have a narrow and/or limited intelligence that will not allow them to see past a single point of view. And those limitations are more dangerous to progress than any policy, regulation or organization can ever be.

"They don't offer any deals" indeed. Who's at the front of the line when business is in the business of governance???

WTF

Click

[Wyatt Earp]

Click,
It wasn't my intent to get into a pissing match over union vs. non-union employees.

That said, I think there is something, even on the surface, with the observation that there are considerable issues between this style of gov't and a union. Would you agree?

[zedex]

Apparently we are all entitled to our opinion here. Even if it is based in prejudice, assumption and misinformation.

And some observations are based on expirience

The thread is about Criminal Campbell stepping down.

True enough, but not only the crook stepping down, but change in gov't and policy

Criminal Campbell and his gang of merry men are the "open for business" right leaning government. Their tenure defines the true corruption that the buzzword "competition" represents.

So far, I haven't seen a politician that wasn't "open for busniess", offering support to the highest bidder

And unions didn't destroy the forestry industry.

Unions and the gov't both killed the industry. Unions with their demands for more money and benefits, the gov't with higher taxes. People can blame Americans if they want, saying Americans bid low. That's true, but had it not been between the higher cost of production and the higher taxes, BC products could have been sold at a lower cost, too.

IMO Some folks have been brainwashed, others have a narrow and/or limited intelligence that will not allow them to see past a single point of view.

And some folks know how the system works and for whom. Those that don't are the uninformed- and that could produce dangerous results.

And those limitations are more dangerous to progress than any policy, regulation or organization can ever be.

And what is veiwed as dangerous could also hold key to progress, not regress

"They don't offer any deals" indeed.

I have never seen or heard of the gov't offering any deals to any business to locate in BC. They need to. If the gov't would back off high taxes and give actual incentives for businesses to build here, it could put people back to work and get the economy going. We don't need or want these taxes we have and they are for what? Taxes go up, services go down. If they actually had accountants doing the books properly, I wonder how much money would be found to have been squandered on useless things or stolen. Aside from passing laws that have been struck down in Supreme Court, what has the goverment really done lately? What progress has been realized from this gov't?

Who's at the front of the line when business is in the business of governance???

Governing is not a business. It is a structure of rules to follow and the businesses should be permitted to follow rules and be productive. But, when someone {gov't} who has no knowledge of the businesses starts governing it starts falling apart. No gov't should interfere with the daily operations of any business and should allow some degree of latitude of who and how the companies do business. Same with unions. Unions were started as a way to protect from employees from employer abuse, but have become the abusers of employers and employees. Costs goes up, moral goes down, production drops. How can the business compete?

WTF

Indeed.

Click

Wyatt Earp

You are correct. look at the gov't and look at unions. They are doing the same things: take, take , take, take and very little give.

People may not agree with any or all of my thoughts but that's ok. But, I have been on both sides of the fence and no rocket scientists are needed to see what is happening. If everyone takes from business and no one gives, how is that business to survive. Especially now, in tough times. Concessions need to be made by all parties. As long as one has guns aimed at business to extract higher wages and someone else has guns aimed at business for higher taxes, and the business has no defense mechanism, there is no hope for the business and no hope for the employees about to be sitting at home collecting EI. Then, taxes have to go up again in order to cover all those collecting checks. And another business suffers, the process repeats.