Since Monday is Christmas Eve, and all of us tax-fighting elves will be busy plotting a refueling strategy/route to help Santa avoid carbon taxes on his sleigh ride around the world, I thought I’d do a special Friday edition of our Monday Morning Quarterback. So here are five things making the B.C. office think today:

1. Ice Ice Mary

This Port Mann Bridge ice bomb debacle is as ridiculous as they come. We spent $3.3 billion on a bridge that can’t cope with icy conditions. In Canada. It’s just plain silly. Transportation Minister Mary Polak, once she made an appearance 24 hours after the ice started falling on to freeway traffic, promises taxpayers won’t be on the hook. But we already are: the Crown Corporation responsible is paying the deductibles of the 100+ cars damaged. ICBC is paying to repair those vehicles. And if this gets too expensive, a scenario can easily be imagined where the bridge builder and government ends up in court – more tax dollars.

2. Lake Living in La La Land

Polak’s cabinet teammate, Environment Minister Terry Lake, was out with another op/ed praising the carbon tax. Let’s do a quick dissection. Lake notes how popular the tax is with the New York Times and Los Angeles Times. Of course, newspaper editorials don’t set public policy and the carbon tax continues to be rejected by every other jurisdiction in North America. Lake breaks his arm patting himself on the back for B.C.’s 4.5% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions – but fails to mention Canada’s GHGs (without a carbon tax) fell 8% during that span. He notes the questionable Ottawa green think tank study claiming fuel purchases are down in B.C. – but doesn’t mention cross border leakage into the U.S. or Alberta, nor improved vehicle fuel efficiency, nor the fact that StatsCan shows gas purchases are actually up in B.C.

3. City Hall Controversies

24 Hours’ Daniel Fontaine details some of the controversies gripping local politicians, but misses the biggest one – mayors and councillors claiming 2-3 percent tax increases fall within inflation. B.C.’s inflation rate is 0.7% - most of these cities are raising taxes 4 or 5 times that amount.

4. Budget Blues

Speaking of questionable budgets, former Vancouver City Councillor Jonathan Baker absolutely eviscerates Vancouver’s new budget method. It’s a great read – unless you’re a Vancouver city taxpayer.  

5. Told You So

A fascinating piece in the Globe and Mail about the Harper’s government to cancel the Liberal sale of Prince Rupert’s Ridley terminal, how a new board turned it around, and the increased value taxpayers are about to get out of it. And it’s written by a former federal Liberal candidate:

Wisely, Stephen Harper cancelled that fire sale and eventually appointed a new board, which I chaired. We took it upon ourselves to fix the appalling mess we found. But that didn’t sit well with those who got used to RTI as their own taxpayer-financed sandbox. These companies, some of which were profitable multinationals, hired expensive Ottawa lobbyists and complained to regional ministers. Their gripe? We were insisting that they pay fair market rates, not the taxpayer-subsidized ones they by now felt was their entitlement. On behalf of my board, I told them to get lost. So they went back to Ottawa and demanded my head on a stick. That’s what they got.

But because they had complained so loudly about something that made little sense, my sacking gave them little comfort, and provided all the political cover the RTI board and management needed to stay the course. That’s exactly what happened, and today, instead of selling RTI for $3-million, it will fetch well over $700-million.

Some Crown corporations play a vital and strategic public policy role. Ridley Terminals was never one of them. Companies such as these do nothing but distort the marketplace and obstruct economic growth and investment.

That’s a pretty good told-you-so.