#nevervoteneoliberal — Public Fediverse posts

More than two dozen lobbyists who served as public officials under David Eby and John Rustad’s past governments have actively lobbied the two party leaders since 2020, an IJF analysis has found.

Ahead of the B.C. election, the IJF has identified 25 lobbyists who held public office over the last two decades and have since communicated with B.C. NDP Leader Eby or B.C. Conservative Leader Rustad, or both.

That includes a former health and environment minister who served alongside Rustad in the last B.C. Liberal cabinet, two former staff members from the office of John Horgan, Eby’s predecessor as NDP premier, and a handful of ministerial chiefs of staff and deputy ministers under the Liberals.

Bryan Evans, a politics professor at Toronto Metropolitan University, said it’s always a concern when someone makes the switch from government to lobbying.

“Lobbying is very much about who you know — the kind of social and political capital one carries based on networks that they build while working in government,” he told the IJF.

“The public, the media, the opposition, whatever it may be, should know who is actually talking to people in positions to make authoritative and consequential decisions.”

https://theijf.org/bc-lobbying-communications

#BCpoli #Lobbyists #BClobbying #BCElection2024 #ImVotingGreen #BCGreens #BCGreenParty #EthicalVoters #VotingForSustainableFutures #VotingForGreenerFutures #NeverVoteConservative #NeverVoteNeoliberal #BanCorporateLobbyists #PublicTransparency #FollowTheMoney #GuiltyByAssociation

#BCGreens - let's go! Fuck strategic voting in FPTP systems of corruption. BC Greens want proportional elections system & I've wanted that for over 25 yrs.

#BCpoli #AsianMastodon #EthicalVoters #BCElection2024 #BCVotes2024 #VoteGreen #BCGreenParty #BCpoli #BCElection2024 #ImVotingGreen #BCGreen #EthicalVoters #VotingForSustainableFutures #VotingForGreenerFutures #NeverVoteConservative #NeverVoteNeoliberal

At least a third of the publicly funded #AddictionTreatment beds #BCgovernment claims are available for drug users across #BritishColumbia do not actually offer treatment, the #IJF has learned.

“B.C. now has 3,645 publicly funded substance-use treatment beds, including 659 beds opened since 2017 with more to come,” the Ministry of Mental Health and Addictions announced in an Aug. 27 press release.

But a breakdown of the available types of adult and youth treatment options provided by the ministry shows that its tally includes 1,232 low-barrier housing beds, accounting for about 34 per cent of the total.

#Addictions treatment is not directly provided in low-barrier housing in B.C., but is part of “a full continuum of support services,” the ministry said in an email to the IJF. This type of facility simply makes shelter available to people who use drugs, without requiring them to abstain or be in treatment.

The news comes as both the #BCConservatives and the #BCNDP government are touting #involuntary addiction care as a solution to the province’s ongoing #ToxicDrugCrisis.

That #political focus is deeply frustrating for Correne Antrobus of #MomsStopTheHarm, an advocacy group led by families affected by tainted illegal drugs.

https://theijf.org/bc-publicly-funded-addiction-treatment-low-barrier-housing

#BCpoli #Medical #PublicHealth #HarmfulPolicy #Cruelty #HumanRights #MentalHealth #AddictionsStigma #MentalIllnessStigma #BreakTheSitgmas #HelpNotHarm #BCNewDeathParty #BCNDPLegacyoOfDeath #FundMentalWellness #FundSocialHousing #NeverVoteConservative #NeverVoteNeoliberal #BCElection2024 #BCVotes2024 #BCelection #CDNpoli