Liberal cabinet minister Bill Bennett is making no apologies for calling New Democrats "turds" in a tweet last night. Bennett says he's been called worse by the opposition. Bennett says politics is a rough business and we stand up in the house and we call each other names in Question Period on a regular basis...perhaps not that particular word, but … [Read more...]
Labour leader defends new ads taking aim at “government”
February 18, 2013 by
B.C's top labour leader is defending a new ad critical of the federal government's temporary foreign worker program. BC Federation of Labour President Jim Sinclair says there's nothing wrong with pointing out more attention should have been paid by various levels of government when more than 200 jobs, that could have been done by Canadians, were … [Read more...]
Translink defends against Delta mayor’s criticism
January 26, 2013 by
Translink officials admit it’s hard to deliver transit south of the Fraser River, but they disagree with the Mayor of Delta’s claims that her community is poorly served. Bob Paddon with Translink says service in north Delta is on par with elsewhere, but he admits south Delta is a different story. "The cost of somebody getting on … [Read more...]
U-Vic defends Enbridge investments
January 10, 2013 by
One of the trustees responsible for making pension plan decisions for the University of Victoria is defending more than four million dollars worth of investments in Enbridge, the company behind the controversial Northern Gateway pipeline project. "Our practise has not been to divest. Our practise is to use our influence as a shareholder to work on … [Read more...]
Premier defends ad campaign
December 7, 2012 by
One week after the BC government announced it was cutting back on discretionary spending, Premier Christy Clark is explaining why that doesn't include the advertising budget. The Premier is all over TV these days in paid advertisements promoting her government's jobs plan. She says the ads are important for consumer confidence. "And people, I … [Read more...]
UPDATES: Speaker defends “transitional funding” for recalled MLA’s
November 8, 2012 by
The Speaker of the Legislature is defending a decision made behind closed doors to give transitional allowances of 127-thousand dollars to MLA's who are recalled. The decision was approved by both Liberal and NDP MLA's on the legislative assembly management committee in February of 2011. Speaker Blll Barisoff says the committee decided the … [Read more...]
NDP MLA defends his travel expenses
October 31, 2012 by
The New Democrat who has spent the most on travel of any MLA so far this fiscal year says there's a good reason for the big tab. Skeena MLA Robin Austin says about 19-thousand dollars worth of his 54-thousand dollar travel bill was for a trip to Sri Lanka. "I was invited by speaker Bill Barisoff to join him in attending the Commonwealth … [Read more...]
Bond defends action plan to overhaul justice system
October 23, 2012 by
B.C.'s justice minister is defending the province's plan to overhaul the justice system overhaul and the fact it comes with no new cash. Critics have said why bother with a new scheduling system when there aren’t enough judges to hear cases. Bond says it’s better to evaluate how efficiently they can spend the $ 1 billion already … [Read more...]
Health Minister defends new deal
October 3, 2012 by
BC's Health Minister is defending last week's deal giving BC nurses pay raises amounting to more than seven per cent over two years. Margaret MacDiarmid says the agreement, which must still be ratified by 32-thousand members of the BC Nurses Union, falls within the government's 'net zero' mandate, but she's reluctant to explain how taxpayers … [Read more...]
Rich Coleman defends his comments in the Surrey casino decision
The Deputy Premier is also finally talking after his scathing criticism of Surrey city council and then abrupt turn around over the South Surrey casino decision. Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts blasted Rich Coleman in an open letter for his comments. While fellow Liberal MLA Gordon Hogg said Coleman calling Surrey councillors during the … [Read more...]