To the class of 2016

The BC Liberal government is giving Burnaby Central a new school. With the heavy media coverage of yesterday's California earthquake and subsequent follow-up stories about earthquake planning in B.C., the government got lucky on its timing.

The new building will begin construction in 2009 for a 2011 opening and will be designed to better withstand a major quake. Keeping the kids safe is always a good political play.

Let's just make sure it remains, as the government's favourite catchphrase goes, on time and on budget.

For oil times sake

It was a year ago yesterday:
"At approximately 12:30pm on July 24, 2007, a contractor working for the City of Burnaby struck Kinder Morgan Canada’s pipeline near its Westridge terminal in Burnaby. The pipeline was shut down in 21 minutes and Kinder Morgan initiated a comprehensive emergency response in collaboration with the City of Burnaby, Focus Wildlife, Burrard Clean and government agencies. Clean up, remediation and restoration is largely complete, environmental monitoring and an investigation into the matter is ongoing. "

Pensioners

John Nuraney, misidentified as Buraney (possibly a fusion of Burnaby and Nuraney), is among four BC Liberal MLAs seeking to opt in to the government's new pension plan.

Politicians often get attacked for improving their compensation. In the case of MLAs Claude Richmond, Ralph Sultan, Dan Jarvis and John Nuraney, they made significant sacrifice to enter the public realm. For the amount of time put in MLAs in general are undercompensated for the work they produce. There may be exceptions but most MLAs could easily make more, work fewer hours, travel less and spend more time with family.

These older MLAs deserve the same pension benefits as their younger counterparts.