Tuesday, May 31, 2016

BC Liberal Bafflegab: 90 Scientists & policy experts vs 1 unqualified Minister of Environment

B.C. environment minister says climate scientists' letter 'doesn't meet with reality'

Mary Polak defends B.C. Liberals' committment to LNG, the 'cleanest burning' fossil fuel
Matt Meuse (May 30, 2016). CBC News. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/polak-lng-letter-1.3608162

International climate change experts have decried plans for a liquified natural gas industry in B.C., but Environment Minister Mary Polak says LNG has a key role to play as a transition fuel — and that those experts haven't taken a wide enough view of the industry.

In a letter addressed to federal environment minister Catherine McKenna, 90 scientists and policy experts said the proposed Pacific NorthWest LNG plant near Prince Rupert would make it "virtually impossible" for B.C. to meet its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets.

But Polak said the letter's authors have taken a myopic view of the situation and that the provincial government would be announcing a number of GHG reduction measures later this month.

"By their own admission in the letter, they say that they have based their estimates on no new actions in terms of climate," Polak told On the Coast host Stephen Quinn.

"Their assumption from the beginning doesn't meet with reality."

LNG as a "transition" fuel

The letter's authors say the new facility would increase B.C.'s GHG emissions by as much as 22.5 per cent. But Polak said the LNG from the plant would be used in place of GHG-rich fuels like coal and diesel and would therefore mean a net reduction in emissions.

"You would likely only see about 3.7 megatons annually as a result of [the Pacific NorthWest facility], which is far, far below what the scientists are estimating in their letter," Polak said.

Polak said that, while a complete transition to clean energy is a desirable goal, it won't happen overnight, especially in less developed countries like China. She said LNG has an important role to play as a "transition" fuel that burns cleaner than current energy staples like coal that can fill the gap until clean energy technology is more viable.

"In cases where you are replacing products that would've been dirtier, you are reducing emissions," she said.

In the letter, the authors say there is no evidence that LNG will replace coal in overseas markets and may actually replace non-GHG-emitting forms of energy like nuclear.

McKenna, the federal environment minister, has yet to approve the Pacific NorthWest project. She was expected to make a decision earlier this year, but postponed the decision after officials requested further information about it.

With files from CBC's On the Coast.

Monday, May 30, 2016

More Multi-million dollar Failed IT Projects

Nanaimo doctors say electronic health record system unsafe, should be shut down


Cindy E. Harnett | Times Colonist
- See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/nanaimo-doctors-say-electronic-health-record-system-unsafe-should-be-shut-down-1.2264497#sthash.oOsV5jMQ.dpuf

Nanaimo doctors say electronic health record system unsafe, should be shut down


Cindy E. Harnett | Times Colonist
- See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/nanaimo-doctors-say-electronic-health-record-system-unsafe-should-be-shut-down-1.2264497#sthash.oOsV5jMQ.dpuf
Nanaimo doctors say electronic health record system unsafe, should be shut down - See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/nanaimo-doctors-say-electronic-health-record-system-unsafe-should-be-shut-down-1.2264497#sthash.oOsV5jMQ.dpuf
Implementation of a $174-million Island-wide electronic health record system in Nanaimo Regional General Hospital — set to expand to Victoria by late 2017 — is a huge failure, say senior physicians.
After a year of testing, the new paperless iHealth system rolled out in Nanaimo on March 19. Island Health heralds the system as the first in the province to connect all acute-care and diagnostic services through one electronic patient medical record, the first fully integrated electronic chart in the province.
But nine weeks after startup, physicians in the Nanaimo hospital’s intensive-care and emergency departments reverted to pen and paper on Wednesday “out of concern for patient safety.”
Doctors said the system is flawed — generating wrong dosages for the most dangerous of drugs, diminishing time for patient consultation and losing critical information and orders.
“The whole thing is a mess,” said a senior physician. “What you type into the computer is not what comes out the other end.
“It’s unusable and it’s unsafe. I’m surprised they haven’t pulled it. I’ve never seen errors of the kind we are now seeing.”
Doctors are so concerned, they want Island Health to suspend the implementation.
“Take it away and fix it and test it before you bring it back — stop testing it on our people,” said one doctor. “Why wasn’t this introduced in Victoria first? If they went live in Victoria first, they would have a riot.”
The doctors, who fear reprisals, spoke to the Times Colonist on condition of anonymity.
The $174-million system started with a 10-year $50-million deal for software and professional services signed in 2013 with Cerner Corporation, a health information technology company headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Thus far, the company has been paid close to $12 million. The remaining $124 million is to be spent by Island Health for hardware, training and operating the system.
The system is being used in Nanaimo’s hospital, Dufferin Place residential care centre — also in Nanaimo — and Oceanside Health Centre in Parksville.
Since March 19, mobile touch-screen computer console carts have been rolling around hospital hallways. Voice-recognition dictation software immediately transcribes a doctor’s verbal notes into a patient’s electronic record, and scanners track each bar-coded patient bracelet around the hospital.
But doctors complain the new technology is slow, overly complicated and inefficient.
“The iHealth computer interface for ordering medications and tests is so poorly designed that not only does it take doctors more than twice as long to enter orders, even with that extra effort, serious errors are occurring on multiple patients every single day,” wrote one physician at the Nanaimo hospital.
“Tests are being delayed. Medications are being missed or accidentally discontinued.”
Doctors can’t easily find information entered by nurses, the physician wrote.
There are also complaints about the pharmacy module of Cerner’s integrated system — the only joint build between Island Health and Cerner.
iHealth implementation staff brought in to input orders for physicians this week entered eight drug mistakes on one day and 10 on another, while there were no mistakes in the paper orders, doctors said. “If the experts can’t enter it correctly, what is the average Joe going to do?” one doctor said.
Another problem, they said, is patients’ drug orders disappearing from the system.
But Island Health spokeswoman Antoniette O’Keeffe said the system is safe and doing what it’s intended to do.
“We are not going back to paper,” she said.
“We can’t go back to paper. We don’t have the mechanics to go back to paper.”
Island Health acknowledges that documentation for staff doing emergency-department patient intake was a challenge, noting Nanaimo is the busiest emergency department on the Island.
Nanaimo has some of the top physicians in the country and “we respect the feedback they are giving us, and so we are listening to them and we are tweaking and modifying the system,” O’Keeffe said.
Challenges include getting medication orders into the system, getting clinical staff trained, work flow and documentation, O’Keeffe said.
More staff have been added to speed up admissions and others are working around the clock in the intensive-care and emergency departments to input handwritten physician orders into the system, O’Keeffe said.
Cerner is working with Island Health staff, “and they’ll be here until we get this fully implemented,” O’Keeffe said.
Island Health credits the system’s electronic warnings for catching about 400 human-caused medication errors and conflicts at three sites, saying it’s a sign that the system is working. It will produce a warning, for example, if the dosage is too high for a patient’s weight, if the drug is not appropriate for a particular disease or if there’s a drug conflict.
Across the country, thousands of medication mistakes are made daily due to human error, “and this system is designed to catch them,” O’Keeffe said.
Doctors respond that so many irrelevant flags pop up, it creates confusion, while the computer loses or duplicates drug orders.
The system was a decade in the making for Island Health. Twenty-three clinical teams were involved in developing various components and there was user-group testing, modifications and feedback, O’Keeffe said. Training has gone on for the last year, she said. “You can only bring a system so far and then you have to put it in a real environment to test it.”
By the end of the implementation, it’s expected family doctors will also be able to access patient files started in acute-care settings. Island Health is working on that component now, O’Keeffe said.
Once the system is working smoothly in Nanaimo, it will be installed in the north Island and then Victoria hospitals in 12 to 18 months, O’Keeffe said.
ceharnett@timescolonist.com
> Comment: New computer system detriment to health care
- See more at: http://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/nanaimo-doctors-say-electronic-health-record-system-unsafe-should-be-shut-down-1.2264497#sthash.oOsV5jMQ.dpuf
Nanaimo doctors say electronic health record system unsafe, should be shut down

Implementation of a $174-million Island-wide electronic health record system in Nanaimo Regional General Hospital — set to expand to Victoria by late 2017 — is a huge failure, say senior physicians.

After a year of testing, the new paperless iHealth system rolled out in Nanaimo on March 19. Island Health heralds the system as the first in the province to connect all acute-care and diagnostic services through one electronic patient medical record, the first fully integrated electronic chart in the province.

But nine weeks after startup, physicians in the Nanaimo hospital’s intensive-care and emergency departments reverted to pen and paper on Wednesday “out of concern for patient safety.”

Doctors said the system is flawed — generating wrong dosages for the most dangerous of drugs, diminishing time for patient consultation and losing critical information and orders.

“The whole thing is a mess,” said a senior physician. “What you type into the computer is not what comes out the other end.

“It’s unusable and it’s unsafe. I’m surprised they haven’t pulled it. I’ve never seen errors of the kind we are now seeing.”

Doctors are so concerned, they want Island Health to suspend the implementation.
“Take it away and fix it and test it before you bring it back — stop testing it on our people,” said one doctor. “Why wasn’t this introduced in Victoria first? If they went live in Victoria first, they would have a riot.”

The doctors, who fear reprisals, spoke to the Times Colonist on condition of anonymity.
The $174-million system started with a 10-year $50-million deal for software and professional services signed in 2013 with Cerner Corporation, a health information technology company headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri. Thus far, the company has been paid close to $12 million. The remaining $124 million is to be spent by Island Health for hardware, training and operating the system.
The system is being used in Nanaimo’s hospital, Dufferin Place residential care centre — also in Nanaimo — and Oceanside Health Centre in Parksville.
Since March 19, mobile touch-screen computer console carts have been rolling around hospital hallways. Voice-recognition dictation software immediately transcribes a doctor’s verbal notes into a patient’s electronic record, and scanners track each bar-coded patient bracelet around the hospital.
But doctors complain the new technology is slow, overly complicated and inefficient.
“The iHealth computer interface for ordering medications and tests is so poorly designed that not only does it take doctors more than twice as long to enter orders, even with that extra effort, serious errors are occurring on multiple patients every single day,” wrote one physician at the Nanaimo hospital.
“Tests are being delayed. Medications are being missed or accidentally discontinued.”
Doctors can’t easily find information entered by nurses, the physician wrote.
There are also complaints about the pharmacy module of Cerner’s integrated system — the only joint build between Island Health and Cerner.
iHealth implementation staff brought in to input orders for physicians this week entered eight drug mistakes on one day and 10 on another, while there were no mistakes in the paper orders, doctors said. “If the experts can’t enter it correctly, what is the average Joe going to do?” one doctor said.

Another problem, they said, is patients’ drug orders disappearing from the system.
But Island Health spokeswoman Antoniette O’Keeffe said the system is safe and doing what it’s intended to do.
“We are not going back to paper,” she said.
“We can’t go back to paper. We don’t have the mechanics to go back to paper.”
Island Health acknowledges that documentation for staff doing emergency-department patient intake was a challenge, noting Nanaimo is the busiest emergency department on the Island.
Nanaimo has some of the top physicians in the country and “we respect the feedback they are giving us, and so we are listening to them and we are tweaking and modifying the system,” O’Keeffe said.
Challenges include getting medication orders into the system, getting clinical staff trained, work flow and documentation, O’Keeffe said.
More staff have been added to speed up admissions and others are working around the clock in the intensive-care and emergency departments to input handwritten physician orders into the system, O’Keeffe said.
Cerner is working with Island Health staff, “and they’ll be here until we get this fully implemented,” O’Keeffe said.
Island Health credits the system’s electronic warnings for catching about 400 human-caused medication errors and conflicts at three sites, saying it’s a sign that the system is working. It will produce a warning, for example, if the dosage is too high for a patient’s weight, if the drug is not appropriate for a particular disease or if there’s a drug conflict.
Across the country, thousands of medication mistakes are made daily due to human error, “and this system is designed to catch them,” O’Keeffe said.
Doctors respond that so many irrelevant flags pop up, it creates confusion, while the computer loses or duplicates drug orders.
The system was a decade in the making for Island Health. Twenty-three clinical teams were involved in developing various components and there was user-group testing, modifications and feedback, O’Keeffe said. Training has gone on for the last year, she said. “You can only bring a system so far and then you have to put it in a real environment to test it.”
By the end of the implementation, it’s expected family doctors will also be able to access patient files started in acute-care settings. Island Health is working on that component now, O’Keeffe said.
Once the system is working smoothly in Nanaimo, it will be installed in the north Island and then Victoria hospitals in 12 to 18 months, O’Keeffe said.

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Premier Clark: Its good to have friends, or family, in high places

Christy Clark accused of interfering in local band election to aid brother’s deal

Mark Hume. (2016). The Globe and Mail. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/christy-clark-accused-of-interfering-in-band-election-to-aid-brothers-deal/article27654979/
 
Premier Christy Clark has been accused of interfering in a local band election to help a candidate who supports a $10-million wind farm proposal involving her brother, Bruce Clark.
Ms. Clark was not available for comment, but her office denied that the Premier’s recent visit to Haida Gwaii was in any way meant to influence the campaign of Chief Ken Rea, who was narrowly re-elected Monday, or to assist Mr. Clark’s business deal with the band.
“There’s no merit to this allegation whatsoever,” said Ben Chin, executive director of communications for Ms. Clark.
During her visit to Old Massett, a small native community on the north end of Haida Gwaii, Ms. Clark announced at a public meeting that the province was making a $150,000 grant to the Old Massett Village Council (OMVC).
The money is for a feasibility study of a proposed $4-million expansion to the 40-student elementary school on the reserve.
The announcement gave a boost to the campaign of Mr. Rea, who has been a long-time supporter of Mr. Clark’s proposed wind farm.
But Mr. Chin said there was no link between Ms. Clark’s visit and Mr. Clark’s private business dealings.
“The Premier is not aware of any relationship between Mr. Clark’s company and Old Massett Village Council,” Mr. Chin said.
Mr. Chin said the Premier went to Old Massett as a “relationship building” exercise, and it appears she got caught in political crossfire.
But Kimball Davidson, a candidate who was trying to unseat Mr. Rea, said the Premier’s surprise visit and the grant she announced on Nov. 26 unfairly helped his rival.
“I would consider it political interference,” Mr. Davidson said before Monday’s vote. “It’s in Bruce Clark’s best interest if Ken Rea becomes chief councillor again.”
Mr. Davidson, who got 117 votes to Mr. Rea’s 159, is opposed to the business deal between OMVC and Mr. Clark’s company, Broadwing Renewables Inc. and instead favours OMVC working in partnership with the Council of Haida Nation (CHN) to develop a wind farm.
Mr. Davidson said the school grant is curious because Chief Matthews Elementary School is on reserve lands, and is therefore a federal responsibility, and because two expansion studies have been done in the past 10 years with federal funds.
“I was kind of shocked that Christy Clark would come up here just to say, ‘Hey, we’re going to give you some money,’” Mr. Davidson said. “I think it all has to do with her brother.”
Mr. Clark said he had nothing to do with the grant and denied doing anything to get Ms. Clark to visit Old Massett.
“I have trouble getting her to come for family dinners,” he said.
Mr. Clark said he did help Mr. Rea make connections with government education officials.
“I simply told [Mr. Rea], ‘If you have issues, here’s who you talk to,’” he said.
Mr. Clark said due to his sister’s job as premier he is very sensitive to potential conflicts of interest, and he won’t get involved in business deals unless it’s through a public bidding process.
“At the end of the day, when you go through a public process and you’ve been prescreened and qualified and you have the best price and you win, I don’t see how anybody can complain about that,” he said.
Mr. Rea agreed Mr. Clark’s only role was that he helped make connections with the government.
“I don’t know anybody at the province, so Bruce gave me a number to call,” he said.
Mr. Rea said he dealt with officials in the Ministry of Education, not the Premier’s office, and Ms. Clark’s visit had nothing to do with the election.
“I don’t need her to come up to win or lose this election,” he said Monday, before the vote. “The real value for me to bring the Premier to help our community here is to give [the federal government] a kick.”
Mr. Rea said he was told by officials in Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada (formerly Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada) that if he secured provincial funds, he could use it to leverage $2-million out of Ottawa and $2-million out of Victoria.
John Disney, economic development officer for OMVC, said the council has been working with Mr. Clark for several years, hoping to develop a wind farm to replace the diesel generation that now provides electricity on northern Haida Gwaii.
“That project is ready to go. It has been since 2007. The only thing that is stopping it is our own Nation, the Council of Haida Nation [CHN], won’t give us a letter of support for it. So it’s sort of internal politics,” Mr. Disney said.
Peter Lantin, president of the CHN, didn’t return calls.
Mr. Disney said the wind farm would cost about $10-million to develop and Broadwing Renewables Inc. would arrange the financing, bring in a firm to build the project, and then, after about five years, OMVC would buy full control.
The project could not go ahead without an electricity purchasing agreement with BC Hydro. In 2012, the power corporation made a request for expressions of interest on Haida Gwaii and received 26 submissions, including one from Broadwing Renewables. BC Hydro did not pursue any of those renewable power deals at that time for cost reasons.
Mora Scott, a BC Hydro spokesperson, said in an e-mail the corporation has asked the Haida Nation for a proposal, but “no project has been brought forward or selected at this time.”

Housing: Rich Coleman, Housing Minister, calls people who need housing 'whining' people'

Housing minister's comments about 'whining' people are insulting: critic

One year until Election 41 in BC: May 9 2017

Its a year now until the next election, the 41st in British Columbian history.

Never at any point has it been more important to work to rid our province of the BC Liberal oligarchy.

Check back here for stories of BC Liberal misdeeds, scandals, and other stories that get to the heart of what the BC Liberal party has come to be known for:

Fiscal mismanagement and distortion.
Corruption and self-protection and preservation.
The most unaccountable, harmful government in B.C. history.

Please share and distribute this blog so people can learn the truth about this governing party and its insiders.

Thanks to all of the people who have been reading for all of these years.

BC Liberals Suck

If you have a media article to share, or content you think would be good for this page, email us here: bcliberals_suck@yahoo.ca