i am surprised that so many people do not realize how closely related the BC parties, mining industry and hence CUU are here in BC.

i posted this a couple of days ago but it got deleted.

http://www.votesmartbc.com/issues_fastferryyears

THE FAST FERRY YEARS

A not-so-nostalgic look back at the 1990s, when the NDP drove British Columbia’s economy into the ground.

• Unemployment soared under NDP:

  Under the NDP, between 1992 and 2000, BC ranked last in private sector job creation per capita in Canada. BC also suffered the highest unemployment rate of all the Western provinces...every year from 1991 to 2000.

• NDP raised taxes by $2 billion:

  After promising they wouldn’t raise taxes, the NDP do just the opposite by raising taxes nearly $2 billion, giving BC the highest marginal income tax rate in North America. And real Disposable Income dropped every year between 1991 and 1997 (down 6%), and did not get back up to 1991 levels until 2003.

• Bankruptcies also soared under the NDP:

  While bankruptcies across Canada fell by 13% across Canada between 1994 and 1998, they rose by 12% in British Columbia under the NDP.

• NDP never met an operating deficit they didn’t like:

  During the 1990s, the BC NDP brought in eight consecutive budgets with operating deficits and doubled the province’s debt, helping earn them the dubious distinction of two credit rating downgrades and the worst fiscal record in Canada.

• Economy drove people from BC:

  It got so bad during the 1990s that British Columbians left in droves to find better opportunities elsewhere. BC lost an average of 10,000 people a year to other provinces, and in their last full year in government, nearly 14,800 people left BC.

• NDP policies drove forest industry costs up:

  The BC NDP’s Forest Practices Code – with more than 4,500 regulations contained in 252 sections, 19 Regulations Books and 38 guide books – added at least $1 billion in costs to the forest industry for no public benefit, making the coastal industry the highest cost producer of timber in the world. Between 1991 and 2001, 39 BC mills closed.

• NDP thought jobs grew on trees:

  NDP Premier Glen Clark “ordered” the forest industry to create 21,000 new jobs over five years or lose timber-cutting rights; 13,000 jobs disappeared.

• Remember the NDP’s Hydrogate?

  The only power development the NDP invested in during the 1990s wasn’t even in British Columbia. The NDP forced BC Hydro to invest in a power project in Pakistan (Raiwind) that ultimately failed, costing taxpayers $11.4 million and earning the name Hydrogate.

• NDP failed to deliver health care promises:

  The BC NDP promised health care facilities for communities across the province, but never delivered. The Jimmy Pattison Pavilion at VGH sat nearly empty for a decade. The third floor of GR Baker Hospital in Quesnel sat empty. A new hospital was promised to Abbotsford, but they never delivered. A Thompson-Okanagan-Kootenay Mental Health Facility was announced four times, but they never delivered it. However, they did find money to build fast ferries.

• False promises:

  In 1998, the NDP announced a $125 million, seven year mental health plan. Two years later, the government admitted they hadn’t funded it. “While it was announced, it was never in a budget. There was no budget approval,” Penny Priddy, former NDP Health Minister, Vancouver Sun, April 2000.

• NDP cut nursing jobs:

  To try and control health care costs in the 1990s, the NDP eliminated nearly 1,600 full-time nursing positions between 1993 and 1997. They also failed to create even one new medical school space.

• NDP closed hospital beds:

  During the 1990s, the NDP closed 3,580 beds in 10 years in hospitals across BC – a reduction of 29% of the total available beds and a reduction of 42% in the number of acute care beds per 1,000 population. However, they doubled the number of private clinics, including the Cambie and False Creek Surgical Centres.

• Wait times increased:

  Under the NDP between 1996 and 2001 wait lists for hip replacements increased from 8.5 weeks to 17.9 weeks and for knee replacements from 11.8 weeks to 21.6 weeks.

• NDP left a fiscal mess:

  When the NDP were finally tossed out of government in 2001, they left a fiscal mess with a $3.8 billion structural deficit.

FAST FERRIES

In the late 1990s, the NDP decided to get into the business of building high-speed, custom-designed, aluminum passenger-vehicle catamaran ferries. In addition to adding three vessels in short order to the BC Ferries fleet, then a Crown corporation, the NDP had visions of BC shipyards building ferries for export to international customers. The NDP even created a new Crown corporation – Catamaran Ferries International – to oversee the building of these vessels, dubbed Fast Cats ferries.

The project was deeply flawed from day one. For one, the local shipyards had little experience working with aluminum on such a grand scale. For another, BC Ferries and the government insisted on making several design changes as the project proceeded. The result, the cost of the program was 120% over budget, rising from $210 million to a staggering $454 million ($70 million per vessel to $148 million), and the delays led to final delivery three years behind schedule.

If that wasn’t bad enough, when the ferries finally started plying the waters of BC’s southern coast, the real problems surfaced one after another on an almost farcical level...until we remembered who was bearing the cost of this fiasco – BC taxpayers.

The vessels were beset with mechanical problems, and simply weren't designed for BC waters. The original design called for four gas turbine engines for each vessel, but BC Ferries insisted on less fuel efficient diesel engines. The engines consumed fuel at an alarming rate. And to achieve cruising speed, the engines had to operate at 90% power, leading to inevitable breakdowns. To compound the problem, the engine impellers had the unfortunate tendency of sucking up ocean debris, such as pieces of logs, causing further damage. In some cases, divers were required to remove the debris from the impellers.

For passengers, sailings on the ferries paled in comparison with what they were used to. The outside deck was minimal, forcing most passengers to stay in what felt like more cramped quarters, on seats that were hard. Loading and unloading vehicles took longer than conventional ferries due to “balancing” issues.
And to top it off, when the ferries operated at full speed, their wake damaged waterfront property, wharves and boats tethered to them. After an outcry from homeowners along the ferry routes and near the terminals, BC Ferries was forced to slow down the Fast Cats, effectively removing their speed advantage over conventional ferries.

Stung by the colossal failure, the NDP were forced to take the Fast Cat ferries out of service. They were finally sold after the Liberals formed the government in 2001, and have yet to be used. But to this day, they serve as a sorry exclamation mark on a decade of NDP ineptitude