dodgy – marked by skill in deception; “cunning men often pass for wise”; “deep political machinations”; “a foxy scheme”; “a slick evasive answer”; “sly as a fox”; “tricky Dick”;

Posted on by Laila

I love it when it things come together, as they do in this post from Paul Willcocks, who brings us this commentary on the situation with Liberal MLA Eric Foster, who finds himself with some explaining to do….. the latest in the saga of the removal of Auditor General John Doyle.

http://willcocks.blogspot.ca/2013/01/another-bizarre-and-alarming-twist-in.html

29 thoughts on “dodgy – marked by skill in deception; “cunning men often pass for wise”; “deep political machinations”; “a foxy scheme”; “a slick evasive answer”; “sly as a fox”; “tricky Dick”;”

  2. It sure looks like our government in Victoria is desperate to not have John Doyle and his team get access to the BC Rail documents they are having to use the court system to secure, in spite of the legal right the AG has for them. A new AG will no doubt be under instructions to cancel the request and shutdown that court action.

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    1. I think there is a list about a mile long detailing all the reasons he needs to go, but you know the BC Rail thing is front and centre. However, Eric Foster takes a blue ribbon award for most questionable activity with taxpayers money .

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  3. First of all, kudos to the 2 Times Colonist reporters who broke the story and who have written seperate articles on it .Thanks also to Laila and other bloggers who are picking up these threads.Foster has no ‘plausible deniability” around not being aware of the letter that singles him out for shoddy accounting. It smacks of a personal vendetta,Here is my question:
    he clearly now has no credibility or moral authority to continue to sit on the hiring committee. Be as that may, in the light of this mess, will the Liberals plow through saying he did nothing illegal? If he stays, would he dare not re-hire Doyle if he were to re-apply as I hope to God he does? How will the Liberals deal with this mess? And just when we thought they could ever outdo the Python gang in surreal silliness!!

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    1. Should have stepped down or recused himself from this decision making process. There is such a lack of integrity and ethics in this government its appalling.

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  4. When the ‘lamestream media’ originally reported on the legislature spending scandal, why wasn’t Foster’s office renovations brought up? Or did I miss something in the MSM reports?

    Since Foster is the only BC Liberal MLA on the committee who will be running in the next election, would it be safe to assume that it was his vote that gave Doyle his walking papers?

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  5. Amazing how the Liberals can keep getting sleezier, I hope Mr. Doyle fights back and Foster should resign now and repay taxpayers for his abuse of our funds.
    Enough of Christie Cleavage and her gang wasting our money

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      1. The original request was for $78,000, the spreadsheet amount was $67,000 I guess Mr.Foster thought $11,ooo for all the bother he was put through would be adaquate.
        I for one don’t see where the money went or could have gone to renovations for such a space. I’d at this point be worried if I were Mr. Foster!
        He claims priviledge because it is a personnel issue and therefore doesn’t or can’t supply information on the committees vote but Mr Doyle is a public servant not a Government employee, so how can this be? I think our Mr. Foster may be in for a few restless nights sleep.
        I personally would like to apologize to Mr. Glen Clark for what he was put through for a $6,000 deck ,he paid for, and the troubles it caused him in his life. i hope you can forgive what happened.

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    1. Yes, two Aussies — Drex and Doyle — get the axe in the same week.

      We could use a kangaroo court for our corrupt/ incompetent elected officials.

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        1. Justin (drex) starts with CFOX Monday morning…!! That’s got to be a record for the fastest re-hire after being fired..lol….

          But I bet Christy won’t be going on that station anymore..lol..

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        2. Good news for him. He got a raw deal for assuming she was as how she had earlier presented herself- our Premier aka The Wife of Bath (Chaucer’s Canterbury’s Tales)

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    2. I did speak briefly with Justin,yesterday morning before the company issued its press release, he doesnt know much.

      I can confirm from a seperate source, that this was not the result of pressure from the premiers office and was an internal decision.

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  10. According to the BC Assessment office, the current assessed value of the land and office Mr. Foster is occupying at 3209 31st Avenue in Vernon is $187,100. Can Mr. Foster explain why he originally signed off on $78,000 and ultimately paid $67,000 of taxpayers’ money for renovations on a four-year leased office when standard leasing practice is for the landlord to pay for renovations and then reflect those renovations in the rent? Can he explain the viability of paying almost half what the building was worth in order to bring it up to his standards? Can he explain why he didn’t simply rent a different building instead?

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    1. And… this begs the question:when he loses in the next election, who benefits from the renos? Someone close to him who ownes the building! They should get a tidy sum for a lease on our dime.

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    2. With all due respect Mr. Anderson, I have asked those very same logical questions without the opportunity of being Mr. Foster’s opponent in the upcoming election. They are good questions indeed but your reason for asking such logical questions here I find well questionable.
      Obviously Mr. Foster has some answering to do about these affairs but my hope is that he will answer to the taxpayers and not to the places where you dwell.

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  11. Regarding Gini’s question up thread regarding why Mr. Foster’s expenses were not highlighted in the AG’s July report, here are a couple of quotes from the report:

    “At the request of the Speaker, I did not audit, at this time, the use of the $119,000 annual Constituency Office Allowance provided to each Member of the Legislative Assembly, except to the extent to which it was used to pay the salaries of Constituency Office Assistants and to ensure that no more than the maximum annual allowance was paid to each Member. As discussed in the “looking ahead” portion of this report, an examination of these amounts will feature in future audits.

    During 2012, I will expand the scope of my audit work to include all aspects of the $119,000 Constituency Office Allowance, plus all other periodic payments Members may receive from the Legislative Assembly to run their constituency offices. This will include auditing constituency office records and payments made at constituency offices. This audit will not include Ministerial allowances. It is important to note that most of this constituency office funding goes towards wages and benefits for staff at these offices, which is administered by the Legislative Assembly, and as such, was within the scope of my work to date.”

    Which begs the question: Did the staff at Mr. Foster’s constituency office suffer a cut in numbers or remuneration in 2009?

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  12. Just in case my question above was a bit unclear, I will ask it in a different manner. When Mr. Foster won election to replace Mr. Christensen, he retained the former MLA’s constituency staff. Is it possible that the staff was paid from Mr. Christensen’s allowance, and the renovations from Mr. Foster’s?

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    1. I would hope to see the NDP on this aggresively… but it seems the Cons take this one. Of course Scott Anderson has a vested interest in making hay of this one…..

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  14. My my. This is a gift that keeps on giving. In today’s Sun, Mr Doyle comes out swinging calling the re-appoitment process piece meal and “Mickey Mouse”. He takes issue with the timing of his interview last year and believes the contract was not up until the end of the fall. He also mentioned Foster’s role in this and accuses him of not being independent. Apparantly something very interesting was said to Doyle by Foster, something Doyle will share publically when he deems the time is right. They have a tiger by the tail!

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