When it comes to B.C. Crown Corporations, the taxpayer abuse just never ends.

One of the BC Liberal party's 2001 New Era promises was not to sell or privatize BC Rail. To appear to keep that promise after leasing out the rail part of the railroad to CN Rail, the government maintained a high-cost executive. This illusion costs taxpayers an estimated $10 million over the past six years. B.C. taxpayers have paid big to maintain the myth that BC Rail was never sold.

The BC Rail CEO made almost half a million dollars in 2008. He was making even more before the government got tough and cut his bonus and took away his lunch and golf club memberships.

A few months ago, the government finally said they'd wind down BC Rail. Now, after relaxing at the trough all these years taxpayers still gets stuck with a CEO severance payment of $393,000.

Average taxpaying families with children, making about $85,000 per year, are forced to fund these bureaucrat bonanzas.

But it should come as no surprise that our governing class has lost touch with taxpayers' ability to fund these pay jackpots. B.C. politicians gave themselves a 30 per cent pay increase and brought back gold-plated pensions for themselves, so have little moral authority to hold down the excessive pay and perk demands of public sector workers, at any level of the bureaucracy.