THIS paper covered Premier Christy Clark's appearance at Vancouver Shipyards on Tuesday morning in the hopes that there would be some solid news tied to the event.
Senior governments are obsessed with controlling their message, so there was no advance word as to why she would be here. Perhaps, we thought, she would release some concrete details of needed job training or yard modifications that will be required to get the federal shipbuilding contract off the ground and move those promised 3,200 jobs closer to reality.
Nothing like that happened. The expense of flying in the premier and her entourage for the photo op was all for a good-news backdrop to a promised update on her government's job program.
According to Clark, B.C. has added 39,000 new jobs to the economy "from our focused efforts."
Organizing a press conference away from Victoria for a comparatively minor progress report is typical of the Clark government focus on photo ops for Christy. However, we'd be less critical of such stage-managed events if they were backed up with careful thought and reasonable detail.
Announcing a job program that involves flying welfare recipients with no skills to northern B.C. is guaranteed to garner headlines. But policy-on-the-fly creates backlash. In this case, it's northern businesses pointing out that unskilled workers are not required, and unemployed youth not on welfare asking what they have to do to get a plane ticket and accommodation.
Christy's meal ticket plans could definitely use more crunch.
