British Columbia News
BC NDP Is Wrecking British Columbia’s Tourism Industry
American Tourists Complain About Outrageous Liquor Prices
Restaurants Don’t Get Any Break On Retail Prices
What started as an underhanded price reduction scheme by the BC Liberal government has turned into a 19th century colonial taxation scam under BC NDP. Aside from the province’s middle and low-income earners British Columbia’s tourism industry may be a casualty as well, as American tourists complain about the outrageous prices of wine and other liquor products at restaurants, pubs and bars. Servers have complained that liquor sales to city residents and tourists are down, with the exception of some business visitors on expense accounts. A bottle of cheap wine often sells at $40 per bottle or $10-$12 per glass at a medium-price establishment. Restaurants and other catering establishments have to buy liquor at retail prices charged by the province, adding their markups to customers. Liquor sales often make the difference between profit and loss for restaurants. The restaurant and bar industry had already been hampered by an unrealistic change of the legal alcohol limit and the resulting cash grab that force most BC residents to wine and dine at home. Read below how a price reduction scheme has gradually blossomed into a pricing scam under the present provincial government.
Candidus Maximus
October 21, 2019
British Columbia’s Shameless Liquor Price Scam
BC Government is taking us back to the days of Prohibition.
And it’s getting away with it despite international trade agreements.
As usual, it’s a tax on the middle class and low income earners.
A $5 American bottle of wine costs in BC anywhere from $15 to $25 depending on how popular it is.
President Trump, are you listening?
This is what we call gouging the public. Ouch !
Canada Chronicle has examined how taking the federal and provincial sales taxes out of the base price has morphed into a full-blown scam to rip-off the consumer with the most outrageous prices on this continent. It actually started about 4 years ago by the BC Liberal government that passes itself off as the free enterprise crowd. For decades the price of liquor at BC Government stores included all taxes. In 2015 BC Liquor Monopoly, probably the worst in the world, appeared to give a “break” to the drinking public by separating the provincial and federal taxes from the rest of the price. Was anybody fooled by this trick except the village idiot? We don’t think so, since most of what we pay at the till is tax, anyways. For a few weeks or months the public was deceived into believing that they were going to pay less, 15-percent in taxes over a price reduction from which some taxes were subtracted, although Liquor store employees said it was a scam to charge even more in the future. They were right. Soon the base prices started going up, and we hoped it would stop after making up the 15-percent loss. It didn’t. Then comes the BC NDP after the Liberals lost the provincial election. As an example of unashamed hypocrisy, BC NDP had accused the Liberals of imposing a hidden tax in liquor prices.
Who screwed the consumer more, the Liberals or NDP ?
Canada Chronicle Suggests BC NDP wins the hypocrisy contest
The NDP, short for New Democratic Party, also known as the Tax Freaks, were salivating at having found an inexhaustible source for taxes thanks to their rivals’ underhanded trick. As of today the government is said to make about 1 billion dollars worth of profits per year, taxing the tax on the tax. Some estimates go 2 or 3 times that amount.
Bellingham, Washington: $5.99 Vancouver: $18.99 Retail
Since 2015 wine prices have risen gradually and underhandedly from 50 to a 100 percent if not more. Under the NDP Government the liquor control board has instituted a “What do consumers like to buy?” watch. If a brand catches on, its price is immediately raised by 25 to 35 percent or more. Since most British Columbians are having difficulty paying their rents and making ends meet, God knows where the hell they’re spending those profits.
Is Government Pushing Drugs On Us ?
BC’s Liquor Control & Licensing Branch, probably the world’s worst monopoly, recently changed its name to Liquor and Cannabis Regulation Branch. Is the government pushing drugs on us with its outrageous liquor prices?
September 1, 2019
Photo Radar Is Back In BC !
“Those Who Do Not Learn From History Are Doomed To Repeat It.”
George Santayana, Spanish Philosopher
If you are not an ideologue voter you will probably vote for what seems to unseasoned politicians as a trivial issue, or no issue at all. Like what hits your pocketbook every day, such as outrageous liquor prices or what pisses you off as unfair, abuse of authority, or big brother snooping on you. Case in point is the photo radar, or using snoopy technology to pick motorists’ pocketbooks in the name of protecting the public.
You know by now that we’re living in the legendary land of regulatory freaks where government even regulates dog poop. They tried to regulate bird poop as well by shooting our beautiful Canada geese in Victoria parks, but this was one of the rare times that BC consumers showed an emotion and rebelled against the freaks.
Glen Clark who brought the photo radar to BC was a good premier with a social conscience who hailed, of course, from BC NDP. Like most politicians he made a few mistakes but got caught accepting a free gift. In his last few years in power he had managed to alienate motorists with his photo radar. Gordon Campbell of the Liberal opposition was clever enough to know that it was issues like these that could make a difference especially in a close election. He promised that a Liberal government would eliminate the photo radar. Photo radar was the straw that broke the camel’s back. The Liberals won with a landslide. Glen Clark went into oblivion as a labourer in a factory.
Granted, politics is much more complicated than a single issue or photo radar, but it seems to Candidus Maximus that a government that hangs on to power with a precarious razor-thin majority like one seat thanks to the Greens cannot afford to piss off anybody by playing the Big Brother again.
People in this province don’t like the government installing spyware on our streets for whatever reason they can invent. Get rid of it before history repeats itself !
This photo radar is even more underhanded than the previous one NDP brought in. It sends tickets automatically to vehicles’ registered owners without any human interference, pitting people against machines and artificial intelligence. George Orwell at his worst! The government said they’d be installed at dangerous intersections, but refused to say if there would be any margin of error or tolerance programmed into these robots.
Will this be the straw that broke the NDP Camel’s back?
September 10, 2019
Mike Smyth: Safety or cash grab? Speed cameras could wind up in court
The B.C. government’s new high-tech speed traps will snare lead-foot drivers at dangerous intersections.
When Solicitor General Mike Farnworth unveiled the government’s promised intersection speed cameras last week, he was asked an obvious question he had no intention of answering.
But he came prepared with a sound bite that led every newscast anyway.
The question: What exact vehicle speed over the posted speed limit will trigger the intersection cameras and automatically send a ticket in the mail to the vehicle owner? Will you get a ticket for driving through the intersection at just 10 kilometres over the speed limit? What if you blow through at 20, 25 or 30 clicks over?
Farnworth refused to say, answering with a potential political quote of the year.
“If you drive like a normal person, you’re not going to get a ticket,” Farnworth said. “Drive like a self-entitled jerk, you’ll get a ticket.”
A clever response, but a non-answer all the same.
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B.C. launches new money laundering review in real estate sector
Vancouver Sun
“We don’t know yet the extent of criminal activity that may be occurring in these sectors, but we have no intent of ignoring the many warning signs,” says Attorney General David Eby.
VICTORIA — B.C. has ordered a new review of the real estate, luxury automobile and horse racing sectors over worries they’ve been used by criminals to launder illegal money.
Attorney General David Eby said Thursday he’s authorized an independent probe into money laundering that builds upon a similar investigation done earlier this year into how duffel bags full of dirty cash were allowed to flow improperly through B.C.’s casinos.
The new review will focus on sectors of the economy where criminals could use funds to purchase luxury items, like homes and high-end automobiles. In particular, Eby flagged the use of trust accounts by lawyers to mask the source of money used in real-estate transactions and the misuse of builders’ liens in the construction sector.
Vancouver businessman wins $1.2 million for Internet libel
Vancouver entrepreneur Altaf Nazerali is celebrating a $1.2-million judgment after a traumatic five-year battle against a “ruthless campaign” to destroy his reputation.
B.C. Supreme Court Justice Kenneth Affleck on Friday vindicated Nazerali, awarding him $400,000 in general damages, $500,000 in aggravated damages, $250,000 in punitive damages and $55,000 in special damages for a series of defamatory articles.