Five quick taxpayer notes for a sunny Friday here in British Columbia: 

1. Roberto Luongo’s $10,000 World Series of Poker entry fee was paid for by the B.C. Lottery Corporation. The Vancouver Canuck (soon-to-be-Panther? Maple Leaf?) goalie, due another $47 million on his NHL contract over the next 10 years, is sponsored by the Lottery Corp. Taxpayers own the Lottery Corp. Why are taxpayers funding endorsement contracts with professional athletes?

2. TransLink can’t find documents outlining how it came up with a 2006 cost estimate on a proposed light rail version of the Evergreen Line, much to the consternation of Burnaby City Council. As Coun. Colleen Jordan said: "I just burst out laughing when I read the letter." I’d laugh too, but it’s pretty much par for the course for the woefully unaccountable and bloated transit authority. In 2008, TransLink rejigged their 2006 light rail cost numbers and increased them by $400 million, to make the more expensive SkyTrain technology seem like it was in the same ballbark. Now taxpayers are on the hook for the even more expensive SkyTrain version of the Evergreen Line. From the article:

The difference in the cost of light rail between the 2006 and 2008 business cases was 44 per cent more in the latter, about $400 million.

Jordan noted that $400 million was roughly the amount TransLink had to make up with a higher gas tax, a potential property tax hike and cuts in service to get the Evergreen line project serving the Tri-Cities off the ground.

3. 24 Hours columnist Daniel Fontaine advances the argument for scrapping the B.C. Liquor Store system and going to a private model. From his piece:

The BCGEU argues that liquor stores are making Victoria lots of money; hence they deserve a bigger slice of the pie. But what they fail to acknowledge is that government makes profits off the taxes they charge on alcohol, not on who actually sells the product. Having public versus private sector employees sell liquor actually cuts into government’s bottom line.

4. Also in 24 Hours—I agree with Bill Tieleman on killing the carbon tax. Heaven help us all. Just kidding, Bill. I love this stat he pulled up on gas sales:

In 2008 – the carbon tax’s inaugural year – B.C. motor gasoline sales were 4,529.8 in thousands of cubic metres. Last year they totaled 4,536.8 thousand cubic metres. 

Gas sales went up, not down, under the carbon tax, despite a tough economic recession that reduced consumption.

5. The Transit Police needed Surrey RCMP’s help to subdue a scissor-wielding man on SkyTrain this week. Where were the other transit cops? The average transit police officer has less than 10 serious crime files a year (including unfounded cases), and it seems like any time they do, they need a jurisdictional police force like the Surrey RCMP to help them. Maybe we don’t need transit police at all—and we could just save the $27 million we spend annually on them.