#ubcm2011

#BCPoli #Vancouver #UBCM – This year featured about 10 hospitality suites or receptions depending on who was counting…Here’s one opinion on the top 5:

5.  Enbridge Presidents Reception at the Fairmont Water

-  Good Crowd, Served Lamp Chops amongst other goodies, but had a long bar line

4.  Stantec & Epcor Reception at the Vancouver Club

-  Another big crowd, cheese cake buffet was very popular, good coverage on the bar

3.  Port Edward Hospitality Suite hosted by Mayor Dave MacDonald at the Sutton Place

-  No better people on earth than the Port Edward Crew!  Lots of Port Ed’s finest seafood and the hourly draws for canned Salmon was a big hit!

2.  Fortis Reception at Canada Place

-  Having a couple Canucks on hand was a big hit, and the presentation by Van Canucks Assistant GM Laurence Gilman was very interesting and appreciated in the packed ballroom.  The only thing that held Fortis out of top spot was closing the bar at 7pm!

1.  Cupe Reception at the Hyatt Regency

-  The brothers and sisters at Cupe threw one outstanding reception, it was very well attended!  There was plenty of food and a very wide assortment of it!  But the key was a fully stocked bar that was open until midnight (Fortis take note :P)

5.  Surprise Cabinet Shuffle – Without Shuffling “The General”

-  Shirley Bond, MLA for Prince George – Valemount remained both the Solicitor and Attorney General after a cabinet shuffle in advance of the house sitting again.  Most assumed the only reason to have a shuffle would be to take one of those major portfolios off Minister Bond’s plate.

4.  No Mention of Enbridge Northern Gateway

-  Perhaps there were too many other issues or the anti Gateway group was tied up protesting against Dick Cheney being in town or the smart meters.  Either way it didn’t make the water cooler at the convention centre

3.  Premier Christy Clark and Opposition Leader Adrian Dix Both Very Well Received

-  Both had many more people listening to their speeches and received fair more applause...although both gave much better addresses than their predecessors did last year.

2.  Provincial vs Federal Tiff over RCMP

-   Although Ottawa bashing used to be a provincial sport in the 90’s there hasn’t been a good donnybrook in some years.  It was very interesting (perhaps timely) to have it all play out in the one week where 1,500 local government politicians were hand to get front row seats

#bcpoli #ubcm2011 #resolutions of interest:

Resolution A2 - Online Voting in 2014 Local Gov't Elections (will be interesting to see the debate, but likely to pass)

B1 - Duty to Respect Confidential Information by PG (interesting as per the happenings with one of their councillors in particular, likely to pass)

B29 - Rural Dividend by Barriere (Rural BC wants to get paid :))

B30 - Revenue Sharing from Mining Royalties by RDKS (same as above)

B106 - Elimination of MSP Premiums For Seniors {including wealthy seniors} (will pass, but interesting if someone speaks against the resolution, perhaps notes the major whole in the provincial budget and the program in place to help all low income British Columbians)

B120 - Increasing the Interest Rate on Arrears and Delinquent Taxes (should pass in a land slide, current rate is just 5%, which is lower than many mortgage rates, but no recommendation from the resolution committee)

B125 - Breach of Oath by Elected Official by Prince George again.  (Definitely worth googleing the story)