Robert Randall on the cover of Monday in March, 2007

The week - September 4

Sit or get off the pot

With the recent news that the provincial New Democrats had pulled ahead of the Liberals in an opinion poll, we here at Monday thought it would be a good time to check in with the NDP and see how they planned to capitalize on the stronger showing in the fall legislature session. Wait a minute—is there even going to be a fall session?

“That’s a really good question, it’s up to the Liberals,” says Opposition House Leader and Port Coquitlam-Burke Mountain MLA Mike Farnworth. “We certainly hope that there will be a fall session; that’s what we have a legislative calendar for.”

Said calendar says the fall sitting is slated to start October 6, but the Liberals have hinted they may axe the entire session. Farnworth says they likely won’t know if the sitting will happen until about a week before.

“That’s another indication of the arrogance of this government. They feel they don’t have to follow the rules, even the ones they set themselves.”

Farnworth says the Angus Reid poll, which put the NDP three points ahead of the Liberals, is a good indication of how people in the province feel about the current government.

“Certainly, it confirms what I’ve been hearing in my constituency and what my colleagues have been hearing around the province, that this government is incredibly arrogant and out of touch with the people of this province,” he says. “I think decisions around the gas tax, the pay raise for the Premier’s deputy and top bureaucrats, the IQ test for people with disabilities, I think all those things show people are not happy and how out of touch this government has truly become.”

Farnworth says the NDP’s game plan is to “continue to be vocal critics of the government and hold their feet to the fire.” He also says he isn’t concerned about NDP leader Carole James’ low approval rating in the poll.

“I think as you get closer to an election, the election tends to focus very much on the leaders. They’re front and centre in the media all the time, so I think that’s when those number start to change,” he says.

While Farnworth says the poll is good news for the NDP, it doesn’t mean they’ll be slacking off any time soon.

“Let’s put it this way: this poll is encouraging, but we all know the only poll that counts is on election day and our job is to keep hounding away at the government.”

Downtown advocate throws in

Downtown Resident Association president Robert Randall is one of the latest Victoria city council contenders.

“Victoria is at a real critical time in its development and there didn’t seem to be a lot of people stepping up to seize that challenge,” he says of his decision to throw his hat in the ring.

The artist and graphic designer has been the president of the DRA since 2006 and has been regularly attending council meetings as part of his work with the DRA—something he says many of the other nominees haven’t really done.

“I don’t think we’ve seen a lot of people who are putting their names forward actually at these meetings and getting involved with the issues and getting right down in the trenches. Not just talking about it abstractly, but really dealing with these things and getting to know what is going on,” he says. “A council term is only three years and if you haven’t attended a meeting or aren’t too up on some of the nitty gritty details, we just don’t have the time—especially with at least three rookie councillors—to have a six-month boot camp while people learn the terminology.”

Randall says his main focal points if elected would be social issues, such as enacting recommendations made by the Mayor’s Task Force on Breaking the Cycle of Mental Illness, Addictions and Homelessness and getting a community court system in place, as well as working towards creating more market rental housing. He also stresses that his focus is not just on downtown issues.

“I’m not just the downtown candidate. I was born and raised in Victoria and I’ve lived in neighbourhoods in Victoria and my family has lived in Victoria for many years,” he says. “I’m really committed to ensuring that Victoria’s neighbourhoods remain family friendly.”

Layoffs CHEK in

As of last week, close to 20 employees in CHEK-TV’s newsroom are out of work.

The planned layoffs, which came to light late January, saw the employees, most of whom were technical staff, let go in order to shift the operation of the news broadcast to Vancouver. CanWest Broadcasting’s vice president of news and information, Steve Wyatt, said in previous interviews that the layoffs were an attempt to ensure CanWest stations were utilizing current technology and upgrading all of the television stations just wasn’t an economically viable option.

Richard Konwick, president of Local 815 of the Communications, Energy and Paperworks union—which represents CanWest employees on Vancouver Island—says the layoffs won’t effect CHEK’s news coverage.

“I don’t think it will have any effect on local content,” he says “It’s going to make the show look somewhat different, but I think unless you’re really into the minutia of television news, you’re not going to notice the difference.”

Konwick says all the employees received appropriate severance packages and, as far as he knows, none of them are currently working at another CanWest station.

“I think most of them are anxious to get on with their lives after 10 months of knowing they were going to lose their job,s” he says.

When asked if his opinion on the layoffs has softened since they were first announced, Konwick says the situation has panned out as best it can.

“It’s never good to lose jobs, but at least people got what they were entitled to,” he says. “I don’t think you can stop it from happening. Technology is changing so dramatically. What we are doing now, even a couple of years ago people would have said it was impossible. Whether it’s going to be good or bad for the viewer down the road remains to be seen. I think the main thing people have to remember is they will see the local content generated here. That’s not going to change.”

Dealing the seals

Dallas Road dog-walkers may have noticed something fishy on the beach the last few weeks.

Several dead seals have washed up on the shore over the summer, leaving an unpleasant surprise for unsuspecting beach-goers in one of the city’s only summer off-leash dog parks. What is more surprising is that the bodies were left on the beach until they were washed back into the Pacific.

“We would prefer to let nature take its course and all the nutrients in those animals return back to the ocean,” says Lisa Spaven, Department of Fisheries and Oceans’ provincial marine mammal response coordinator. “From a Fisheries and Oceans standpoint, we don’t have the manpower or the equipment to go around and collect every dead seal or marine mammal throughout B.C..”

There could be a variety of reasons for the dead animals, says Spaven, including a reduction in prey stock, a spike in population making for more competition in food, sick animals or predation from orcas—or even humans.

“That is something that does happen in some locations in B.C. and quite likely even around Victoria,” she says of the possibilities of the seals being killed by humans. “In those cases, we have fisheries officers investigate any kind of violation. Killing a seal is against the fisheries act. Of all the reports I have received in the Victoria area, I haven’t received any to my knowledge where there was definite evidence of a shooting.”

Spaven says there are about 40,000 harbour seals in the Georgia Strait and the population is reaching historic numbers and appears to be levelling off. She adds that the DFO has not received an unusual amount of reports of dead seals this year.

But is it unsafe to have rotting seals on the beach?

“Provided that people are using their common sense, no,” she says.

Maybe it’s not unsafe, but having Spot come home with a face splattered in stinky seal guts isn’t much fun.

Ferry faux pas

While skimming over BC Ferries’ quarterly results last week, we here at Monday noticed a funny coincidence.

The corporation’s August 28 press release stated that “Although there has been some moderation recently in the price of fuel, BC Ferries continues to be concerned about the impact of fuel costs on customers’ travel decisions.”

A glance at the same day’s issue of the Province reveals the headline: “Ferries will not study impact of rising fares” and quotes Ferries CEO David Hahn as saying such a study would be a “policy thing” and outside of the company’s jurisdiction.

Guess they aren’t too concerned.