Kevin Falcon will not commit to a full BC rail inquiry
By Laila Yuile
Just back from the Vancouver Sun live chat with Kevin Falcon, in which every question I submitted was given to Falcon except the last, because time ran out. So, what can you expect from Kevin Falcon if he were to be the leader of the Liberals, or worse yet–shudder–premier?
He will continue to use and promote P3 projects far and wide because, in his own words, the government can’t build projects on time or on budget or as good as a private partner can. He says that P3 projects are not off the book debt, and are a great way to build the things we need. He also claimed the Sea to Sky was built on budget and for less than the government could have as was the Canada line. ( yes, clearly although he was transportation minister, he has no clue it has been shown time and time again that the projects would have been cheaper if the government had built them. )
He skirted right by the shadow tolls issue and did not address it.
When asked if he would commit to a full BC rail inquiry into the sale of the railroad and the legal fees paid to Basi and Virk, he emphatically stated ” NO, I will not commit to a full inquiry into the BC rail sale…” but ” I will agree to an investigation into the legal fees being paid to Basi and Virk”
Falcon’s reasoning was that the people who admitted guilt as to the statement of facts is what the government had been saying all along, that it was a couple of criminals responsible and one person with some unethical behavior but that was it. But he sure wants to know why the legal fees were paid because that was something he sure didn’t agree to.
Falcon does plan to continue the South Fraser Perimeter road because he sees the bigger picture of what our future needs… ( I suspect he has no clue what the opening of the expanded Panama Canal is going to do to our ports in terms of traffic…can you say ‘the port expansion and SFPR will become redundant’?)
He also talked about the importance of our natural resources in terms of using them,making jobs for people in the north, etc etc..
Yes, it is clear to me that a vote for Kevin Falcon, is a vote for Gordon Campbell et al. All over again… Those liberals who want to rid themselves of the Campbell era stink would do well to step away from the Falcon, who is looking more and more like another Campbell buzzard.
Laile Yuile is a journalist and blogger based in the Lower Mainland. This column originally appeared in her blog, I’m Laila Yuile and This is How I See It. Reprinted with her kind permission.
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