BC Politics with Hubert Beyer

GOVERNMENT LOSES MILLIONS TO THIEVERY

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VICTORIA -- We’ve always felt that the government is stealing us blind, what with taxes and fees on everything we do.

Now a report by Auditor General George Morfitt seems to indicate that at least some British Columbians are determined to get even.

Innocuously titled Loss Reporting in Government, Morfitt’s report leaves one with the distinct impression that British Columbians are an army of thieves and scoundrels.

Although the report deals primarily with the inadequate reporting of losses to the Finance Ministry’s Risk Management Branch, it also reveals just what it is that government ministries and agencies routinely "lose," – everything that isn’t nailed down and then some.

During the 1996-97 fiscal year, more than $1 million worth of "moveable assets and cash" were pilfered from just four ministries – Environment, Lands and Parks, Health, Transportation and Highways and – this tickles my fancy – Attorney General, the very ministry that is in charge of law and order.

The non-cash items included everything from furniture to computers, printers and other peripherals.

But it isn’t only government employees who make off with moveable assets. During the 12 months in question, 160 violations of the Forest Practices Code in relation to unauthorized timber harvesting – theft by any other name – were recorded. Fines for these violation resulted in a $612,000 claw-back by the government.

During that same period, 514 British Columbians got caught trying to collect benefits under the Medical Services Plan to which they weren’t entitled.. Some of these cases were considered criminal.

The fraudulent collection of welfare benefits was even more impressive. The ministry investigated close to 30,000 cases and came up with 12,000 fraud artists who collectively would have gotten away with a cool $32 million, had they not been caught.

Understandably, government ministries haven’t been too eager to have their losses through theft, negligence or vandalism become public knowledge, unless t suits their political masters to do so.

That was the case when the NDP government tried to make political hey by going after welfare frauds. But by and large, admitting that they’re being robbed blind is something the bureaucrats would rather not do.

Morfitt, however, wants to change that. He recommends that all ministries "publish annual summarized statistics of reported asset losses, perhaps as part of their annual reports."

As I said at the outset, Morfitt’s report concerns itself mostly with the lack of proper reporting of government losses, rather than the way the stuff disappears. Which isn’t to say that Morfitt considers the loss of cash and moveable assets O.K., as long as it’s properly reported.

Chances are that detailed reporting to the Risk Management Branch of any losses will identify certain underlying problems, the solution of which would reduce losses.

To keep tabs on the problem, Morfitt also wants the Risk Management Branch to provide his office with monthly summaries of government losses.

When provided with advance notice of his recommendations, the Finance Ministry promised to comply. Good move. Once on your case, the auditor general can make life pretty miserable for any public servant.

At least, the politicians have been brought under control. Some years back, any defeated MLA was, by law, allowed to take equipment from his or her office into retirement. And every time an MLA was fired by the electorate, the taxpayers had to fork out money to buy computers, fax machines, dictating equipment and other items for the newly-elected batch.

TOWN WANTS TO CALL IT QUITS

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VICTORIA -- "No, I’m just a dumb farmer," Rolly Hein said to me when I asked him if he was on the District of Lake Country council. Yea right. And crazy like a fox.

Hein was in Victoria to give Municipal Affairs Minister Jenny Quan an earful. He and 2,083 other residents of Lake Country want to have their Okanagan municipality unincorporated. A petition to that effect, signed by the aforementioned number of people, was tabled in the legislature later that day.

Lake Country comprises the towns of Winfield, Oyama, Okanagan Centre and Carrs Lake. The four towns were incorporated in 1994, making it the youngest municipality in British Columbia.

Not that the vote to incorporate was unanimous. Oyama and Carrs Lake voted no, Winfield and Okanagan Centre yes. Now the majority of the voting-age population of Lake Country want to trash their fledgling municipality. And for some fairly good reasons.

Hein, a former Central Okanagan Regional District director for the area, says residents can no longer cope with the municipal tax increases, 18 per cent this year. To make matters worse, Lake Country council is intent on building a $16.5 million sewer system. And all without an adequate industrial tax base.

Add to that the devolution of highways maintenance, as the offloading by the province on municipalities is called, and the fiscal outlook for Lake Country is pretty gloomy. "Incorporation has impoverished us forever," says Hein.

Hein, a farmer, says he and his wife earn no more than $12,000 a year from their farm. A lot of Lake Country residents, he adds, are in a similar position. "Just about the best you can hope for is a minimum-wage job."

Peace River towns, such as Fort St. John and Pouce Coupe, face similar problems. The lack of an industrial tax base has left their infrastructure in ruins. Some residents have tried to get Victoria’s attention by threatening to secede and join Alberta.

So far, the idea hasn’t caught on with the majority of the towns’ population, but I suggest it would be unwise of Victoria to ignore the plight of those Peace River towns. The same goes for Lake Country.

Hein says Lake Country Mayor Bob McCoubrey believes the petition should be taken with a grain of salt, because some people may have signed it, not understanding what exactly unincorporation may entail, but he dismisses that point.

The petition, he says, expresses the wishes of the majority of Lake Country residents and should be acted upon by the province.

Now, I don’t know whether deep-down Hein believes he’s got a chance to succeed. Nor am I sure it’s a good idea. Radical surgery ought be reserved for only the most serious diseases. In many cases, proper treatment is preferable.

Rob Munro, urban affairs reporter with the Kelowna Daily Courier, who is much closer to the issue, says the petition is probably more a statement of dissatisfaction with the way Lake Country is run than a real desire to have the municipality unincorporated.

At the very least, however, it is a wake-up call that not all is well in rural British Columbia and Victoria had better do something about it.

For as long as I can remember, one of Victoria’s favorite pastimes has been Ottawa-bashing. Many of this province’s complaints are justified, but Ottawa rarely listens.

With Victoria passing much of the federal off-loading on to municipalities, a lot of B.C. towns also have justified beefs. And just as Victoria expects Ottawa to act on its demands, it should heed those of its own municipalities. Anything less would be hypocritical.

What would help Lake Country is a special grant in lieu of the industrial tax base it doesn’t have. And if the Municipal Act doesn’t allow for that – a favorite ruse to shut up meddlesome municipal officials – change the damned thing.

If that happens, Hein’s efforts to gather more than 2,000 signatures in favor of unincorporation will have paid off.

REITSMA THE PROLIFIC FAKER

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VICTORIA -- Just about the only thing left to find out about Paul Reitsma’s penchant for writing phoney letters lies probably in his early school years in his native Holland.

If we dig deep enough, some school teacher is bound to tell us that young Master Reitsma was in the habit of writing notes under the signature of his mother, telling the school what a bright lad he was.

This bugus-letter thing has certainly mushroomed. First our esteemed MLA from Parksville-Qualicum gets caught writing a letter to the Parksville Morning Sun under the signature of one Warren Patenko, who doesn’t exist. The letter kicks the hell out of Jan Pullinger, the NDP MLA of the neighboring riding of Cowichan-Malahat and sings the praises of himself .

Caught and cornered, he lies about it, triggering one the most succinct headlines I’ve ever read: "Our MLA Paul Reitsma is a liar and we can prove it." Now that’s gutsy journalism.

Asked by reporters if he has ever written phoney letters before, old Paul scratches his head, thinks for a moment and says: "Not to my knowledge. I don’t think so." Hey, I don’t remember everything either.

Unfortunately, the same day, those pesky reporters find out that he has written at least another 10 letters under assumed names, all slamming political opponents. Forgetful Paul has no choice but to fess up to those letters, too.

Now, I thought that would surely be the end. How wrong I was. There are people coming out of the woodwork who were the targets of letters written by Reitsma under phoney names, all the way back to 1985.

The latest to come forward is former Parksville councillor Dean Hustwick. According to Hustwick, his family started receiving letters from non-existing people just before his father Allen defeated Reitsma in the 1985 mayoralty campaign.

Hustwick says other people started getting similar letters. Newspapers were flooded with them. The handwriting was always the same. It went on for years after the election.

When Hustwick was elected to Parksville council, along with Reitsma, he started to receive fake letters.

In the late 1980s, Hustwick and his dad took three letters to the RCMP, asking them to finger-print them. At first, the RCMP agreed, then dragged their feet.

Hustwick d his father kept up the pressure, going al the way up to the assistant deputy attorney general. They got nowhere because it was determined that it was no crime to impersonate somebody that doesn’t exist.

It must have been his victims’ failure to stop him legally that prompted Reitsma to brazenly forge on and continue writing phoney letters, attacking his perceived enemies and praising himself, until he got caught by someone who proved, once again, that the pen is mightier than the sward.

And here he is, disgraced, kicked out of the Liberal caucus, his political career in ruins, his family shamed, his life in shambles. And all for what? For the sake of what he thought was power.

There is something very wrong with Reitsma. He needs serious counselling. Nobody in his right mind would resort to such unimaginative and stupid methods to further their political career.

The final act in the Reitsma drama will play out over the next few months, as the recall process unfolds. It will be the first time recall legislation is used for the purposes it was intended.

A last thought: I’ve tried to find out if anyone feels the slightest bit sorry for Reitsma. I found no-one. Some tell me they feel sorry for his family, which makes them even madder at Reitsma because it is he who put his family in that position.

And yet, is compassion to be confined to the innocent?