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VICTORIA For all the talk from the B.C. Liberals about turning around the finances on the money-losing Port Mann toll bridge, the latest provincial budget suggests they are still a long way from reaching the balance point on the project.

The financial struggle is factored out in the latest service plan for the Transportation Investment Corporation, the stand-alone entity established by the Liberals to oversee construction, maintenance and tolling on the Port Mann/Highway 1 expansion project.

The current plan offers a telling contrast to the one laid out by the Liberals three years ago, as the project neared completion prior to commencement of the tolling regime in December 2012.

Back then, the Liberals were forecasting that tolls would be bringing in more than $200 million annually by this point. Losses were projected at under $30 million a year. And the break-even point was to be reached in the financial year beginning April 1, 2017, just before the next provincial election.

But as it says on the patent medicine bottles, actual results may vary from those advertised on the label. And in the case of the Port Mann, reality was not long in demolishing the Liberals more fanciful projections, witness the contents of the service plan released last week.

Tolling revenue for the current financial year, ending March 31, has been scaled down to $120 million. The vaunted $200 million in annual revenue is nowhere to be found in the projections for the following three years.

With revenue projections down and operating costs (mostly debt servicing) unchanged, losses have multiplied to $89 million, triple what the Liberals were projecting just three years ago.

Far from shrinking, the losses are expected to keep growing to $101 million in the financial year beginning April 1, $102 million the following year and $106 million the year after that which is the one when the tolling regime was originally slated to arrive at the break-even point.

Gone from the service plan is any mention of the original, cabinet-ordered directive that the Port Mann project be put on a positive net income footing as of the financial year starting April 1, 2017. The Liberals quietly dropped that target two years ago, and have yet to announce a new one.

No wonder: the successive losses mean a corresponding escalation in the corporations cumulative operating deficit. It is projected to just about double from the current $312 million to $621 million three years from now.

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Vaughn Palmer: Theres no bridging gap between fanciful Port Mann projections, reality

OTTAWA Justin Trudeaus Liberals want the outlines of a new law governing doctor-assisted dying to be clear by mid-summer before Canadians head to the polls in October.

Theyll try to get the ball rolling Tuesday, introducing a motion that calls for the creation of a special parliamentary committee to consult experts and Canadians on the potentially explosive issue.

They want the committee up and running by March 11 and they want it to report back to the House of Commons by July 31 with a proposed legislative framework.

The Liberal motion follows a landmark ruling earlier this month by the Supreme Court of Canada, which struck down the ban on physician-assisted suicide.

The top court gave Parliament 12 months to draft new legislation that recognizes the right of clearly consenting adults who are enduring intolerable physical or mental suffering to seek medical help to end their lives.

The Harper government appears to be in no rush; Justice Minister Peter MacKay has said the government will take its time to thoroughly study the details of the court ruling and look at how other jurisdictions, including Quebec, have dealt with the issue.

The governments response has sparked speculation that the ruling Conservatives would rather not open debate on the issue, which could expose divisions among their ranks, before the election.

However, the Liberal motion notes theres not actually much time left to deal with the matter before the court-imposed deadline, pointing to the summer parliamentary break and the fall election.

Parliament is scheduled to sit for just 12 more weeks before taking a 13-week break starting June 24. The campaign for the federal election, slated for Oct. 19, will start in mid-September, before the planned resumption of Parliament.

It is thus conceivable that MPs might not get back to work before November or even December, leaving only two or three months to produce a new law on physician-assisted death.

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Liberals want quick start on assisted-suicide draft law

Fedeli holds Liberals to account on local cuts Feb. 18, 2015
Nipissing MPP Vic Fedeli details recent local health and education cuts while bringing forward concerns of CCAC workers.

By: Vic Fedeli

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Fedeli holds Liberals to account on local cuts Feb. 18, 2015 - Video

Creationist Radio Host: Liberals Are Anti-Science
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[Elite: Dangerous] Khasiri Liberals (BD+03 2338 Community Goal)
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By: Greig Pil

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