Articles by Russ Francis.

Straight Talk

Campbells reveal Alcan holdings

By Russ Francis
Both Premier Gordon Campbell and his wife, Nancy, own shares in mining giant Alcan Inc., according to the premier’s annual disclosure statement filed with the office of the legislature clerk on December 1, 2006.
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Victoria Secrets

B.C. “still vulnerable” to health-care fines

By Russ Francis
The province is risking large fines from the federal government by continuing to allow private health-care brokers to operate in B.C., according to NDP health critic Adrian Dix.
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News Features

Acting auditor general draws fire from NDP

By Russ Francis
New Democrat MLA Rob Fleming says he plans to introduce a private member’s bill this spring aimed at restoring credibility to the government’s top financial watchdog, the office of the auditor general.
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Victoria Secrets

Lottery honcho wins sweepstakes

By Russ Francis
B.C. Lottery Corporation president and chief executive officer Vic Poleschuk was paid $442,667.48 in the 2005-06 financial year, plus another $64,874.04 for expenses, according to the Crown corporation’s statements of salaries and expenses required under the Financial Information Act.
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Victoria Secrets

Board attacks P3 requirement

By Russ Francis
Trustees reject provincial vetting of capital projects as contrary to public interest
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Victoria Secrets

MLA questions putting Lions before homeless

By Russ Francis
An Opposition MLA is questioning the B.C. Liberal government’s refusal to hold an emergency debate on homelessness shortly after halting the normal proceedings of the legislature to honour the B.C. Lions’ Grey Cup win.
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Victoria Secrets

NDP say Liberals may kill coal-fired plants

By Russ Francis
Two controversial coal-fired plants announced by B.C. Hydro last July may not go ahead, according to NDP environment critic Shane Simpson.
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Victoria Secrets

Change in hiring policy draws mixed reaction

By Russ Francis
A revolutionary—and quiet—change by the B.C. government to open up all jobs in the provincial public service to the general public has attracted both praise and criticism.
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Victoria Secrets

Baby bonus called “bizarre”

By Russ Francis
Representatives of students, college teachers, and university professors have all expressed strong reservations about the B.C. Liberals’ recently announced plan to give $1,000 to every baby born in B.C., starting next year.
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Victoria Secrets

Taylor justifies Blain’s big salary

By Russ Francis
Finance Minister Carole Taylor is defending the pay of Partnerships British Columbia president and CEO Larry Blain.
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Victoria Secrets

Deal doesn’t hold water

By Russ Francis
The B.C. legislature is sending the wrong message by buying 7,200 bottles of water annually while the province’s public water systems battle the trend toward drinking bottled water, according to Burnaby mayor Derek Corrigan.
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Victoria Secrets

Ban on papers questioned

By Russ Francis
Two lawyers are suggesting that an order from Speaker Bill Barisoff that free weekly newspapers be removed from the grounds of the legislature may be on shaky legal grounds.
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Victoria Secrets

Union leaders ignored again

By Russ Francis
Two prominent B.C. labour leaders say they were not consulted over the new Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility Agreement between British Columbia and Alberta, signed April 28 in Edmonton.
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Victoria Secrets

Alberta–B.C. deal questioned

By Russ Francis
The opposition critic for inter­governmental affairs is questioning the impact of a wide-ranging B.C.–Alberta free-trade agreement due to take effect on April 1, 2007.
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Victoria Secrets

Ex-Green doubts Carr’s exit will help party

By Russ Francis
A new leader can mean new interest, but some say there’s no obvious successor and finding quality candidates will be a challenge.
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Victoria Secrets

Carr’s exit from Greens won’t turn party around

By Russ Francis
A former prominent B.C. Green is questioning a claim by party leader Adriane Carr that a leadership race after she steps down later this year will excite new interest in the party.
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Victoria Secrets

Olympics leak bothers NDP

By Russ Francis
NDP members of the legislature's public-accounts committee plan to ask questions about the partial leaking of acting Auditor General Arn van Iersel's report on the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, released on September 14.
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Victoria Secrets

Citizens' data lost in system

By Russ Francis
A University of B.C. professor emeritus of computer science says it is unacceptable that the B.C. government has been unable to discover what happened to 31 computer tapes containing personal information on hundreds of thousands of B.C. residents.
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Victoria Secrets

New university questioned

By Russ Francis
The B.C. government is making it too easy to create universities, according to an organization representing professors, librarians, and other academic staff at B.C.'s existing universities.
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Victoria Secrets

Native leaders decry de Jong

A couple of First Nations leaders are objecting to Premier Gordon Campbell's latest choice for minister of aboriginal relations and reconciliation.
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Victoria Secrets

A question of private power

MLA raises flag over former Liberal aide's company receiving BC Hydro contracts
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Victoria Secrets

Free ferry rides questioned

By Russ Francis
NDP health critic Adrian Dix is calling on the government to tighten the controls on its travel assistance program after a report found that unknown numbers of British Columbians may have abused it.
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Victoria Secrets

B.C. funds costly flashlights

By Russ Francis
In 2001, the B.C. Liberals campaigned on a platform that included a promise to “stamp out government waste”.
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Victoria Secrets

Gas tab gets paramedic fired

By Russ Francis
The British Columbia Ambulance Service has clamped down on the use of its 500-plus fuel credit cards after one Vancouver-area paramedic reportedly spent $15,500 on “inappropriate” purchases during an 18-month period.
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Victoria Secrets

Big salaries helped Edge fall

By Russ Francis
A government audit of a Vancouver-based technology-marketing agency found a number of serious concerns just months before the province shut it down.
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Straight Talk

Bureaucrat packs heat

By Russ Francis
A few eyebrows were raised when Victoria police chief Paul Battershill was appointed acting city manager, effective June 1.
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Victoria Secrets

Calls to gambling help line up, report shows

By Russ Francis
A Vancouver activist says she is not surprised by a new B.C. government report that found increased calls to a problem-gambling help line after a casino opened in Langley.
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Victoria Secrets

B.C. neglecting deaf children

By Russ Francis
Adrian Dix, the Opposition NDP critic for children and family development, has attacked the government's approach to dealing with hearing-impaired children after a newly released report found serious problems with the province's early intervention program.
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Victoria Secrets

Ministries broke money regs

By Russ Francis
Two provincial ministries have handed out large sums of money to a host of companies, nonprofits, and the University of Victoria in violation of the government's own rules, according to an audit by the Finance Ministry.
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Victoria Secrets

Audit knocks Liberals' forest-investment plan

By Russ Francis
A B.C. finance ministry audit of a $60-million, privately administered forest-investment program has found numerous problems, including some faced by the program's predecessor, Forest Renewal B.C.
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Victoria Secrets

Liberals plan to hide P3 details from public

By Russ Francis
A Liberal MLA is attacking an amendment to B.C.'s freedom-of-information law that was introduced by his own government on April 27.
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Victoria Secrets

Liberal donations hit coffers

By Russ Francis
The B.C. Liberal Party has returned a total of $33,825 in prohibited donations to Elections BC, most of it after two organizations failed to cash cheques refunding the gifts.
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Victoria Secrets

Pipeline critics worry over ferry sinking

By Russ Francis
The March 22 sinking of BC Ferries' Queen of the North is bad news for the $4-billion Gateway pipeline project proposed by Enbridge Inc., environmentalists claim.
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Victoria Secrets

U.S. group eyes offshore oil

By Russ Francis
According to a recent report from the U.S.-based Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, B.C.'s offshore oil and gas could help solve North America's energy problems. The report, Untapped Potential, produced by the commission's North American Coastal Alliance, says that estimated reserves of crude oil off B.C.'s coast amount to nearly half of the proven crude-oil reserves in all of the U.S.
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Victoria Secrets

Act reveals shareholder lists

By Russ Francis
Liberal Finance Minister Carole Taylor is citing her journalism background as part of the reason she acted on March 27 to make lists of the names of shareholders of B.C. companies once more open to the public.
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Victoria Secrets

Will privacy law be eased?

By Russ Francis
Despite recent concerns over the auction sale of computer tapes containing citizens' personal information, the B.C. Liberal government appears poised to relax the protection of personal records.
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Victoria Secrets

B.C. Liberals fail to report all donations

By Russ Francis
Elections BC has told the B.C. Liberal party that it expects no more omissions in its annual financial statements, after confirming that the party failed to properly report at least one $1,000 donation in 2001.
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Victoria Secrets

P3 boss in line for big bonus

By Russ Francis
The chief executive officer of Partnerships BC, Larry Blain, is entitled to total annual compensation of almost $600,000, plus expenses, under a bonus scheme established when he joined the Crown corporation three years ago.
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Victoria Secrets

Libs push school changes

By Russ Francis
The B.C. government may be plotting to revamp the K-12 education system so that public schools compete against each other for students and cash. A pilot scheme is planned to take effect this fall.
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Victoria Secrets

Fish-farm plans stay afloat

By Russ Francis
The expected announcement soon of the government's decision on new fish farms is raising questions about the credibility of a legislature committee that is studying the topic.
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Victoria Secrets

Audits reveal P3 problems

By Russ Francis
Partnerships BC, the organization established by the Gordon Campbell government to promote public-private partnerships, has taken steps to address more than two dozen problems with its financial controls.
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Victoria Secrets

Web tutors worry teachers

By Russ Francis
The B.C. Teachers' Federation is attacking a recently announced pilot project that offers on-line tutoring to Math 12 students.
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Victoria Secrets

Audit examines leave time

By Russ Francis
An internal audit raises the possibility that thousands of B.C. public servants have been taking time off that they weren't entitled to take.
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Victoria Secrets

B.C. Liberals' salary-disclosure bill a big step

By Russ Francis
Since the B.C. Liberals were elected in 2001, there has been no shortage of reasons to question their campaign commitment to provide "the most open, transparent and accountable government in Canada".
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Victoria Secrets

Conflict commissioner allows double dipping

By Russ Francis
Conflict of Interest Commissioner H.A.D. Oliver has quietly approved MLAs collecting both their regular salaries and pensions earned under a now-defunct MLA pension scheme.
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Victoria Secrets

NDP decries Liberal secrets

By Russ Francis
When the Liberal- controlled legislature slashed the information and privacy commissioner's budget by 35 percent over three years, it was implementing, without change, the December 21, 2001, recommendations of the legislature's finance and government services committee.
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Victoria Secrets

MLAs see bias in B.C. auditor general report

By Russ Francis
Several Liberal MLAs took a surprisingly hostile stance toward the private sector at the December 7 meeting of the legislature's public-accounts committee.
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Victoria Secrets

B.C. Liberals flip-flop on debt

By Russ Francis
During the 1990s, B.C. Liberals often attacked the NDP government for repeatedly missing targets to pay down the debt under its formal debt-management plan.
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Victoria Secrets

New Diabetes Drug Approval Questioned

By Russ Francis
The B.C. government's recent decision to approve two diabetes drugs is a mistake, according to a University of Victoria drug-policy researcher.
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Victoria Secrets

CEO admits big losses on B.C. health deals

By Russ Francis
Maximus B.C. has lost millions on its contract to administer the province's Medical Services Plan and PharmaCare.
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