The Calgary Herald’s Licia Corbella points out some uncomfortable facts:

Let’s look at the difference in the tax burden between a Canadian child born in 2017 compared with their parent born in 1987.

Assuming that the parent makes the average Canadian salary of about $50,000 annually, the parent’s lifetime taxes paid are $586,726. But that parent is also expected to receive transfers or entitlements such as child benefits, EI, elderly benefits, social assistance, health and education, totalling $510,294, which results in a relatively low lifetime tax burden of $76,432.

The child, however, is expected to pay more than $3 million in lifetime taxes and receive $2.311 million back in transfers, for a tax burden of $735,919 — an almost 10-fold increase over their parents.

In the late 1990’s, BC NDP Premier Glen Clark spearheaded a disastrous “fast ferry” shipbuilding initiative that ended up wasting the taxpayers of the province almost half a billion dollars.
Fast forward to 2014 and we find BC NDP MLA Claire Trevena insisting that new ferries be built by the province’s dysfunctional shipbuilding industry:

In May, I introduced the provincial shipbuilding act in the legislature. This legislation allows for the development of a provincial shipbuilding strategy. It would ensure vessels built with public money are built in Canada, and it would assist in building a highly skilled strong workforce through apprenticeships. Unfortunately, the B.C. Liberals have blocked this legislation.

What Ms. Trevena fails to mention is that BC’s shipbuilding industry is plagued with oppressive unions which ensure that few projects can be completed on time and on budget. It would be interesting to see a non-union shipbuilding company emerge but the NDP and their comrades will forever do their best to prevent that from happening.

Interesting revelations from Alberta’s Auditor General:

Former premier Alison Redford’s staff listed “false passengers” on government flights in order to block others from flying with her, shows a report from Alberta’s Auditor General.

In an internal government report obtained by CBC News, Auditor General Merwan Saher found that Redford’s staff entered fake passengers into the government’s online booking system and then erased the passengers before printing a final flight manifest.

“We were told by [the premier’s] office staff and multiple staff from the Department of Treasury Board and Finance that for certain flights the remaining seats available on the plane were blocked to restrict access to Premier Redford on the aircraft,” part of the review states.

“The implications of this practice were that other government employees or elected officials would not have been able to travel on those aircraft.”

Update: Charles Adler discusses the scandal with Lorne Gunter.