Pay to Play in BC with LNG and KBR

On Friday March 18, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Catherine McKenna signed off on environmental approval for the controversial Woodfibre LNG Project in Howe Sound, saying the project is "not likely to cause significant adverse environmental effects". 
By Monday morning, Houston-based KBR had been awarded a multi-phased Front-End Engineering and Design contract for Woodfibre.

Interesting choice. 

KBR describes itself as "a global technology, engineering, procurement and construction company serving the hydrocarbons and government services industries".

You might better remember KBR as Kellogg Brown and Root.  A subsidiary of Dick Cheney's Halliburton until 2007, KBR was once the single largest US military contractor in Iraq with a hand in building Guantanamo Bay in Cuba and the sole contractor for Bagram base and the $100M US embassy in Afghanistan. 

They were in the news a bit :

2013 : Federal Court Orders U.S. Defense Contractor KBR To Stand Trial in Nepali Human Trafficking Case 

2013 : KBR Secret Indemnity Agreement Signed By Army Chief Tainted In Enron Scandal

2012 : KBR negligent in exposing National Guard soldiers to toxic chemicals in Iraq

2011 : KBR Tries to Convince Judge to Use Iraqi Law in Shower Death of Green Beret

2009 : KBR wins contract despite criminal probe of deaths 

2009 : Kellogg Brown and Root Pleads Guilty to Foreign Bribery Charges, Agrees to Pay $402M Criminal Fine 

2009  Shell companies in Cayman Islands allow KBR to avoid Medicare, Social Security deductions

2008 : SEC Charges Former CEO of Kellogg, Brown & Root, Inc. with Foreign Bribery

2008 : Top Iraq contractor skirts US taxes offshore

I'm sure everything's fine now.

Woodfibre LNG Limited is a subsidiary of Pacific Oil & Gas Limited, in turn part of Singapore-based RGE owned by billionaire tycoon Sukanto Tanoto seen here at left with Christie Clark. One of Mr. Tanoto"s companies has also made news headlines around the world about off shore tax fraud and money-laundering.

The Woodfibre LNG KBR contract announcement was made by Woodfibre "Country Manager and VP" Byng Giraud, described as their "first North American employee." 

Formerly Conservative Resources Minister Gary Lunn's Saanich-Gulf Islands campaign manager in 2008 in what came to be known as Canada's first misleading robocall election, Mr. Giraud's bio  notes he was "on the governing council of the Conservative Party of Canada with Prime Minister Stephen Harper", so naturally Giraud and Woodfibre have supported Christie Clark's BC Liberals however they can :

VO Feb 2015 : BC Liberals sponsored by Woodfibre LNG at swanky fundraiser

"The Clark government’s BC Liberal party was sponsored by Woodfibre LNG at an upscale, private members' fundraiser event on Thursday night.
“We’d like to thank our sponsor tonight, Woodfibre LNG ...

“That treads very close to that thin line between legitimate fundraising and influence peddling ..."

That would be the thin line between a fundraiser held in February 2015 and the next BC election in May 2017. 

Elections BC Political Contributions Tables for 2014/2015  for Mr. Giraud and Woodfibre : 

  

Photo Credit at top : Richard Duncan/Sea-to-Sky.

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Gordo appointee cans Elections BC officer who axed his HST mailout

The popularity of Lotusland's estimable premier is currently running at 12%.

There are a lot of very good reasons for this but let's just go with what 83% of the people polled told Angus Reid : they don't trust the bastard.

Here's another reason, not that you'd know anything about it from reading our local press.

When Gordon Campbell was planning to mail out a plushy $780,000 pamphlet hawking the benefits of his new Harper Scam Tax to the same BC residents who were successfully gathering sufficient signatures to have that sucker repealed, Elections B.C. Deputy CEO Linda Johnson told him he couldn't do that. No advertising during the repeal drive, she wrote in her decision, because Elections BC is an independent office which covers referenda as well as elections.

Finangling Minister Colin "HST wasn't on my radar" Hansen was some pissed about that.

Meanwhile the chief electoral officer ended his term in June and Gordo appointed a temporary replacement, Craig James, formerly the clerk of committees, who immediately enraged everyone by not sending the HST repeal petition to committee until business groups could do a court challenge to it. Nice.

Now that same Craig James has fired Linda Johnson, 19 years the deputy chief electoral officer.

Ah, but it's not a firing, said some flack, they're just restructuring Elections BC without a deputy now.

Sure they are. Because what better time to fire the #2 person who has been deputy officer for 19 years than just three months after the #1 guy has left and just as a major confrontation on the HST is in the offing. And what the hell is a temporary Campbell-appointed CEO doing "restructuring" Elections BC anyway?

It would be good to hear something from Acting Chief Electoral Officer Craig James about this but unfortunately he is apparently away doing volunteer work somewhere for the moment.

Well, there'll be volunteer work aplenty after the recalls start.

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thanx to RossK for the horrible pic. Yup, Gordo endorsed Steve's election.

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